VUG swapped its benchmark from CRSP to Morningstar on July 29, but Vanguard confirmed objectives, strategy, and daily management remain completely unchanged. NVIDIA at 13% and Apple at 12% anchor VUG's top holdings, with the fund delivering roughly 85% over five years at a 0.03% expense ratio. Morningstar's different growth methodology could quietly push borderline names like Tesla or Eli Lilly across style-box boundaries, reshaping VUG's composition without any Vanguard decision.
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Advisor.com's free matching tool pairs you with vetted fiduciaries from major national firms, all in under three minutes. See who you match with today. On July 29, 2026, Vanguard swapped the benchmark behind the Vanguard Growth ETF (NYSEARCA:VUG) from the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index to the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index.
Most VUG holders never noticed. The switch occurred because Morningstar completed its acquisition of CRSP and rebranded the CRSP Market Indexes as Morningstar Indexes, and Vanguard explicitly stated that VUG's investment objectives, strategies, and day-to-day management are unchanged. If you own VUG in a retirement account, no action is required today.
All that said, there are still things to keep in mind. The fund gives you concentrated exposure to the largest US growth companies at essentially no cost. The expense ratio sits at 0.03%, and the portfolio remains dominated by the same names that have carried large-cap growth for years, with NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) at about 13%, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) at about 12%, and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) near 10% anchoring the top of the fund as of the June fact sheet.
Performance through the transition has been uneventful: VUG is up about 10% year to date and roughly 16% over the past year, with a 5% gain in the window bracketing the July 29 change. That is normal market noise rather than a benchmark-driven event. Most Americans suspect they're behind on retirement and never find out.
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