Indxx Defiance Global Photonics Index Licensed by Defiance ETFs.

We are pleased to announce the licensing of the Indxx Defiance Global Photonics Index by Defiance ETFs in collaboration with HANetf. The Index serves as the underlying benchmark for the Defiance Photonics UCITS ETF, which began trading in Europe on the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: PHOT LN and Ticker: PH0T LN) and the Borsa Italiana (Ticker: PHOT IM) respectively.   

The Indxx Defiance Global Photonics Index is designed to track the performance of companies that are involved in the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of photonic technologies, including optical components, photonic semiconductors, optical networking systems, photonic foundry infrastructure, and photonic enabling materials. 

Rahul Sen Sharma, President and Co-CEO at Indxx, said, “The global hyperscale cloud market is projected to skyrocket to approximately $4.7 trillion by 2034, while the physical AI data center market is expanding rapidly, expected to reach up to $2 trillion by 2032. AI and hyperscale computing have hit a wall that more processing power alone can't solve — the real bottleneck now is how fast and efficiently data can move. Photonics is the layer making that possible. The market for AI-focused optical transceivers is projected to grow from $16.5 billion in 2025 to $26 billion in 2026, representing year-over-year growth of over 60%.  We are pleased to collaborate with Defiance and HANetf to bring The Indxx Defiance Global Photonics Index, which is built to give investors targeted, concentrated exposure to that value chain — not diluted across broad tech or semiconductor allocations but focused squarely on the companies enabling this shift to light-based data transfer.” 

Hector McNeil, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HANetf, said, “We are delighted that Defiance is expanding its European range with the launch of the first photonics UCITS ETF. The AI infrastructure buildout is becoming one of the largest investment cycles in history, with capital being deployed at enormous scale across chips, power, memory, data centres, and networking.  Photonics sits at the heart of the next stage of digital infrastructure, providing the optical interconnects and components needed to support faster, more energy-efficient data movement. This launch gives European investors targeted access to companies helping to build the optical backbone required for the next phase of AI, cloud computing, and digital connectivity.” 

Sylvia Jablonski, Chief Investment Officer at Defiance ETFs, added, "Defiance is excited to bring Europe's first photonics UCITS ETF to market. AI is generating more data than electrical connections can efficiently move, and photonics, which uses light to transmit and process information, is quickly becoming a critical layer of the technology stack. By tracking the Indxx Defiance Global Photonics Index, PHOT gives investors focused, transparent exposure to the companies across the full photonics value chain, from optical components and light sources to photonic semiconductors and integrated circuits." 

As of 9th July 2026, the index has 20 constituents. The Index has been backtested to September 30, 2021, and has a live calculation date of May 18, 2026. For additional information, please see here.