Reporting by Nancy Levine Stearns, October 27, 2025
The issuer of an anti-DEI exchange traded fund (ETF) has announced it will close and liquidate the fund later this year.
The ETF issuer Tidal Financial Group announced the upcoming closure and liquidation of the anti-DEI fund in a press release earlier this month. The firm’s announcement came on the heels of news about a court-ordered permanent injunction against the fund’s founder obtained by his previous employer.
Start-up asset manager James Fishback unveiled his plans to launch the “anti-woke” fund, the Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF (SPXM), at an event held at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in December last year. The fund, launched in July this year, mirrors the S&P 500 but excludes companies that commit to quantitative diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Tidal announced that it was closing its two Azoria funds, writing: “the Board of Trustees of Tidal Trust III has determined that closing and liquidating the funds is in the best interest of each fund and its shareholders.” Tidal elaborated on its decision in a statement sent to Impactivize on Sunday, referring to the court order:
“Tidal Investments LLC operates under strict fiduciary, regulatory, and ethical standards.
“We are aware of recent developments concerning Azoria’s principal. This matter is governed by public court filings, which include stipulated findings of unethical conduct inconsistent with the standards expected of a fiduciary and investment adviser.”
Along with its statement, Tidal referred to a Permanent Injunction issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in September that found in favor of Fishback’s former employer, David Einhorn’s hedge fund Greenlight Capital, which had sued Fishback.
“Plaintiffs have succeeded on the merits by establishing the foregoing breaches” of a section of their employment agreement, the court found. Fishback admitted sharing confidential information and agreed to pay the hedge fund’s costs to resolve the lawsuit it filed against him, Bloomberg reported in September.
Unveiling the Anti-DEI ETF
When Fishback unveiled his plans for an anti-DEI ETF in a speech at Mar-a-Lago last December, he was introduced by Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts. Fishback opened his speech, saying, “Kevin, thank you for that kind introduction. And there is no question that President Trump’s historic victory was possible because of the incredible work that you do at the Heritage Foundation.”
The Heritage Foundation authored Project 2025, a 920-page manifesto, which the Kettering Foundation called, “The Blueprint for Christian Nationalist Regime Change.” Project 2025 mandated:
“The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (‘SOGI’), diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”
Fishback announced that coffee giant Starbucks was its first target for exclusion from the ETF. But Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol reaffirmed during a shareholder meeting in March that the company will continue focusing on diversity, calling it a key part of the coffee giant’s strength.
“Starbucks is a tremendously, tremendously diverse organization and will continue to be a tremendously diverse organization, just by the nature of our mission, our values, and how we operate around the world,” Niccol said during the annual meeting. He added, “Diversity is going to continue to be a key, I think, strength of our business and, frankly, helps us connect with our customers at another level.”
Upon the launch of Fishback’s anti-DEI ETF in July, USA TODAY reported:
“Initially, Fishback thought the announcement of his S&P 500 tracker would put pressure on the nation’s largest companies to roll back these policies, but in conversations with business leaders, Fishback said he discovered they ‘genuinely believe that their DEI hiring targets help their long-term business’ and few could be persuaded to make changes.”
Despite attacks on DEI, investors, board members and CEOs of publicly traded corporations have reiterated that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI or by any other name) is a business imperative – not an ideological matter. Shareholders of 30 of the largest corporations in the world, including Costco, Apple, and Coca-Cola voted 30-0 to reject anti-DEI proposals during 2025 proxy season, most by 98 or 99 percent of voting shares, as Impactivize reported.
Immigration and H-1B Visas
More recently, Fishback has railed against employees on H-1B visas, which allow foreign workers to be employed by American companies. “Foreign workers fill a critical need in the U.S. labor market—particularly in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields,” wrote the American Immigration Council in September.
Fishback posted on X last week amplifying a white supremacist conspiracy theory. He wrote, “We refuse to be replaced,” quote-posting an account that said, “They brought millions of foreigners and had millions babies born here with H-B1 [sic] visa and student visa. That’s fucked up!”
Ali Velshi for MSNBC in September: “The ‘Great Replacement’ theory is a conspiracy theory that envisions a scheme to replace white, Christian populations in Western nations with nonwhite immigrants.”
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC last month, “We want all the brightest minds to come to the U.S. and remember immigration is the foundation of the American Dream,” Huang said. “We represent the American Dream. And so I think immigration is really important to our company and is really important to our nation’s future,” commenting on Trump’s announcement that companies must pay $100,000 for an H-1B visa.
Huang says on NVIDIA’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging web page: “We dedicate ourselves to building a just, decent, and inclusive company. We must be empathetic to the experience of underrepresented groups and act to make NVIDIA a place of opportunities. We do this because it is right and just, and we believe it will help make NVIDIA better.”
Ironically, NVIDIA is the top holding of Fishback’s anti-DEI fund. NVIDIA stock is up 75 percent over the past six months, and has therefore contributed to the fund’s performance.
Conclusion
Tidal said in its emailed statement on Sunday, pointing to the court order for injunctive relief: “The decision to close and liquidate the Azoria funds was made by the Funds’ independent Board of Trustees, in accordance with their fiduciary duties and after a comprehensive review of the facts. The Board’s determination was based entirely on its assessment of those facts and was not influenced by any political views or affiliations.”