UBS Group Q1 2026 13F: $666B Book Adds QQQ, Builds Gold

UBS Group AG filed its first-quarter 2026 13F-HR earlier this month. The headline AUM line: $666.3 billion in reported US equity value across the canonical filing complex. Our top-500 cut sums to $528.3B — up 7.5% QoQ from $491.4B at the end of 2025Q4. The growth is broad-based across the mega-cap tech complex but two QoQ deltas tell a more specific story than the headline: QQQ arrives as a fresh top-five position at $10.45 billion (1.98% of reported value), and GLD share count rises 21% to push the position to $6.68B (1.26%). The growth-equity bid and the gold hedge are moving together inside the same filing.

For a Swiss G-SIB whose 2025 portfolio was already heavy in mega-cap US tech, the simultaneous addition of QQQ as a discretionary index sleeve and the 21% GLD build is unusual enough to flag. It suggests UBS Asset Management is running a barbell book at the margin — index-growth on one side, hard-asset hedge on the other — rather than a single-direction conviction tilt.

Top of the book in 2026Q1

The top ten names by reported value:

• NVDA — $19.65B (3.72%) — Held roughly flat
• AAPL — $16.05B (3.04%) — +6% shares
• MSFT — $14.83B (2.81%) — Held roughly flat
• SPY — $13.21B (2.50%) — +12% shares
• QQQ — $10.45B (1.98%) — NEW position
• GOOGL — $9.12B (1.73%) — +10% shares
• AVGO — $8.90B (1.68%) — +7% shares
• AMZN — $8.88B (1.68%) — Held roughly flat
• META — $6.99B (1.32%) — +9% shares
• GLD — $6.68B (1.26%) — +21% shares

Underneath the headline numbers, a clearer pattern emerges. The mega-cap tech names that UBS already held are mostly flat in share count — NVDA and MSFT and AMZN sit at roughly the same physical position they ended 2025Q4 at. The growth in those lines comes from price drift rather than active accumulation. Where UBS actively added shares, it added across SPY (+12%), GOOGL (+10%), META (+9%), AAPL (+6%), and AVGO (+7%) — broad participation rather than concentration. Where it added new exposure, it added QQQ. Where it built a hedge, it built GLD.

The QQQ initiation as a discretionary signal

QQQ shows up at $10.45B as a fresh top-five position. For context, the broader 13F universe in 2026Q1 saw QQQ initiations from LPL Financial ($6.13B) and Legal & General as well — three large institutional filers separately initiated QQQ in the same quarter. UBS's position is the largest of the three, which is the kind of detail that suggests a discretionary asset-management call (UBS AM specifically) rather than passive index-following. UBS's broader US tech book already gives it Nasdaq-100 exposure through individual names (AAPL, NVDA, MSFT, GOOGL, META, AMZN, AVGO are all top-ten); QQQ on top of that is overweight, not neutral.

The GLD build: 21% more shares in a single quarter

GLD is the SPDR Gold Trust — the largest physical gold ETF and the cleanest 13F-eligible expression of a gold-as-hedge view. The 21% share count increase from 2025Q4 to 2026Q1 is the most aggressive single-asset add in UBS's top ten. At a $6.68B position, GLD now exceeds UBS's holdings in JPM, V, and most other large-cap financials. For a Swiss bank whose franchise is built on safe-haven branding, the GLD build aligns with the institutional thesis — but the magnitude of the add is notable, not the direction.

Concentration math

The top ten names hold roughly $115 billion — about 21.7% of the $528.3B top-500 cut. That is materially less concentrated than Legal & General at 33.7% or a typical cap-weighted index sleeve. UBS runs a broader book by design, with a long tail of European-rooted positions and emerging-market exposure that the top ten does not capture.

The AUM trajectory

The 2026Q1 $666.3B reported AUM is the highest single-quarter print in UBS's eight-quarter history. The top-500 sum has grown from $367B in 2024Q2 to $528B in 2026Q1 — roughly 44% over two years. That growth tracks both the post-Credit-Suisse-integration consolidation of the wealth management book and the broader US equity market run.

What to watch from here

• Q2 2026 13F-HR (deadline August 14, 2026) — whether the QQQ initiation expands or holds at the current $10.5B weight. A pullback would suggest a tactical Q1 trade; a hold or expand would confirm strategic Nasdaq-100 overweight.
• Gold price levels — the GLD position is roughly 31 million shares of physical-gold-backed product. Any sustained move in the underlying gold price will swing the dollar position; a continuation of the share-count build would signal sustained hedge demand from the UBS AM book.
• UBS Asset Management AUM disclosures — the 13F captures only US-listed equity exposure of the firm's reportable accounts. Quarterly AUM updates from UBS AM (typically with the parent earnings release) provide the fuller context for how the 13F book's changes map to overall asset gathering versus client allocation shifts.

For the full filer profile and all 500 reported positions, see UBS Group AG's filer page. Source filing: SEC EDGAR 13F-HR index for UBS Group AG (CIK 0001610520). For comparison reads on European institutional filings, see the research hub.