Azoria Meritocracy is a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) that promises investments in companies that don’t utilize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices. The fund will launch in early 2025 and will largely follow the S&P 500 (SPX) index. However, it will exclude three dozen companies that include DEI in hiring and promotion.
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Azoria Meritocracy CEO James Fishback argues that companies practicing DEI harm shareholders by not hiring and promoting based on merit. One company he singled out is Starbucks (SBUX), asking “What on earth does that have to do with making a coffee at a profit in America?” when pointing out its DEI hiring goals and poor performance compared to the S&P 500.
Fishback also expects President-elect Donald Trump to tackle DEI during his term. In an interview with Fox & Friends First, he said he believes the incoming President will call out companies and government practices that “put hiring on race and gender as opposed to skill and merit.”
Big Names Supporting Azoria Meritocracy
Trump hasn’t officially connected himself to Azoria Meritocracy. Even so, he did stop by a meeting of potential investors in early December. This was held at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, which is Trump’s primary residence.
Cathie Wood is another big name who attended the Azoria Meritocracy meeting earlier this month. She’s the founder of Ark Invest, which operates several ETFs, the main one being ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK). Wood openly supports Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, who will join Trump’s administration as the head of the upcoming Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Traders will also note that Fishback is a friend of Vivek Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy is among Trump’s allies and owns Strive Asset Management. This investment firm excludes companies with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. Its main offering is the Strive 500 ETF (STRV).
How to Invest in Azoria Meritocracy
The Azoria Meritocracy ETF isn’t available to invest in right now. The investment firm intends to launch the ETF in early 2025 but doesn’t have an open date yet. When it does launch, the ETF will trade under the “SPXM” ticker. The full list of stocks it will track is still unknown. What is known is the ETF will add blacklisted S&P 500 companies that remove their DEI plans.
Until then, investors might consider a stake in a different ETF that tracks the S&P 500. A few examples include SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF (CSTNL), and SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPLG).
