Methodology, fund identities and official sources
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This supporting note identifies the five funds behind the article. Sample A = IWDA; B = XDWD; C = VWCE; D = SSAC; E = SPYI. The detailed results below are dated observations, not a same-day product ranking.
Across five established global equity ETFs, roughly 62–74% of disclosed equity exposure sits in the United States. The ten largest companies account for approximately 24–30%. A global mandate broadens the opportunity set, while market-cap weighting leaves substantial concentration in its largest markets and businesses.
These are dated portfolio snapshots, not a same-day ranking. Vanguard’s available holdings are dated 31 August 2026. DWS is dated 7 October and the other funds 9 October. Differences involving Vanguard include market movement, rebalancing, sampling and classification effects. Percentages below use equity exposure normalised to 100%, with cash and derivatives excluded.
- ADeveloped marketsUS equity exposureUS equity exposure: 73.6%Ten largest companiesTen largest companies: 29.2%
- BDeveloped marketsUS equity exposureUS equity exposure: 73.5%Ten largest companiesTen largest companies: 29.5%
- CDeveloped + emergingUS equity exposureUS equity exposure: 61.6%Ten largest companiesTen largest companies: 24.7%
- DDeveloped + emergingUS equity exposureUS equity exposure: 64.8%Ten largest companiesTen largest companies: 26.6%
- EAlso includes small capsUS equity exposureUS equity exposure: 63.8%Ten largest companiesTen largest companies: 23.7%
| ETF | Holdings date | Benchmark scope | US equity exposure | Ten largest companies | Effective positions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iShares Core MSCI WorldIE00B4L5Y983 | 2026-10-09 | Developed; large/mid cap | 73.6% | 29.2% | 83 |
| Xtrackers MSCI World 1CIE00BJ0KDQ92 | 2026-10-07 | Developed; large/mid cap | 73.5% | 29.5% | 81 |
| Vanguard FTSE All-WorldIE00BK5BQT80 | 2026-08-31 | Developed + emerging; large/mid cap | 61.6% | 24.7% | 116 |
| iShares MSCI All Country WorldIE00B6R52259 | 2026-10-09 | Developed + emerging; large/mid cap | 64.8% | 26.6% | 101 |
| SPDR MSCI All Country World IMIIE00B3YLTY66 | 2026-10-09 | Developed + emerging; large/mid/small cap | 63.8% | 23.7% | 125 |
What the holdings tell us
1. “World” and “All Country World” describe different investment universes. The two MSCI World funds target developed markets and have about 73.5–73.6% US equity exposure. The all-country funds include emerging markets. Their US weights range from 61.6% to 64.8% in these snapshots. A global fund is not an equal allocation across countries.
2. The largest companies remain remarkably similar. Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Broadcom, Meta, Micron and Tesla appear among the ten largest companies in all five. TSMC enters the all-country top ten, while AMD occupies that place in the developed-world funds. Alphabet’s two listed share classes are combined. Broader geography changes the weights and adds markets, while retaining a substantial common core.
3. More positions help spread weight, but the benefit is smaller than the headline count suggests. At the same 9 October date, iShares All Country World has a 26.6% weight in its ten largest companies, versus 23.7% for the broader SPDR IMI portfolio. Their effective numbers of security positions are approximately 101 and 125. SPDR holds many more small positions, but these carry much less weight than the largest holdings. Sampling and implementation also differ, so the entire gap cannot be attributed solely to small caps.
Geography and sectors
| ETF | US | Europe¹ | Japan | Emerging markets² | Positive country labels | Information technology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IWDA | 73.6% | 14.7% | 5.8% | 0.0% | 23 | 32.0% |
| XDWD | 73.5% | 14.7% | 5.9% | 0.0% | 23 | 32.4% |
| VWCE | 61.6% | 14.1% | 6.0% | 12.6% | 49 | 30.9% |
| SSAC | 64.8% | 13.2% | 5.1% | 11.8% | 47 | 33.4% |
| SPYI | 63.8% | 13.1% | 5.7% | 11.8% | 47 | 31.4% |
¹Europe is geographic and overlaps with emerging markets, notably Poland and Greece. These columns are not additive. ²A common MSCI-style October 2026 country grouping is applied to all funds; South Korea and Poland are included here. This differs from FTSE’s own classification. Greece remains in the emerging grouping ahead of MSCI’s announced May 2027 change. Romania and Iceland are outside this common emerging grouping. Country labels describe assigned equity markets, not corporate revenue sources. Exact matching securities use iShares country-of-risk labels where available; unmatched positions retain their issuer’s country label.
Information technology alone accounts for about 31–33% of these equity portfolios. Alphabet and Meta sit in communication services, and Amazon and Tesla in consumer discretionary. A sector label therefore does not capture all exposure to the same technology-related commercial or valuation drivers. This study does not estimate factor sensitivity or correlations.
A useful commentary angle
“Global” tells investors where a fund can invest. The holdings show where their money actually goes. In this sample, a developed-world portfolio places nearly three quarters of its equity weight in US companies. Adding emerging markets broadens the portfolio, and adding small caps spreads weight further. Yet the same handful of large businesses remains prominent across all five funds.
The practical research question is how much weight sits outside those dominant exposures. Country counts and constituent counts provide useful context, but weights reveal the economic significance of the additional holdings. These results measure portfolio composition. They do not establish which ETF will perform best or deliver the lowest future volatility.
