What Stocks Are in the SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI ETF? Holdings Breakdown

The SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI UCITS ETF is one of the broadest single-fund ways to own the global stock market. It trades under two tickers — SPYI for the accumulating share class and SPSA for the distributing one — and together they give European investors exposure to roughly the entire investable equity universe in a single product. Yet most investors who buy it know the marketing line (“the whole world”) far better than they know what is actually inside.

If you own SPYI or SPSA, or are weighing it against a fund like VWCE, here is a detailed look at what you are really investing in.

What Does MSCI ACWI IMI Actually Mean?

The name encodes exactly what the fund tracks. ACWI stands for “All Country World Index” — it combines developed markets (the US, Europe, Japan, and so on) with emerging markets (China, India, Taiwan, Brazil, and others). IMI stands for “Investable Market Index”, and this is the part that sets it apart.

A standard ACWI index holds large-cap and mid-cap companies. The IMI version adds small caps on top, which pushes its coverage to roughly 99% of the global investable market capitalization. In practical terms, that means the index reaches far further down the size scale than most “world” ETFs do.

This is the key difference from the FTSE All-World index behind VWCE, which captures large and mid caps only. If you want the side-by-side, our breakdown of what stocks are in the VWCE ETF explains that fund in the same detail. The short version: ACWI IMI is broader at the bottom end, holding several thousand more small companies — which is why the SPDR fund carries 4,500+ holdings versus roughly 3,700 in VWCE.

The Top Holdings: Familiar Giants at the Top

Despite the thousands of small caps at the bottom, the SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI ETF is market-cap weighted, so the very largest companies still dominate. The small caps add breadth, not weight — collectively they make up only a single-digit percentage of the fund. The top of the list looks much like any global equity ETF:

1. Apple — consistently among the one or two largest positions
2. Microsoft — driven by cloud and enterprise software
3. NVIDIA — propelled by AI and GPU demand
4. Amazon — e-commerce and AWS cloud infrastructure
5. Alphabet (Google) — Class A and Class C shares combined
6. Meta Platforms — social media and advertising
7. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) — the world’s leading chip manufacturer
8. Broadcom — semiconductors and infrastructure software
9. Tesla — electric vehicles and energy
10. JPMorgan Chase — the largest US bank

The top 10 typically account for somewhere around 18-20% of the entire fund. The names shuffle as markets move, but the picture is stable: a handful of US mega-cap technology companies sit at the center. That is not a choice by the fund provider — it is a direct reflection of where global market value is concentrated today.

Country Allocation: Still US-Heavy

Because the fund weights companies by market capitalization, countries with the biggest stock markets get the biggest slice. The geographic profile is therefore close to other all-world funds, with the US dominant.

Approximate Country Breakdown

• United States: around 60-63%
• Japan: around 5-6%
• United Kingdom: around 3.5%
• China: around 2.5-3%
• Canada: around 2.5%
• France: around 2.5%
• Switzerland: around 2%
• India: around 2%
• Germany: around 2%
• Australia: around 1.5-2%
• Remaining countries: the balance

Even though the IMI structure adds thousands of small caps, it does not meaningfully change the country mix — small caps are spread across the same markets in roughly the same proportions. So your “all-country, all-cap” fund is still, at heart, a US-heavy global portfolio.

The bull case: large US-listed companies earn revenue worldwide, so a US weighting is not the same as a US-only economic bet.

The bear case: a decade-plus of US outperformance has lifted valuations and index weights; if that reverses, a fund this US-tilted will feel it.

Understanding this concentration matters more than the exact percentage on any given day — which is why a tool that shows the live, current split is more useful than a static factsheet.

Sector Distribution: A Clear Tech Tilt

Sector exposure is broad but uneven, and technology leads by a wide margin — again a direct consequence of the mega-caps at the top.

