The Federal Reserve lifted the federal funds target from near zero in March 2022 to 5.5 percent by July 2023. Equity indexes fell in response. The Nasdaq Composite lost one third of its value between January but also December 2022. When OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, capital rotated back into technology issues. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq Composite along with the S&P 500 regained all losses and set successive records between 2023 and 2025.
YCharts
We screened for the best performers inside the S&P 500, the Nasdaq Composite in addition to the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 20 January 2021 to 20 January 2025. Total-return data include price appreciation and reinvested dividends. Every name on the final list owes part of its advance to artificial intelligence demand.
Total return: 930 percent
NVIDIA Corporation listed on Nasdaq in 1999. The original product line consisted of graphics processing units for personal computer games. Each successive architecture increased transistor density and memory bandwidth. By 2016 the same circuits shortened training time for neural networks from weeks to days. When ChatGPT appeared in 2022, hyperscalers ordered tens of thousands of NVIDIA H100 accelerators. The Wall Street Journal estimated that NVIDIA supplied eighty percent of all AI chips sold in 2024. Revenue rose from 11.9 billion dollars in fiscal 2019 to 126 billion dollars in fiscal 2025.
Total return: 815 percent
Super Micro Computer, Inc. designs server boards, chassis next to complete rack systems in San Jose, California. The company pre installs NVIDIA GPUs and liquid-cooling loops – ships turnkey clusters to data center operators. Revenue compounded at fifty five percent per year between fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2024. A short seller report in August 2024 alleged accounting irregularities. The share price fell forty percent in two trading sessions. An independent committee later restated several quarters, yet the stock recovered to new highs by December 2024.
Total return: 780 percent
Vistra Corp. owns natural gas, solar, nuclear plants across twelve states. The share price advanced from 20.40 dollars on 20 January 2021 to 152.70 dollars on 20 January 2025. Nuclear output carries a ninety five percent capacity factor, which satisfies the constant draw of AI training clusters. Amazon along with Google signed twenty year power-purchase agreements with Vistra during 2023 and 2024. The backlog totals six gigawatts and underpins a projected twelve percent annual earnings growth rate through 2030.
Total return: 683 percent
Targa Resources Corp. gathers, processes in addition to transports natural gas and natural-gas liquids in the Permian Basin. The unit price climbed from 28.77 dollars to 215.40 dollars between inauguration day 2021 and inauguration day 2025. Fractionation capacity additions in Mont Belvieu, Texas, raised fee based cash flow by twenty percent per year. A Goldman Sachs research note forecasts that natural gas will supply sixty percent of incremental U.S. data center power demand through 2030. Targa’s processing plants sit within fifty miles of new server farms in West Texas.
Total return: 620 percent
Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy Incorporated, converted from an enterprise software vendor into a leveraged Bitcoin holding company. The firm issues convertible notes and preferred stock – purchases Bitcoin with the proceeds. The share price rose from 57.70 dollars on 20 January 2021 to 396.50 dollars on 20 January 2025. Strategy controls 478,740 Bitcoin, the largest corporate treasury. Each share represents 0.0023 Bitcoin at year end 2024. The stock exhibits a 1.8 beta to Bitcoin – every ten percent move in the cryptocurrency translates into an eighteen percent move in the equity.
Artificial-intelligence demand lifted semiconductor and server manufacturers. Power requirements benefited natural gas processors and nuclear operators. Strategy rode Bitcoin appreciation. These five companies captured the dominant capital themes of the 2021-2025 period.
