Four ETFs target rare earths, emerging markets and anti-AI

Four new exchange-traded funds launched in the first months of 2026: Sprott’s REXC, T. Rowe Price’s TEMR, Baron’s BECM and Tuttle’s HALX. Each fund offers a focused exposure — rare earths outside China, active emerging-markets strategies and companies with heavy tangible assets that index providers judge less vulnerable to software disruption.

The new ETFs arrived amid an active year for the sector. More than 450 ETFs have launched so far in 2026, while a few large products have gathered the largest flows. HALX began trading this week.

Sprott’s Sprott Rare Earth Ex-China ETF, ticker REXC, is a concentrated fund built around 17 rare earth minerals used in defense systems, artificial-intelligence hardware and clean-energy equipment. The fund holds producers and processors operating outside China and is listed to provide investors exposure to non‑China parts of the rare-earth supply chain.

T. Rowe Price introduced the T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Equity Research ETF, ticker TEMR, as an emerging-markets counterpart to its U.S. equity research ETF. The firm reports more than $25 billion in ETF assets overall. TEMR seeks to match country, sector and industry weightings of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index while adding stock selection driven by the firm’s research team.

Baron Funds launched the Baron Emerging Markets Select ETF, ticker BECM, using the same investment approach and portfolio manager as its $4 billion Baron Emerging Markets mutual fund. That mutual fund strategy has been managed by the same lead portfolio manager since 2011 and now operates inside an ETF structure.

Tuttle Wealth’s Tuttle Heavy Asset Low Obsolescence Index ETF, ticker HALX, tracks an index compiled by VettaFi that selects companies with substantial physical assets and business models judged harder to replace with software. Regulatory filings state VettaFi receives an index licensing fee but is not the issuer, sponsor or marketer of HALX and has no obligation related to the ETF’s issuance, administration, marketing or trading.

ETF filings and listings this year show several active managers expanding into ETFs and new index concepts appearing alongside larger thematic and commodity-linked launches. The four funds reported here are smaller than some billion-dollar products launched in 2026, and they represent focused strategies from established managers and new index providers.