Morningstar reveals the 15 biggest wealth creators among U.S. equities

Everyone talks about the market’s biggest winners.

But according to Morningstar, identifying the companies that created the most wealth for investors requires a different approach than simply looking at share price performance.

Instead, Morningstar measured “wealth creation” by combining the change in a company’s market capitalisation between 2016 and 2025 with the total dividends paid to shareholders over that period. In other words, the methodology attempts to capture the total amount of value created for investors in absolute dollar terms.

The companies below collectively generated trillions of dollars in shareholder wealth over the past decade, with technology and AI-linked businesses overwhelmingly dominating the leaderboard.

Some names will be obvious. Others may surprise you.

P.S. We’ll also be publishing the 15 biggest ASX wealth creators before revealing the final quiz results in this coming week.

1. NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) - US$4.53 trillion

What it does: NVIDIA designs the advanced semiconductors powering artificial intelligence, gaming and data centres.

Why it created so much wealth: NVIDIA became the defining company of the AI boom. Its chips effectively became the “picks and shovels” of artificial intelligence infrastructure, with hyperscalers and enterprises spending hundreds of billions on AI computing power. The company’s explosive earnings growth, pricing power and dominance in GPU technology turned it into one of the fastest wealth creators in market history.

10-year shareholder return: 73% p.a.

P.S. Did you know NVIDIA was worth just US$60 billion a decade ago? The AI boom corrected what now looks like a heinous rounding error. Since 2020 alone, the company has added roughly US$4 trillion in market value and now sits at an astonishing US$5.2 trillion valuation.

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2. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) - US$3.64 trillion

What it does: Apple dominates global consumer technology through the iPhone ecosystem, wearables and services.

Why it created so much wealth: Apple transformed from a hardware company into an ecosystem powerhouse. The stickiness of the iPhone, App Store, subscriptions and premium branding created enormous recurring cashflows and one of the most loyal customer bases in the world. Massive share buybacks also amplified shareholder returns over time.

10-year shareholder return: 29% p.a.

3. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) - US$3.54 trillion

What it does: Microsoft spans cloud computing, enterprise software, AI infrastructure, cybersecurity and gaming.

Why it created so much wealth: Microsoft’s pivot to cloud computing under CEO Satya Nadella became one of the great corporate transformations of the modern era. Azure emerged as a dominant cloud platform while Microsoft embedded itself deeply into enterprise software and AI infrastructure globally.

10-year shareholder return: 24% p.a.

4. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) - US$3.46 trillion

What it does: Alphabet owns Google, YouTube, Android and one of the world’s most dominant digital advertising ecosystems. It is also a major player in cloud computing, artificial intelligence through Gemini, and autonomous driving via Waymo.

Why it created so much wealth: Google maintained extraordinary dominance in internet search while YouTube evolved into a media and advertising giant in its own right. But the story increasingly became bigger than search. Investors rewarded Alphabet’s expanding cloud business, AI ambitions and optionality across emerging technologies ranging from autonomous vehicles to enterprise AI infrastructure.

10-year shareholder return: 27% p.a.

5. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) - US$2.33 trillion

What it does: Amazon spans e-commerce, cloud computing, logistics, digital advertising, subscriptions and physical retail. Its ecosystem includes AWS, Prime Video, Audible, Whole Foods and one of the world’s largest online marketplaces.

Why it created so much wealth: Amazon reshaped consumer expectations around convenience and delivery speed by building a logistics and warehousing network few competitors could match. At the same time, AWS became one of the world’s most important cloud and AI infrastructure businesses, while Amazon’s broader ecosystem spanning subscriptions, advertising and online retail created multiple powerful growth engines.

10-year shareholder return: 23% p.a.

6. Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) - US$1.73 trillion

What it does: Broadcom supplies the chips and infrastructure software that help power data centres, cloud computing, networking systems, smartphones and AI infrastructure.

Why it created so much wealth: Broadcom became one of the hidden backbone companies of the digital economy. As cloud computing, internet traffic and AI workloads exploded, demand surged for the networking chips and infrastructure technology that move massive amounts of data efficiently between servers and systems. The company also strengthened its position through major software acquisitions, giving investors exposure to both the AI infrastructure boom and the growing importance of enterprise software.

10-year shareholder return: 41% p.a.

7. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) - US$1.66 trillion

What it does: Tesla manufactures electric vehicles, batteries and energy storage systems while also developing autonomous driving and robotics technology.

Why it created so much wealth: Tesla convinced investors it was more than just a car company. The business disrupted the global auto industry by accelerating the shift toward electric vehicles, but markets increasingly rewarded its ambitions in AI-powered autonomous driving (FSD), robotaxis through CyberCab, energy storage and humanoid robotics via Optimus. Investors effectively began valuing Tesla as both a technology and AI platform rather than simply an automaker.

