A new report from Betashares has highlighted the outstanding results season for many NASDAQ-listed companies.
This has extended the exceptional growth of the BetaShares Nasdaq 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ).
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The results roll on
According to the report, most companies within the Nasdaq 100 Index (NDX) have reported earnings for Q2 2026 and, despite recent macroeconomic uncertainty from tariffs and the Middle East War, the results continue to deliver, with the index on track to deliver a blended year-over-year growth rate of approximately 75.1%.
This is significantly higher than the consensus forecast growth rate of 28.9%, supported by stronger-than-expected earnings, driven by significant contributions from Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL), which reported large unrealised gains from their Anthropic holdings.
Given this result, the Nasdaq 100 is on pace to deliver its 13th straight quarter of double-digit year-over-year earnings growth.
Winners a plenty
Betashares highlighted that semiconductors have been the primary driver of this growth, with GPU (graphics processing unit), memory and custom chip makers as key beneficiaries of the data centre infrastructure build-out; however, the Magnificent Seven companies (many of which are hyperscalers) remain key contributors to headline performance given their larger weights within the index.
Overall results were solid, led by cloud revenue growth across Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Together, these cloud business units are growing revenues by a rate of 43% on a US$3645 billion trailing twelve-month revenue base in Q2, representing an extraordinary rate of growth which will likely continue.
That's because enterprise AI adoption will likely continue its acceleration, as increasingly multi-step agentic AI workloads drive sustained growth in inference demand. Demand for AI compute continues to exceed available supply across, while rapidly growing contracted backlogs provide high visibility into future revenues.
Betashares said that together, persistent demand and capacity constraints suggest that much of the incremental infrastructure being deployed can be absorbed and monetised quickly as it comes online, supporting continued elevated cloud growth.
ASX ETF overview
These tailwinds have continued to push the NDQ ASX ETF higher in recent months.
Year to date, the fund is up over 9%.
This has significantly outpaced the market here in Australia.
During the same span, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up just over 5%.
Looking at the last 12 months, the NDQ fund is up 14% compared to the ASX 200's 4%.
Over the last 5 years, the fund is up 87%.
The NDQ fund aims to track the performance of the Nasdaq 100 Index (before fees and expenses).
The Nasdaq 100 comprises 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq market. The fund includes many companies that are at the forefront of the new economy.
It could be an ideal investment for Australian investors looking for portfolio diversification beyond Australia. It also offers greater exposure to the technology and growth sectors.
