This year’s major themes in the U.S. stock market have been artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency.
Stocks related to these themes have seen significant gains, including AppLovin (758%), MicroStrategy (476%), and Palantir (380%). These gains far surpass Nvidia’s 183% increase, even though Nvidia is considered a leader in the AI sector.
In a report published Wednesday, CNBC highlighted the top five technology stocks with market capitalizations exceeding $5 billion and the highest growth rates this year.
The top performer was the digital advertising company AppLovin. At the beginning of the year, AppLovin’s market cap was approximately $13 billion, but thanks to a dramatic rise, it has surged past $110 billion.
This places it ahead of companies like Starbucks, Intel, and Airbnb.
AppLovin was founded 12 years ago as a game-focused digital advertising firm, and it went public during the surge in online gaming amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Although its gaming division has seen slower growth recently, its online advertising business has gained popularity thanks to advancements in AI-powered ad targeting techniques. The company is well-known for investing in mobile game studios that have developed titles like Woody Block Puzzle, Clockmaker, and Bingo Story.
MicroStrategy, a software company famous for its extensive Bitcoin holdings, also saw its stock price soar, driven by the cryptocurrency boom. Since mid-2020, the company has announced plans to purchase Bitcoin by selling its shares and using the proceeds to buy more. This mid-sized business intelligence software provider now reportedly holds over 444,000 Bitcoins, making it the fourth-largest holder worldwide, following Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, and the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The company’s stock price rose an additional 57% after Donald Trump, self-proclaimed as the crypto president, won the U.S. presidential election.
AI software company Palantir also experienced significant gains. Palantir, which provides data analysis tools to the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies, attracted attention by surpassing market expectations in its fourth-quarter earnings report.
The company’s stock jumped 23% on the earnings announcement day and gained another 8.6% the day after Trump’s election victory. Despite CEO Alex Karp’s public support for Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, investors expect Palantir to secure substantial defense contracts in the future, driving its continued upward momentum.
Robinhood, an online stock trading platform popular among individual investors, also saw its stock price triple this year. The platform benefited from the Bitcoin craze, allowing small-scale investors to trade cryptocurrencies easily. In addition to Bitcoin, users can trade 20 other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and Dogecoin.
Nvidia, a leading AI semiconductor designer, saw its stock price rise 183% this year after a 239% gain in 2023, continuing to attract strong investor interest. Its market cap increased by the most, reaching $2.2 trillion. Currently ranked as the second-largest company by market capitalization after Apple, Nvidia briefly claimed the top spot twice this year and is now valued at approximately $3.4 trillion.
Nvidia continues to benefit the most from the AI boom as major cloud providers and internet companies purchase its advanced graphics processing units (GPUs). In a performance report, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently announced that the company’s next-generation AI chip, Blackwell, has entered full-scale production.
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