Vanguard S&P 500 ETF First to Top $1 Trillion in Assets

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has become the first exchange-traded fund to reach $1 trillion in assets, the investment firm confirmed Wednesday. The milestone was hit Tuesday, less than 18 months after overtaking State Street's SPDR S&P 500 ETF in size. Investors seeking broad market exposure have flocked to the lowest-cost funds, with VOO charging just 0.03% in management fees versus 0.09% for State Street's fund.

BlackRock's iShares Core S&P 500 ETF now holds $860 billion in assets, also at 0.03% fees. The market pioneer, SPY, launched in 1993, currently has $785 billion in assets.

"This is a key milestone," said Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi. "Investors continue to turn to low-cost broad market exposure to gain access to the S&P 500 using VOO."