Defiance lists PHOT in London and Milan
Defiance ETFs has launched the Defiance Photonics UCITS ETF in Europe, with trading on the London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana. Xetra is due to follow after the 9 July 2026 launch.
The fund trades under the ticker PHOT, and Defiance calls it Europe’s first photonics ETF. It aims to give investors exposure to companies that develop, manufacture and commercialise photonic technologies.
Photonics uses light rather than electricity to generate, move and process data. In data centres, that means optical hardware can link chips, servers and racks at higher speeds.
Defiance Photonics UCITS ETF carries the ISIN IE000W1S2PT6 and a total expense ratio of 0.69%. On the LSE, it trades as PHOT LN in USD and PH0T LN in GBP, while Borsa Italiana lists PHOT IM in USD.
Defiance Photonics UCITS ETF
PHOT is the firm’s fifth UCITS ETF launch since entering the European market earlier in 2026.
Across its UCITS range, Defiance has accumulated $162.57 million in assets under management. That figure covers the firm’s European UCITS product lineup after five launches in 2026.
JP Morgan has estimated that global AI and data centre infrastructure spending could top $5 trillion through 2030. That buildout is reshaping demand for power, cooling, memory and advanced networking.
As AI clusters grow, data movement is becoming a bottleneck for bandwidth, latency, power consumption and heat. Optical interconnects can move more data over longer distances than copper, while using less power per bit transmitted.
Sylvia Jablonski, chief investment officer at Defiance ETFs, said: “AI is generating more data than electrical connections can efficiently move, and photonics, the use of light to transmit and process information, is emerging as the answer.”
Beyond AI, the briefing points to cloud data centres, high-performance computing, telecom networks and next-generation connectivity. Those markets also need faster, denser and more energy-efficient data movement.
PHOT targets several parts of the photonics value chain. These include optical components and light sources, photonic semiconductors and interconnect chips, optical systems and networking, photonic foundries and manufacturing infrastructure, and enabling materials.
Following its European expansion in 2026, Defiance is adding a specialist fund tied to optical data hardware. The product gives investors targeted exposure to companies building photonic technology for modern digital infrastructure.