Concentration and holdings counts
| ETF | Issuer headline count | Positive equity positions used³ | Positions covering half of equity weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| IWDA | 1249 | 1,247 | 62 |
| XDWD | Not separately verified | 1,250 | 61 |
| VWCE | 3784 | 3,763 | 94 |
| SSAC | 1656 | 2,292 | 77 |
| SPYI | 5988 | 5,971 | 109 |
Effective positions = 1 / Σw², where w is each security’s fraction of equity exposure. It is the number of equally weighted positions that would have the same weight concentration. It is not a count of independent risks, and does not account for correlations. Alphabet A and C remain separate in this security-level measure; they are combined in the separate ten-largest-companies measure.
³Only positive equity positions enter the calculations. Cash, derivatives and zero-weight legacy positions are excluded. Exact repeated identifiers are aggregated. Counts are positions, not distinct companies. The issuer headlines use their own counting conventions. Vanguard’s full download contains 4,093 accounting rows, including 3,813 equity rows and 50 equity rows with zero reported weight. SSAC’s 2,292 calculated positions include look-through of four country ETFs; they are not a revised issuer-reported count.
The largest companies
| Company | IWDA | XDWD | VWCE | SSAC | SPYI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nvidia | 5.77% | 5.98% | 4.80% | 5.09% | 4.57% |
| Apple | 5.41% | 5.41% | 4.26% | 4.76% | 4.23% |
| Microsoft | 4.13% | 4.09% | 3.51% | 3.62% | 3.21% |
| Alphabet | 4.04% | 4.03% | 3.33% | 3.55% | 3.17% |
| Amazon | 2.78% | 2.75% | 2.35% | 2.44% | 2.16% |
| TSMC | Outside top 15 / absent | Outside top 15 / absent | 1.72% | 1.90% | 1.73% |
| Broadcom | 1.79% | 1.86% | 1.61% | 1.57% | 1.39% |
| Meta | 1.73% | 1.73% | 1.17% | 1.51% | 1.33% |
| Micron | 1.27% | 1.34% | 1.01% | 1.11% | 1.02% |
| Tesla | 1.20% | 1.18% | 1.00% | 1.04% | 0.93% |
| AMD | 1.08% | 1.15% | 0.72% | 0.95% | 0.87% |
Percentages are normalised equity weights. Corporate consolidation is explicitly verified for the companies contributing to the top-ten result; no comprehensive all-company parent hierarchy is claimed.
Security overlap and its limits
| Security overlap | IWDA | XDWD | VWCE | SSAC | SPYI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IWDA | 100.0% | 98.5% | 83.4%† | 87.6% | 74.4% |
| XDWD | 98.5% | 100.0% | 83.5%† | 87.5% | 74.2% |
| VWCE | 83.4%† | 83.5%† | 100.0% | 91.0%† | 79.4%† |
| SSAC | 87.6% | 87.5% | 91.0%† | 100.0% | 80.3% |
| SPYI | 74.4% | 74.2% | 79.4%† | 80.3% | 100.0% |
Weighted overlap = Σ min(weight in A, weight in B) for each exact ISIN, using normalised equity weights. Vanguard’s SEDOLs are bridged to ISINs only through unambiguous official SPDR identifier pairs. No fuzzy name match is used. †Vanguard has 3.04% of equity weight without an ISIN bridge: its off-diagonal figures are observed matched-weight lower bounds. An unresolved-identifier upper bound is the displayed figure plus 3.04 percentage points, capped at 100%. Same-fund diagonal figures are 100% by construction.
Different share listings, ADRs and ordinary shares can represent similar economic exposure while having different ISINs. Security overlap is therefore not a complete company-overlap measure, and 100% minus overlap is not a measure of independent diversification. Date differences are particularly material for Vanguard.
Look-through, verification and sources
The SSAC download contains four country ETFs with a combined 2.47107% fund weight: India 1.22163%, Brazil 0.57139%, China A 0.39681%, and Saudi Arabia 0.28124%. Their direct wrapper locations are Ireland or Germany and their displayed sector is Financials. We replace those wrappers with their official 9 October holdings, multiplying each underlying weight by its parent fund weight. Cash and derivative residuals remain excluded. Treating the wrappers as companies would overstate Financials and misstate geography.
We downloaded all three Vanguard pages (1,500 + 1,500 + 1,093 records) and verified the final pagination cursor was empty. Its daily-holdings response was empty; the legacy holdings supply the stated August date. The iShares API provides precise weights and ISINs; the simpler CSV rounds weights to two decimals and was used for cross-checking rather than concentration calculations.
- iShares Core MSCI World — holdings dated 2026-10-09.
- Xtrackers MSCI World 1C — holdings dated 2026-10-07.
- Vanguard FTSE All-World — holdings dated 2026-08-31.
- iShares MSCI All Country World — holdings dated 2026-10-09.
- SPDR MSCI All Country World IMI — holdings dated 2026-10-09.
Classification references: MSCI market classification, MSCI Greece effective date, and FTSE country classification.
The frozen Rogha v1.1 card-to-holdings map contains the three iShares/DWS share classes and does not contain the selected Vanguard or SPDR classes. We verified the map and canonical master against their recorded SHA-256 hashes. The frozen release is used to establish provenance and coverage. All five comparative metrics use the newly retained official issuer snapshots. The research calculations do not change the production database or directory data feeds. This research is not evidence of current deployment status.
The internally retained research records include the result tables, position-level calculations, official holdings responses, requests for Vanguard pagination, source URLs and hashes, and the analysis code. Some country classifications remain issuer-specific where no exact common mapping exists. No historical returns, corporate revenue geography, comprehensive size attribution or causal risk reduction is claimed.