Here they are in no particular order.

1. Apple
2. Nvidia
3. Microsoft
4. Amazon
5. Alphabet
6. Meta
7. Tesla

Simply Safe Dividends (This is not an ad. I pay for this service.) published their note on the past year and they illustrated how much of the market is concentrated in just a handful of stocks which all of them are in the technology sector. An individual investor would not want so much of their portfolio concentrated in this way.

The top tech stocks dubbed the Magnificent Seven – Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla – accounted for more than half of the U.S. stock market’s gain in 2024 as more investors jumped on the AI bandwagon.

These tech titans have a collective market cap nearing $18 trillion – more than the combined value of major European stock exchanges and about equal to the European Union’s annual economic output (GDP). Just seven companies.

The rapid growth of these companies and the high valuation multiples they have sustained have made the S&P 500 heavily concentrated. The 10 largest stocks in the market now account for 40% of the index’s market cap, per Charles Schwab senior investment strategist Kevin Gordon.

Simply Safe Dividends

I own 10.036 shares of Amazon and 5.001 shares of Microsoft. I purchased these about three years ago when I had some spare cash that I didn’t want to invest or re-invest in other holdings. In that short time Microsoft gained 357.6% and Amazon 104.1% from my purchase price. A nice gain if I owned hundreds or thousands of shares, but, I’m satisfied to remain fully invested in stocks that pay a decent dividend. I’m a long term investor for income and I wouldn’t be able to realize the gains unless I sell the stocks.