The next evolution in stock picking is here

The telephone made markets more accessible. Bloomberg terminals put institutional-grade information at investors' fingertips. The internet democratised research and made asset pricing truly available at an instant. ETFs opened the door for investors to access asset classes, strategies and investment ideas that otherwise would have been impossible to reach on their own.

Each innovation made investing better. We believe artificial intelligence is the next innovation that also has the potential to become the next great investing advantage.

The VanEck Dynamic International Equity ETF (GOAT) is bringing that capability to ASX investors.

The GOAT of ETFs has arrived

As Australia's first AI-driven international equity ETF, GOAT will bring an institutional-style quantitative investment process to Australian investors through the simplicity and transparency of an ASX-listed ETF.

The most important thing to understand is that GOAT is not asking a chatbot which stocks to buy, nor is it a fund that only invests in companies leveraged to the AI megatrend.

What GOAT is doing is using generative reinforcement learning to evaluate approximately 16,000 investment signals across company fundamentals, technical indicators and macroeconomic data.

Those signals are distilled into a single score for every company in the investment universe, with the 150 highest-scoring companies selected for the portfolio.

Every month, the model reassesses the data, retires signals that have lost predictive power and incorporates new ones as markets evolve. It's a disciplined, transparent and repeatable investment process.

The output is the transparent, trackable index, GOAT tracks - the Akros Enhanced World ex Australia Index (GOAT Index).

And given this process outlined above repeats every month, GOAT is a truly dynamic ETF.

AI’s greatest advantage?

Investors are human. We naturally anchor to familiar companies, develop preferred investment styles and remember the investments that delivered our biggest gains or losses. Perhaps most importantly, we often seek information that reinforces our existing views.

Artificial intelligence is different. It has no favourite companies, no preferred investment style and no emotional attachment to yesterday's portfolio.

Every one of the 1,200-plus companies in the investable universe is reassessed each month to assess eligibility for the GOAT Index. At the same time, each of the many signals used in the composition of this portfolio are evaluated for their efficacy. If a signal is no longer statistically meaningful, it may be retired with other signals being introduced in its place.

The result is a portfolio that is adaptive by design, continually recalibrating as market conditions change rather than remaining anchored to a single investment style or philosophy.

What this means is that rather than remaining anchored to a single investment style, GOAT provides access to a dynamic investment process designed to evolve and adapt alongside markets. We think it can complement existing allocations to growth, value and quality by adapting as market leadership changes.

GOAT also brings a capability previously associated with sophisticated quantitative managers to everyday Australian investors, packaged in the familiar, transparent structure of an ETF.

Dynamic investing in action

Not every investment opportunity follows the same path, and neither should every decision. GOAT is designed to recognise the difference.

The charts below illustrate how the index GOAT tracks¹has evaluated companies over time.

The different shades of blue-coloured bars show the contribution from technical, company fundamental and macroeconomic signals, which combine to form a single composite score (grey line) for each company. As you can see, as the environment or the company-specific situation evolves, the whole score of each company changes. The grey shaded bands indicate when the company would have been included in the back-tested portfolio, while the orange line shows its long-term share price performance.

Notice that the model’s investment approach doesn’t mean every company will achieve the same result. In this first example, Japanese insurer Daiichi Life demonstrated long-term conviction. The company's fundamentals remained consistently strong from 2020 to 2025, keeping its composite score elevated and resulting in the stock remaining in the portfolio.

In contrast, the model's conviction in Micron Technology rose and fell with the semiconductor memory cycle. As technical and fundamental signals strengthened, Micron entered the portfolio. When those signals weakened, the model would have created a recommendation to sell its stake in the company. As conditions improved and the memory cycle reaccelerated into 2026, conviction rebuilt and Micron re-entered the portfolio.

The charts don't show a model trying to predict every market move. They show a model that continually reassesses the investment case, increasing conviction when the evidence strengthens and reducing it when the evidence weakens. That ability to distinguish between different investment journeys is what makes GOAT’s portfolio truly dynamic.

Building on our legacy of innovation

GOAT isn't the first time VanEck has introduced a new way of investing to Australian investors.

VanEck has a distinguished history of harnessing technological advancement and advanced analysis to identify and unlock opportunities for Australian investors. For over a decade we have pioneered smart beta ETF strategies in Australia, with a vast number of our smart beta ETFs being the first of their kind on the ASX, offering investors the ability to construct portfolios with a targeted outcome in mind.

Rapid advancements in technology are revolutionising investment management. Systematic approaches are mitigating variability and enhancing the quality of portfolio management decisions. Harnessing the combination of an agile investment approach and computational power is now critical in giving portfolios an investing edge.

Just as previous innovations reshaped how investors accessed markets, GOAT represents the next evolution in portfolio construction, harnessing artificial intelligence to help portfolios adapt as quickly as markets do.

By harnessing advances in artificial intelligence, GOAT doesn't simply invest differently. It reframes what an investment process can be.

Key risks:

An investment in GOAT carries risks associated with: ASX trading time differences, financial markets generally, individual company management, industry sectors, foreign currency, country or sector concentration, political, regulatory and tax risks, fund operations and tracking an index. See the PDS and TMD for more details.

GOAT is likely to be appropriate for a consumer who is seeking capital growth, is intending to use the product as a major, core, minor or satellite allocation within a portfolio, has an investment timeframe of at least 5 years, and has a high risk/return profile.