10-year shareholder return: 41% p.a.

8. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) - US$1.47 trillion

What it does: Meta owns the family of the world's premier social media apps including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Why it created so much wealth: Meta built an extraordinary global advertising machine by capturing billions of users across its social media platforms. More recently, investors have rewarded the company’s aggressive push into artificial intelligence, which is being used to improve advertising targeting, user engagement, recommendation algorithms and monetisation across its apps.

10-year shareholder return: 18% p.a.

9. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) - US$950 billion

What it does: Eli Lilly develops pharmaceutical treatments across obesity, diabetes and other major therapeutic areas.

Why it created so much wealth: Eli Lilly became one of the defining healthcare winners - topping US$1 trillion in value last year - after the extraordinary success of its GLP-1 obesity and diabetes drugs sparked expectations of a massive long-term global market opportunity. 

10-year shareholder return: 29% p.a.

10. JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) - US$884 billion

What it does: JPMorgan is the largest bank in the United States across lending, trading, investment banking and wealth management.

Why it created so much wealth: JPMorgan leveraged enormous scale across global finance to become one of the dominant institutions in capital markets and banking. The company benefited from its leadership in trading, corporate lending, investment banking and payments infrastructure, while CEO Jamie Dimon built a reputation for navigating crises better than many rivals.

10-year shareholder return: 18% p.a.

11. Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) - US$735 billion

What it does: Walmart is the world’s largest retailer, spanning discount retail, groceries, e-commerce and logistics.

Why it created so much wealth: Walmart’s presence on this list is remarkable because it was already a mature retail giant a decade ago. Yet the company successfully stayed relevant with value-oriented shoppers through low prices and grocery dominance, while aggressively expanding into e-commerce and delivery to compete with Amazon. Investors increasingly rewarded its resilience, scale and ability to adapt, helping Walmart surpass a US$1 trillion market value in 2026.

10-year shareholder return: 20% p.a.

12. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) - US$714 billion

What it does: Berkshire Hathaway owns insurance businesses, infrastructure assets and a massive portfolio of listed equities.

Why it created so much wealth: Legendary investor Warren Buffett’s disciplined capital allocation and Berkshire’s enormous insurance float continued compounding shareholder wealth over time. Its decentralised collection of businesses spanning GEICO, BNSF and See’s Candies — along with a massive cash pile approaching US$400 billion — also provided resilience across multiple market cycles.

10-year shareholder return: 13% p.a.

13. Visa (NASDAQ: V) - US$515 billion

What it does: Visa operates one of the world’s largest digital payment networks.

Why it created so much wealth: The global shift away from cash and toward electronic payments became one of the most powerful structural trends of the decade. Visa benefited from enormous network effects, global scale and high-margin transaction revenues.

10-year shareholder return: 16% p.a.

14. Mastercard (NASDAQ: MA) - US$445 billion

What it does: Mastercard provides payment processing and transaction infrastructure globally.

Why it created so much wealth: Much like Visa, Mastercard became a major beneficiary of the digitisation of commerce worldwide. Strong margins, recurring transaction activity and international expansion drove consistent long-term growth.

10-year shareholder return: 18% p.a.

15. Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) - US$409 billion

What it does: Palantir develops data analytics and AI software platforms used by governments, defence agencies and corporations.

Why it created so much wealth: Palantir’s presence on this list is truly remarkable, given the company only listed publicly in September 2020, meaning it achieved this level of wealth creation in a fraction of the time of most other companies here. Investors increasingly viewed Palantir as a major beneficiary of rising AI adoption, defence spending and demand for data-driven decision-making tools across both governments and enterprises.

5-year shareholder return: 47% p.a.

Some wealthy observations

A look at these wealth creators reinforces a great point made by Tim Campbell, whose firm has spent more than a century studying the companies that drive markets higher over time.

In a recent interview with Livewire’s Tom Stelzer, Campbell said markets are not driven by a “perfectly distributed bell curve of companies” all delivering similar returns, but instead by a “very, very small handful of companies that do fantastically well.”

That observation aligns closely with Morningstar’s findings:

• The Magnificent Seven alone generated roughly US$20.6 trillion in shareholder wealth over the past decade, about three-quarters of the total wealth created by the top 15 companies combined. 
• Around 10 of the 15 companies were also technology or technology-adjacent businesses tied to AI, semiconductors, cloud computing, software or digital payments.

Morningstar’s Amy Arnott, who produced the data, also noted that many of the companies shared “an economic moat, or sustainable competitive advantage” and generated “significantly better growth in revenue and operating income than the market over the past 10 years.”

Campbell argued investors’ biggest risk is often “not having that small handful of companies that do ferociously well” - something that requires optimism around transformative technologies and innovation.

“If you focus on that, then you're going to do far better than obsessing about what the Fed rate is going to be in the next quarter or the next year.” 

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