BUGG vs HACK vs SEMI: Two Themes at the Top of the ASX ETF Board

Written by Christopher Hall, AdvDipFP | Authorised Representative, AFSL 526688 | Updated July 2026

The Global X Cybersecurity ETF (BUGG), the Betashares Global Cybersecurity ETF (HACK) and the Global X Semiconductor ETF (SEMI) were the three best-performing ASX-listed ETFs over the quarter to 24 July 2026, returning +37.59%, +29.61% and +24.23% respectively (Australian Warrant Exchange data). Most weeks the top three funds overlap heavily and the story is one shared group of stocks doing the work. This week is the opposite: two of the three are cybersecurity funds that share almost their entire top holdings, and the third — a semiconductor fund — shares essentially nothing with them. The board is not being led by one theme. It is being led by two separate re-ratings at the same time: the cybersecurity platform leaders, and the semiconductor and memory complex.

What Each ETF Is Built to Do

All three are technology-tilted, but they point at different parts of the market:

• BUGG — global pure-play cybersecurity. Tracks the Indxx Cybersecurity Index: a concentrated basket of roughly 30 companies whose principal business is cybersecurity — endpoint, network, identity and cloud security software, predominantly US-listed. Little sits in the book that is not cyber.

• HACK — global cybersecurity, broad build. Tracks the Nasdaq Consumer Technology Association Cybersecurity Index. It holds the same cyber platform leaders at the top, but its wider book also carries large-cap technology and IT-services names — Cisco, Broadcom, Microsoft, Alphabet, Accenture, IBM and Infosys among them.

• SEMI — global pure-play semiconductors. Tracks the Solactive Global Semiconductor 30 Index: a concentrated basket of around 30 chip designers, manufacturers and equipment makers spanning the US, Taiwan, Korea, Europe and Japan — Micron, AMD, SK Hynix, TSMC, ASML and NVIDIA among the largest weights.

Side-by-Side Comparison

	BUGG	HACK	SEMI
Provider	Global X	Betashares	Global X
Index tracked	Indxx Cybersecurity	Nasdaq CTA Cybersecurity	Solactive Global Semiconductor 30
What it holds	~30 pure-play cyber stocks	~42 cyber + large-cap IT names	~30 global semiconductor stocks
Structure	Physical index ETF	Physical index ETF	Physical index ETF
Management fee & costs (p.a.)	0.47%	0.67%	0.45%
Fund size	A$34.2M	A$1.56B	A$1.11B
Currency	Unhedged	Unhedged	Unhedged
Inception (ASX)	Sep 2023	Aug 2016	Aug 2021
Quarterly total return	+37.59%	+29.61%	+24.23%

Quarterly total returns sourced from the Australian Warrant Exchange (AXW), an ASX market, to 24 July 2026. Provider data (index, holdings, fees, fund size) from Global X and Betashares as at 16 July 2026 (SEMI holdings as at 10 July 2026). Fees are management fees and costs per annum as published by the provider, and do not, on their own, indicate suitability.

Where the Three Funds Overlap — and Where They Don't

This is the unusual part. Comparing each fund's top-20 holdings, no company sits in all three funds, and the two cybersecurity funds share almost nothing with the semiconductor fund.

The overlap that does exist is dense, but it is confined to the two cyber funds. BUGG and HACK share a cybersecurity platform core:

Held by BUGG + HACK	BUGG	HACK
Palo Alto Networks	7.83%	9.8%
Fortinet	7.56%	9.1%
CrowdStrike	7.25%	8.7%
Okta	7.95%	3.7%
Zscaler	4.44%	3.1%
Akamai	4.57%	2.8%
Rubrik	4.46%	2.6%
Gen Digital	4.16%	2.3%
Check Point	3.61%	2.2%

Between the cyber funds and SEMI, there is exactly one shared name — Broadcom (SEMI 7.47%, HACK 6.5%, not held by BUGG). Broadcom is a chipmaker that also sells networking and security hardware, so it legitimately sits in both a semiconductor index and a broad cyber index. But it is the lone bridge, and — as the next section shows — it went nowhere over the quarter, so it did not connect the two themes in any meaningful way.

In plain terms: picture two heavily overlapping circles (BUGG and HACK, sharing the whole cyber core) sitting beside a third circle (SEMI) that touches the middle one at a single point (Broadcom) and never touches BUGG at all.

What Actually Led: Two Engines, Not One

Holding a stock and being driven by it are different things. Pulling the constituents' own price performance over the quarter shows two distinct groups of winners — one in each theme — and a flat middle:

Company	Held by	Quarterly move*
Palo Alto Networks	BUGG + HACK	+95%
Fortinet	BUGG + HACK	+80%
CrowdStrike	BUGG + HACK	+74%
Micron	SEMI	+89%
AMD	SEMI	+66%
Broadcom	SEMI + HACK	−1%
NVIDIA	SEMI	+1%

Constituent moves are directional, from stockanalysis.com daily closes over the quarter to mid-July 2026 (a window slightly shorter than the funds' 90-day total-return period), so treat the magnitudes as directional rather than exact.

