Equal-weight ETFs have gained prominence in 2026 as the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) outperformed a cap-weighted S&P 500 ETF by roughly 3 percentage points, returning 14.8% year-to-date through Aug. 21. RSP’s assets under management reached $160 billion on Aug. 19, after net inflows of $12 billion this year. The strategy assigns the same allocation to each S&P 500 company, reducing the influence of mega-cap stocks while maintaining broad market exposure. The Magnificent 7—Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Tesla—represent roughly one-third of the index and were essentially flat in the first half of 2026, while the S&P 500 gained 9.3%. Investors are also focused on concentration and valuation: the top 10 companies represent about 40% of the index, while the top 10 holdings in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) account for 38% of its portfolio, compared with 27% during the dot-com era. RSP’s gains come as VOO, iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) and State Street SPDR S&P 500 Trust (SPY) retain nearly $3 trillion in combined assets, including $1.7 trillion at VOO. Equal-weight funds can benefit when market leadership broadens, but they generally involve higher turnover and may lag when mega-cap stocks lead.