The past few years have been among the most rewarding in recent memory for US equity investors as the AI build-out sparked by the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 marked the start of a technology rally of historic proportions – though one punctuated by sharp sell-offs that have kept investors questioning whether it represents a genuine revolution or a bubble waiting to burst.
Trustnet has identified IA North America funds that delivered first-quartile returns consecutively from 2023 to 2025 and have done so again in the first half of 2026, to show funds that are performing well consistently, rather than those bolstered by a single strong year. As shown in the table below, eight funds met these criteria.
Source: FE Analytics
A number of passive funds feature in the table, with Invesco NASDAQ-100 ESG UCITS ETF logging the strongest returns in the first half of 2026. The exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracks the technology-heavy Nasdaq index but also evaluates companies on the basis of their activities, controversies and environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk ratings.
Alongside it sit the iShares Nasdaq 100 UCITS ETF, Invesco EQQQ Nasdaq 100 UCITS ETF and Xtrackers MSCI USA Information Technology UCITS ETF, which have all delivered similar returns given their equal focus on technology stocks.
However, when looking at the actively managed funds, the strongest performer in the first half of 2026 was Alger Focus Equity, which gained 17.4%.
Although a small fund, with $53.8m in assets, the fund carries an FE fundinfo Crown Rating of five and is co-managed by FE fundinfo Alpha Managers Ankur Crawford and Patrick Kelly.
The 50-stock portfolio consists of companies of any market capitalisation identified through fundamental research as demonstrating promising growth potential and long-term capital appreciation. These prospective investee companies are stress-tested for a range of potential outcomes.
The managers argue that companies undergoing ‘positive dynamic change’ offer the best investment opportunities – those experiencing high unit volume growth alongside positive lifecycle change.
Alger Focus Equity has an active share of 56.2% and a market capitalisation weighted average of $1.8bn. It has big positions in major AI players, such as Nvidia (8.8%), Amazon (8.6%) and Microsoft (7.5%), while top active holdings include TSMC, Western Digital Corporation and AppLovin.
Looking at the fund’s full track record since it was launched late 2019, Alger Focus Equity has logged first-quartile returns in four out of six years. In 2021 and 2022, however, it dropped to the fourth quartile in the sector, gaining 20.7% in 2021 and losing 28.5% in 2022.
The fund has previously been highlighted as a ‘hidden gem’ in the US as it logged top-quartile returns over three years.
Alger has another fund in the table - Alger American Asset Growth. At $842m, the larger fund also carries a five-crown rating and is co-managed by the same team and utilises the same investment philosophy.
The more established strategy has logged first quartile returns in the sector over one, three, five and 10 years, gaining 529% over the decade ending June 2026. Further demonstrating its consistency, Alger American Asset Growth logged higher returns than the S&P 500 index over seven of the past 10 years.
The fund also rebounded sharply after the US tariff-related sell-off in April 2025, rising more than 50% over the following five months.
However, the fund does sit at the higher end of the cost spectrum, with an ongoing charges figure (OCF) of 1% as at 31 December 2025.
Performance of the funds vs sector over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Another actively managed portfolio that has achieved first-quartile returns since its launch in 2023 is the £112.5m Nomura American Century US Focused Innovation Equity fund.
Managed by Henry He and supported by Keith Lee, the fund invests in a concentrated portfolio of companies with significant long-term growth potential. The top 10 holdings of the 46-stock portfolio include five of the Magnificent Seven stocks, including Elon Musk’s Tesla.
Despite the tech concentration of the top 10, Nomura American Century US Focused Innovation Equity remains underweight the information technology sector versus the benchmark at 46.9% versus 60%, while it is overweight communication services, consumer discretionary and healthcare.
The fund has recovered from initial months of struggle after US president Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term in the White House, when it lost 17.3%.
The final actively managed fund in the table is FI Institutional US Equity Selection, a $1.6bn strategy co-managed by Aaran Anderson, Jeffery Silk, Ken Fisher, Michael Hanson and William Glaser.
The investment objective is to outperform the S&P 500 index, while, in periods of extreme volatility, it may invest on a short-term basis in cash, cash equivalents, money market instruments, or government or corporate bonds.
FI Institutional US Equity Selection also promotes environmental and social characteristics. This includes the managers seeking to have at least 5% of the portfolio composed of sustainable investments, applying exclusionary screens to prevent investment in companies that do not meet its minimum ESG criteria.