10 years from now, these are the companies everyone will wish they owned

There would be few among us who don’t wish we owned the likes of the Magnificent Seven in their early stages, or even simply a decade ago. Even then, investors considered the likes of Apple, Nvidia or Microsoft expensive. How high they have climbed since then, but of course, the market changes. History suggests these businesses may not be the dominant market leaders in a decade.

The typical cycle for market leadership turnover is 20-25 years, though 81% of the audience at Livewire Live 2025 believes that in the future, this turnover will be faster – under a decade. Be afraid, market leaders…

Livewire’s Chris Conway asked three experts to sift through the existing market to project who will be the leaders in the next decade, that is, the companies you should be eyeing off right now.

The panel included:

• Qiao Ma, Munro Partners
• Dr David Allen Plato Investment Management
• Joshua Cummings, Janus Henderson

Where to hunt for future leaders

The experts shared two ways of looking for tomorrow’s winners – in the big themes and concerns of today, as well as those consistent needs and requirements.

AI is a dominant theme and both Qiao and Cummings expect it to continue to be.

“AI is not a thing. It’s not the next snazzy app. It is a change in the various fabric and architecture of our software stack globally. When we have discussions around AI, right now we’ve focused on pick and shovel providers,” Cummings says.

Qiao agrees, reminding the audience that we are only three years into the AI trend and there’s plenty to run. Her approach has been to focus on what might change.

“A lot of these really large trillion-dollar markets are being disrupted or accelerated one way or another by AI,” Qiao says, pointing to healthcare and defense as examples.

Turning to the idea of consistent needs and requirements, Allen cites Jeff Bezos and the idea that, rather than predicting the innovations, you consider what won’t change. For example, in the case of Amazon, the idea that regardless of other changes, people will always want cheap goods, a wide variety to select from, and fast delivery.

Allen’s view on what won’t change considered the geopolitical climate. He views defence spending as a key theme to watch. European defence spending has stepped up the most it has since World War II. Allen expects this to be a decade-long trend, with real opportunities for value creation.

What does a future leader look like

The stock market is filled with the wrecks of companies that couldn’t execute for the long term, and for Qiao, there are a few traits she looks for to find resilient long-term success.

1. A large addressable market undergoing significant change such that incumbents no longer have an advantage.
2. A loyal and passionate customer base.
3. A visionary and aligned leader who can draw the best market talent.
4. Profitable.

In addition to this, Allen cautions investors to not simply be drawn by exciting stories.

“The type of growth that is really valuable and underappreciated by markets is companies who have a consistent track record of growing free cash flow organically. Not by acquisition, not by potential engineering, not pie in the sky,” he says.

The stocks the experts tip as future market leaders

Cummings: Spotify (NYSE: SPOT)

“Spotify is now fully and completely demonstrating the signs of a long-term winning aggregator in much the same way Amazon did for us many years ago. They are taking something like 50-60% incremental growth share,” Cummings says.

He notes that streaming is under-penetrated in developed markets at around 50%, with developing markets well below that and believes that music as a category is still under-monetised.

QIAO: NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)

Qiao expects Nvidia’s reign to continue, viewing plenty to come in the AI space. She argues that it will be foundational for companies that haven’t been developed yet, given how early in the AI phase we are and points to Nvidia’s strong backlog and growth ahead.

“Nvidia is on a one-year cadence [for chip development]. No one in the semiconductor hardware industry has ever been on a one-year cadence. It takes about three to five years,” she says, explaining that by the time competitors catch up to Nvidia’s release this year, it will already be deploying the next big chip.

Allen: Rheinmetall (XETR: RHM)

In keeping with watching European defence spending, Allen tips Rheinmetall as his pick, calling it the “bedrock of Europe’s land defence system”. It currently has a $55bn order backlog.

Allen puts his view in context of the broader geopolitical situation in Europe.

“The European defence industry is about a third to maybe 40% the size of the US, and yet the population of Europe is 540 million versus the US at around 340. It is undersized and needs a whole decade of intensive spend, but there wasn’t the political will historically,” Allen says.

He argues that there are enough meaningful risks to ensure political appetite in Europe to continue spend for at least the next decade, benefiting Rheinmetall as the dominant market player.

Surprise picks to watch

The experts were also invited to nominate some surprise players to contend for Nvidia’s crown in the future. They shared AI players and an expected business described as “pretty low tech, frankly pretty boring, but boring businesses are get-rich-slow schemes”.

Cummings: Progressive Insurance (NYSE: PGR)

This “frankly pretty boring business” has disrupted the auto insurance industry, is profitable and continues to evolve to use new technologies to drive market share, according to Cummings.

QIAO: Astera Labs (NASDAQ: ALAB)

Astera Labs was developed to help chips connect better to other chips to allow for multiple chips to act as one in a rack, meaning more rapid and better connectivity. Qiao believes the opportunities for this business will exponentially grow.

Allen: Palantir Technology (NASDAQ: PLTR)

Allen highlights Palantir operates at the crossroads of three big megatrends: defence, datafication and AI. It is generating substantial free cashflow and has opportunities across industries.

Do you agree with the experts? Let us know your picks for the next NVIDIA in the comments below and stay tuned for more great content from Livewire Live 2025.