AI Infrastructure Dominated the S&P 500's Top Performers Over a Decade

Nine out of the ten S&P 500 stocks that performed best over the last ten years share a single theme: building out artificial intelligence infrastructure. And one stock among the top ten stands above the rest: Nvidia.

Over a decade, Nvidia delivered a total return of nearly 13,589%, more than twice that of the second-best performer, AMD, which came in at about 6,000%. The remaining eight names span semiconductor makers, networking hardware companies, and one heating and cooling contractor.

The AI Common Thread

The top ten best-performing stocks over the past ten years:

Nvidia (NVDA) — +13,817%

AMD (AMD) — +6,099%

Micron (MU) — +5,486%

Comfort Systems (FIX) — +5,157%

Arista Networks (ANET) — +3,762%

Lam Research (LRCX) — +3,099%

Tesla (TSLA) — +2,545%

Lumentum (LITE) — +2,440%

KLA Corp (KLAC) — +2,401%

Seagate (STX) — +2,346%

Nvidia, AMD, Micron, Lam Research, and KLA Corp either produce chips or the gear used to manufacture them. That equipment is used to build the servers inside AI data centers.

Arista Networks makes networking switches for those same data centers. Lumentum produces optical components that transfer data between server racks. Seagate, meanwhile, provides the storage drives used in AI training clusters.

Comfort Systems, meanwhile, plays a different role. The mechanical and electrical contractor's backlog reached nearly $12 billion as hyperscalers rush to construct and cool new data centers. That gives it exposure to AI without manufacturing any chips.

Tesla, however, stands apart. Its return depends more on electric vehicle demand than on AI infrastructure. Still, Elon Musk's push into autonomous driving and robotics does add an AI component of its own.

Two Years, Most of the Gains

Much of this rally occurred recently, not spread evenly over the decade. Nvidia's market capitalization climbed from roughly $418 billion to more than $4.5 trillion after the AI boom started in November 2022.

A similar acceleration appears across the list, as hyperscaler spending on artificial intelligence picked up over the last two years.

Whether that pace continues depends on hyperscalers maintaining their current construction schedules. JPMorgan analysts estimate that around 60% of data center capacity planned for 2027 has not yet broken ground.

That shortfall could keep this group of stocks in the spotlight through the second half of the decade.