Best Investments over the Last 100 Years? Almost All Are Tech Companies
An analysis of the best-performing stocks over the past century shows that nearly all top investments are technology companies, including Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, and SpaceX, highlighting the dominant role of tech in long-term market growth.
Background
- The article names Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, and SpaceX as standout long-term investments, but most readers won't know that SpaceX is private (not on the stock market) and that the other three are public companies whose stocks have delivered enormous returns over the past decade-plus.
- Apple (founded 1976) and Nvidia (founded 1993) are currently the two most valuable public companies in the world, with Nvidia's recent surge driven by AI chip demand.
- Tesla (founded 2003) is the most valuable automaker by market cap, though its stock is notoriously volatile.
- The broader point: over century-long horizons, virtually all top-performing assets have been technology companies — a fact that challenges the old investing wisdom that tech is "too risky" for long-term portfolios.
- The article likely uses this historical data to make an argument about where patient capital should be deployed today, comparing past tech giants to emerging ones.