A $10 billion ETF is tracking companies wiring America's $68 billion data center infrastructure buildout (power distribution, networking, real estate, construction).
The First Trust RBA American Industrial Renaissance ETF (NYSEARCA:AIRR) has quietly become one of the purest public-market proxies for the AI data center buildout. With roughly $10 billion in assets, AIRR owns the small and mid-cap industrials wiring, cooling, and powering hyperscaler campuses. The fund's top holdings have just posted the strongest backlogs in their history, positioning AIRR as a levered bet on one specific line item: hyperscaler capital spending.
AIRR tracks the Richard Bernstein Advisors American Industrial Renaissance Index and holds 54 equity positions across U.S. industrials and community banks. As of the latest NPORT filing, net assets stood at $8.39 billion, with the top five names representing roughly 21% of the portfolio. The data center exposure is unusually direct: Comfort Systems USA (NYSE:FIX) at 4.18%, Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL) at 3.96%, EMCOR Group (NYSE:EME) at 3.54%, and Powell Industries (NASDAQ:POWL) at 1.83%. These four names alone comprise nearly 14% of the fund.
Year to date, Comfort Systems is up 85%, Sterling 80%, Powell 92%, and EMCOR 36%. Each has pulled back in the past month, with Sterling down nearly 19% and Powell off 13%. That combination of dominant returns and fresh drawdowns makes the next twelve months a pivotal question for fund performance.
The single most important variable for AIRR over the next year is combined 2027 capex guidance from Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon. Those four companies fund the campuses that convert into backlog at Comfort Systems, EMCOR, Sterling, and Powell. On the July 24 earnings call, Comfort Systems President Trent McKenna told analysts that hyperscalers show "a very deep and calm certainty among these people that they're going to continue to build... we see no letdown whatsoever." EMCOR's data-center-heavy Network and Communications work more than doubled year over year in mechanical construction, pushing total remaining performance obligations to $17.14 billion.
The critical data source arrives in late January 2027 with mega-cap earnings releases and follow-up 10-Ks that formalize capex figures. A single-digit downward revision to hyperscaler capex has historically flowed through to contractor bookings within one to two quarters. If aggregate 2027 capex guidance moves lower, AIRR loses the fuel behind its four-name engine. If it steps up again, contractor backlogs gain another year of visibility.
AIRR's rules-based small and mid-cap index structure now works against holders. After this year's rally, Comfort Systems carries a market cap near $61 billion, well above what most investors picture as small or mid-cap. The index rebalances quarterly, and the September reconstitution could trim the winners or push them out entirely, forcing turnover in the fund's most productive positions. Powell's Q3 book-to-bill of 3.0x and a $400 million-plus behind-the-meter data center order show how tightly these companies are wired to a single end market. Sterling's mission-critical work now represents more than 92% of e-infrastructure backlog.
Two items on First Trust's AIRR page deserve regular checks: the quarterly holdings changes published shortly after each rebalance, and the top-holdings weights. A rebalance that meaningfully cuts FIX, EME, or STRL exposure would reduce AIRR's data center beta before most holders notice the shift on their statements.
If January hyperscaler capex guidance holds or expands, AIRR's contractor backlogs—already $14.1 billion at Comfort Systems and $4.3 billion signed at Sterling—should continue compounding into 2027. The September AIRR rebalance is the near-term signal that could reshape the fund's exposure before that macro story plays out.