This top fund manager believes that the best investment this year is a hedge against political cycles.

The winning gold trade is often overshadowed by the artificial intelligence trade, but it may deserve more attention.

Jan van Eck, CEO of VanEck, believes the best investment this year is to hedge against political cycles, which he interprets as investing in.

Van Eck stated at the Future Proof conference in Huntington Beach on Monday that it is the best performing asset this year, according to CNBC's "ETF Edge."

On Friday, Gold reached another record, making it a total of 37 records this year. As of the market close on Friday, it had increased by 28% since the beginning of the year.

Gold miners are expected to benefit from continued foreign investments in bullion, which has already helped lift the commodity. However, as of Friday, the has outperformed, with a 31% increase in value this year.

He said that if the miners catch up, it will cause a rip in both of them.

Van Eck finds it "amazing" how investors persist in investing in AI trade despite its poor performance.

The CEO of VanEck stated that having a tactical overweight to semis is part of people's model portfolios or core portfolios. Some of their largest clients bought on the dip over the last week or two.

Last month, VanEck launched a new ETF that focuses on fabless semiconductor companies, excluding those that operate their own foundries, such as Intel.

As of Friday, FactSet reports the top holdings of the new ETF as and .

"Why invest billions of dollars in building chips if you don't have to?" van Eck asked. "Because it doesn't manufacture its own chips, so that's a different investment strategy."

The VanEck Fabless Semiconductor ETF has experienced a 0.5% increase since its launch on Aug. 28.