The Magnificent Seven: To someone not closely following finance news (and who is therefore free and happy) that term might sound like the latest unwanted Marvel franchise created by executives desperate to squeeze as much money out of middle schoolers as humanly possible. But we degenerates know it’s actually the tech stocks underpinning the entire stock market.

Overall, the Mag 7 drove a huge bulk of the S&P 500’s 17.25% return this year. But not every member of the squad pulled their weight equally. Let’s take a look at who carried the entire market on their back—and who was stuck on the bench.

• Alphabet led the group, soaring 65.8% in 2025 thanks to the performance of its chatbot, Gemini 3 Pro, which came out in mid-November and impressed users—and finally assuaged investors’ fears that Alphabet had been left behind in the AI race.
• Nvidia gained 39.65% this year thanks to robust chip demand, the growth of data centers, and innovation in its chips business. While AI trade fears rose this year, Kingvidia is still the top dog in the biggest industry in the market.
• Microsoft jumped 15.67% thanks to growth from its Azure cloud unit, while the company made a hefty AI capex investment to the tune of $80 billion over the fiscal year.
• Meta Platforms rose 13.75% as it maintained healthy advertising revenue growth throughout the year, largely thanks to its strong user metrics. But it also faced scrutiny from investors critical of its AI capex spending plans.
• Tesla rose 12.48%, a figure that masks the wild year the company endured. Despite reporting record delivery figures, the company’s profit shrunk as EV tax credits expired and it dealt with tough competition from China, along with its own CEO’s political antics.
• Apple rallied 9.02% as it focused on debuting its iPhone 17 and a slew of other new product upgrades. While the company lagged somewhat in the AI race, as it was slower to roll out AI features into its products compared to some of its peers, analysts are starting to think that actually may be a good thing.
• Amazon rose 5.99% as its cloud segment remained a key driver of profit for the company. But its high capex spending, along with regulatory and legal pressures, put a damper on the stock in comparison to other Mag 7 names.

That’s the scoreboard at the end of 2025, but the long term AI race is far from over, so stay tuned for who speeds ahead and who fumbles their lead by the end of 2026.—LB

With the Mag 7 dominating headlines again this year, 2025 quietly became a defining moment for the rest of Big Tech. From chipmakers reinventing themselves to software players riding (or straining under) AI demand, here’s how a couple of the biggest non-Mag 7 names in tech stacked up.

• Broadcom cemented itself as Nvidia’s most credible challenger in 2025, doubling its stock price on the back of booming custom-chip demand, heavyweight partnerships with Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI, and a blowout Q4 in which net income nearly doubled and chip sales soared 74%. With both its semiconductor and infrastructure software units beating expectations, Broadcom proved it’s now a central player in the AI hardware race. The stock is up 50.9% in 2025.
• Intel’s year was chaotic, but ultimately salvaged by outside intervention: after missing the AI boom and suffering steep losses, the company cycled through a new CEO, agreed to offload a majority stake in Altera at a discount, endured political fire from President Trump, and accepted a government-backed SoftBank infusion—only to stage a surprise rebound when Nvidia became a strategic investor in September, lifting the stock 22% that day, and leaving Intel up 86.03% YTD.
• AMD re-entered the AI spotlight with a year of strong earnings, the launch of its Instinct MI350 GPUs, and a blockbuster deal to supply six gigawatts of GPUs to OpenAI—a partnership that could add $4.5 billion in quarterly revenue by late 2026, and even gives OpenAI warrants to acquire up to a 10% stake in AMD. With analysts overwhelmingly rating the stock a “Buy,” AMD became one of 2025’s clearest AI beneficiaries outside the Mag 7. Shares are up 78.28% in 2025.
• Marvell Technology delivered solid Q3 results and sees data-center revenue climbing more than 25% next fiscal year. But the stock still sank 21.45% this year as a broader tech selloff, fears of losing key Microsoft and AWS orders, and intensifying chip-sector competition overshadowed its long-term AI positioning.
• Palantir doubled again in 2025 thanks to explosive adoption of its Artificial Intelligence Platform, which helped drive Q3 revenue up 63% year over year across both government and commercial customers. Analysts expect another 41% jump in 2026, but with shares now up more than 2,700% since early 2023 while revenue climbed just 104%, valuation concerns loom large over the company’s otherwise stellar momentum. Investors seem unbothered: shares are up 139.11% YTD.

Technology is evolving faster than ever, and with it comes changes in market leadership. Will the Mag 7 remain the dominant force in the AI trade next year, or will usurpers begin to steal the spotlight? Only a new year will tell.—SY