Two things stand out. First, the returns came from the pure-play names in each theme — the cybersecurity platform leaders (Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, CrowdStrike) and the memory-and-compute names (Micron, AMD) — not from the mega-caps. The two largest "bridge" names, Broadcom and NVIDIA, were flat to slightly negative, which is why the single stock the two themes share drove nothing. Second, the two engines are now moving at different speeds. Measured over just the back half of the quarter (mid-May to 24 July), the cyber leaders kept running — Palo Alto Networks up roughly a further 42% and Fortinet about 30% — while the semiconductor names cooled sharply: Micron added only about 15% and AMD about 17% over the same recent stretch. The memory rally that carried SEMI to the top of the board a fortnight earlier is maturing.

Why the Board Finished in This Order

The three funds finished in the order of how cleanly each captured a still-running theme:

• BUGG led on purity. Almost its entire ~30-name book is pure-play cybersecurity, so it captured the platform-leader move with little to drag on it — the highest return at +37.59%.

• HACK held the same leaders but carried ballast. It holds Palo Alto, Fortinet and CrowdStrike at higher weights than BUGG, yet returned less, because the rest of its book is large-cap IT — Cisco, Broadcom, Microsoft, Alphabet, Accenture, IBM, Infosys — that did not run with the pure-play cyber names, diluting the blended return to +29.61%.

• SEMI rode the other engine, now cooling. Its +24.23% is the residue of a monster quarter for memory and compute names, but the recent deceleration (Micron and AMD adding far less over the past several weeks) is why its quarterly figure has come back from the +40%-plus readings it posted earlier in July and why the Korea-and-memory funds around it have slipped down the board.

The takeaway is the mirror image of a "one shared driver" week. When the top three funds barely share a holding, the crossover table is not the story — the absence of a crossover is. Two unrelated themes re-rated hard enough over the same quarter to occupy the top three spots together, and the more durable of the two, on recent momentum, is cybersecurity. Cyber first took the board a week earlier, displacing the semiconductor theme in the BUGG vs HACK vs CLDD comparison; the semiconductor engine that SEMI rides is the same one detailed in the SEMI vs TECH vs LNAS comparison. The weekly ASX ETF rankings and the leading theme are tracked on the ASX ETF Momentum Leaders page, and the same 90-day momentum lens applied to individual stocks is on the FMP Momentum Leaders board.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What do BUGG, HACK and SEMI have in common?

They were the three best-performing ASX-listed ETFs over the quarter to 24 July 2026, returning +37.59%, +29.61% and +24.23% respectively (Australian Warrant Exchange data). Beyond that, they have unusually little in common: BUGG and HACK are both global cybersecurity funds that share a core of platform leaders — Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, CrowdStrike and Okta — while SEMI is a semiconductor fund that shares only one holding with them, Broadcom. They led the board through two separate themes at once.

Why did BUGG outperform HACK this quarter?

Both funds hold the same cybersecurity platform leaders, but BUGG is a concentrated pure-play cyber fund, while HACK's wider book also carries large-cap IT names such as Cisco, Broadcom, Microsoft and Alphabet that did not rise as fast. With less to drag on it, the purer fund captured more of the platform-leader move — +37.59% for BUGG versus +29.61% for HACK.

Is the same theme driving all three top ASX ETFs this quarter?

No. This is a two-theme board. Cybersecurity drove BUGG and HACK, where the platform leaders — Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet and CrowdStrike — rose roughly 74% to 95% over the quarter (directional figures from stockanalysis.com to mid-July 2026). Semiconductors and memory drove SEMI, where Micron rose about 89% and AMD about 66%. The one stock the themes share, Broadcom, was flat, so there is no single shared driver — two separate re-ratings led the board together.

What is the difference between a cybersecurity ETF and a semiconductor ETF?

A cybersecurity ETF such as BUGG or HACK holds software companies whose business is protecting networks, devices and data — Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, CrowdStrike and similar. A semiconductor ETF such as SEMI holds chip designers, manufacturers and equipment makers — Micron, AMD, TSMC, ASML and NVIDIA. They are different sectors with different drivers, which is why the two fund types share almost no holdings even when they rank next to each other on momentum.

How much do BUGG, HACK and SEMI cost?

As published by the providers, SEMI charges management fees and costs of 0.45% per annum, BUGG 0.47% per annum and HACK 0.67% per annum. Fees are one factor among several and do not, on their own, indicate suitability.

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Sources

#	Source	Detail	Accessed
1	Australian Warrant Exchange (AXW), an ASX market	ASX-listed ETF price and quarterly total return data	24 Jul 2026
2	Global X	BUGG and SEMI index, holdings, management fee, fund size, inception	16 Jul 2026
3	Betashares	HACK index, holdings, management fee, fund size, inception	16 Jul 2026
4	stockanalysis.com	Constituent closing prices (Palo Alto, Fortinet, CrowdStrike, Micron, AMD, NVIDIA, Broadcom), quarter to 24 Jul 2026	24 Jul 2026

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