By Sean Williams, The Motley Fool
Publication Date: 2026-04-07 08:26:00
For much of the last 17 years, the bulls have been in firm control on Wall Street. However, it’s the stock market’s largest and most influential companies that are responsible for most of the heavy lifting. I’m talking about the $2 trillion-and-up club, consisting of Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).
Since the benchmark S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) hit its financial crisis low on March 9, 2009, it’s rallied 873%, through the closing bell on April 2, 2026. In comparison, Nvidia has skyrocketed more than 85,000%, while Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon are higher by approximately 8,500%, 4,000%, 2,400%, and 6,800% over the same timeline.
Will AI create the world’s first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an “Indispensable Monopoly” providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »
Though there’s a laundry list of reasons these members of the “Magnificent Seven” are trillion-dollar companies, the people who know these five juggernauts best are sending shockwaves through Wall Street with their actions.
The reason these five companies have outperformed the S&P 500 so decisively over the last 17 years is that they all possess sustainable moats or ironclad competitive advantages:
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Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) hold a virtual monopoly…