Approximate Sector Breakdown

• Technology: around 24-26%
• Financials: around 15-16%
• Healthcare: around 10-11%
• Consumer Discretionary: around 10%
• Industrials: around 10%
• Communication Services: around 7%
• Consumer Staples: around 6%
• Energy: around 4-5%
• Materials: around 4%
• Utilities: around 3%
• Real Estate: around 2-3%

The technology weighting means the fund is heavily influenced by tech-sector performance — when chip and software stocks sell off, an “all-world” fund can fall more than its diversified label suggests. Financials and healthcare act as partial counterweights, behaving differently from tech across the cycle.

Developed vs. Emerging Markets

The fund holds both developed and emerging markets in one wrapper, with a split of roughly:

• Developed Markets: around 88-90%
• Emerging Markets: around 10-12%

Emerging-market exposure comes mainly from China, India, Taiwan, South Korea, Brazil, and South Africa. This is lower than many newcomers expect: even an “all country” fund leans heavily developed, because that is where market capitalization sits. Taiwan is a good illustration — TSMC alone gives a single Taiwanese company more weight than several entire developed countries.

For comparison, other broad global funds make different design choices here. The Amundi Prime All Country World ETF tracks a different index provider’s ACWI methodology, while the Gerd Kommer ETF deliberately tilts toward factors and caps the US weighting rather than following pure market cap. If you are interested in a rules-based, actively rebalanced global approach, the Global Portfolio One by Andreas Beck takes yet another route.

SPYI vs. SPSA: Which Share Class Should You Hold?

Both tickers track the same MSCI ACWI IMI index and hold essentially the same companies. The difference is what happens to the dividends the underlying stocks pay:

• SPYI (Accumulating): dividends are automatically reinvested inside the fund. You receive no cash payout. In many European countries this is the more tax-efficient choice for long-term, buy-and-hold investors, because you avoid the taxable event of receiving a distribution.
• SPSA (Distributing): dividends are paid out to your brokerage account on a schedule. Some investors prefer the regular cash flow, or their tax situation makes it neutral either way.

One subtlety worth knowing: because the two share classes are managed separately, their published holdings lists are maintained as separate datasets and can differ slightly in the exact long tail of small positions, even though the index and the broad allocation are identical. If you hold one specific share class, it pays to look at that share class’s actual holdings rather than assuming they are byte-for-byte the same.

Why It Matters to Know What You Own

Passive investing does not mean uninformed investing. Knowing the composition of your ETF helps you:

• Assess concentration risk: if you also own individual US tech stocks, your total portfolio may be far more concentrated than the “world ETF” label suggests.
• Make sensible rebalancing decisions: knowing the fund is already ~60% US tells you that adding an S&P 500 ETF mostly doubles down, while a small-cap or emerging-markets tilt would add genuine diversification — and that with IMI you already own those small caps.
• Stay calm in volatility: when tech drops and your “all-world” fund follows, understanding the sector weights explains why, and prevents panic selling.

Exploring the SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI Holdings in Detail

The official holdings file on the provider’s site is a spreadsheet with thousands of rows — accurate, but hard to explore in any meaningful way, and it does not separate the two share classes cleanly for a non-expert.

SpiderLens was built to make this practical. It tracks the SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI UCITS ETF specifically, with full support for both SPYI (Accumulating) and SPSA (Distributing) — each with its own holdings set. You can browse all 4,500+ positions, search by company, country, sector, or ISIN, and see geographic and sector breakdowns at a glance. Alongside the holdings, it shows live NAV in 10 currencies, historical charts with 38/50/100/200-day moving averages, a dedicated drawdown chart, and statistics like CAGR, volatility, and best/worst day. Everything runs locally and privately on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac — no accounts, no tracking.

Whether this fund is the core of your portfolio or something you are still researching, being able to dig into the real holdings — not just read a one-page factsheet — turns you from a passive holder into an informed one. Knowing what is inside your investments is not about active management; it is about understanding what you own and why it behaves the way it does.