What’s next for the magnificent 7?

The Beatles. The Who. Led Zeppelin. Van Halen. Time, egos, and market forces inevitably take their toll, compelling even the greatest of bands to break up. Fine, not the Stones − they keep rolling along as the exception that proves the rule.

But the story, and the song, remains the same. All good things must come to an end. And that goes for the market’s Magnificent Seven just as much as pop music’s Fab Four.

In 2025, the average return for members of the “Magnificent Seven,” an informal term for the septet of mega-cap tech stocks that dominate the S&P 500 − Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla − was around 27.5%, well ahead of the S&P 500’s return of approximately 16%. In terms of individual performers, Alphabet and Nvidia led the pack, returning 66% and 40% respectively.

Meanwhile, Apple and Amazon fared the worst of the lot, rising only 9% and 6% for the year. The fact that only a pair of Mag 7 companies beat the market’s overall benchmark last year seems like proof to many advisors that the group’s members have already begun to – with a nod to Fleetwood Mac – “go their own way.” The question facing wealth managers in 2026 is: which way will each of the multi-trillion-dollar members of the group go?

Apple

($3.66T)

Austin Graff, chief investment officer at 49 Financial, believes Apple remains a highquality, cash-generative technology franchise with improving medium-term fundamentals and a differentiated approach to the AI arms race. He expects Apple’s sales outlook to strengthen in 2026 as the product cycle reaccelerates, led by the iPhone franchise.

“After several years of low-singledigit smartphone unit growth, we believe volumes can move to mid-single-digit growth, supported by a more compelling hardware roadmap, including the anticipated launch of a newly designed foldable iPhone that may drive incremental upgrades and reinvigorate consumer demand,” Graff says.

And while Apple has lagged peers in both the AI narrative and recent stock performance, he views its relative restraint as a strategic advantage.

Adds Graff: “The company has historically avoided being first to market, instead scaling technologies once economics and use cases are proven.”  

Alphabet

($3.7T)

Kelly Milligan, managing partner at Quorum Private Wealth, part of Sanctuary Wealth, is impressed by Alphabet’s portfolio of businesses with growing revenues and high margins. He also likes the fact that the company controls 90% of search and that it released Gemini, its artificial intelligence enhancement that’s leading other large language models. And because Alphabet already owned so much of search through Google, it merely had to enhance an existing product through Gemini − not convince consumers to a new adoption pattern.

Put simply, Gemini is powered by Google’s own chips, which means that Alphabet does not have to purchase semiconductors from Nvidia. Milligan, for one, is a big fan of that independence. 

Further advancing his bullish case, he points out that Alphabet controls 70% of global operating systems and that it owns YouTube and YouTubeTV, Gmail, the Chrome browser, and Waymo robotaxis. 

“That’s a lot of shots on goal and the reason why Alphabet recently exceeded Apple’s market capitalization,” Milligan says.

Amazon

($2.24T)

Andrew Graham, founder and portfolio manager at Jackson Square Capital, is positive on Amazon in the coming year after it finished 2025 as the weakest performing Mag 7 name. In his view, the company has meaningful exposure to a resilient consumer, who should benefit from tax refunds in early 2026. He adds that real income growth for middle-income consumers is expected to exceed 2.5%, reinforcing Amazon’s core retail and advertising businesses.

“Amazon offers multiple pathways to AI-driven earnings growth through cloud growth, cost efficiencies, and custom silicon production. The rise of AI agents should be a larger tailwind for AWS than other CSPs,” Graham says.

Nvidia

($4.34T)

Mike Martin, vice president of market strategy at TradingBlock, is currently neutral on AI chipmaking giant Nvidia. That said, he notes he will likely turn bearish if the stock rallies another 5−10% in early 2026.

“I believe 2026 will be the year of proof for AI: are these massive investments actually paying off? If they are, the market’s focus should shift away from infrastructure and toward the businesses that deploy AI effectively,” Martin says.

In the options market, a call diagonal spread on NVDA fits this outlook nicely, according to Martin. This strategy involves buying a front-month call to stay exposed to near-term upside while simultaneously selling a later-dated call for a higher premium.

Tesla

($1.43T)

Sam Diarbakerly, founder and private wealth advisor at Generation Capital Advisors, calls Tesla shares compelling but believes Elon Musk’s company’s stock carries the widest range of outcomes in the group. As a result, he frames it with a clear bull-and-bear case.

Leading his bull case is the fact that investors are increasingly focused on robotaxis and full self-driving, and the thesis strengthens if a federal self-driving framework develops in the US, which could position Tesla as a major beneficiary. He also sees long-term upside tied to FSD penetration and the company’s ability to introduce lower-cost vehicles, both of which can expand the addressable market. Tesla has “irons in the fire,” he says, including ongoing capacity ramp across multiple factories and a long runway for recurring revenue as software and data become a larger part of the story.

Diarbakerly’s bear case for Tesla centers around its near-term financial sustainability, including whether reduced SG&A is sustainable as volumes expand and whether gross margin dynamics fully reflect the costs of ramping newer factories. Supply chain concentration is also a risk, in his opinion, because several components are single-sourced, and the company does not typically use long-term supply agreements, so disruptions can directly impact deliveries.

Finally, he sees “key-man risk” as material given Musk’s central role, and notes that the company’s current valuation can be unforgiving if expectations are priced for perfection and near-term results do not continuously exceed the bar.

Meta

($1.54T)

Rob Sechan, co-founder and CEO of NewEdge Wealth, has an overall “constructive” view on Meta and is sticking with his longstanding portfolio overweight despite the recent weakness. That’s because he views the company as one of the more attractive, albeit volatile, names within the Mag 7 group. In his estimation, Meta continues to demonstrate solid momentum in its core business, and the company’s long-running “dominance and scale” can still drive long-term shareholder value creation.

Despite his long-term positive outlook, however, Sechan recognizes that in the near term things may continue to be choppy for Meta, mainly due to the elevated capital intensity and recently more measured pace of AI innovation relative to peers. Both factors continue to weigh on sentiment and valuation. Nevertheless, in his view this will only provide a more attractive entry point for long-term investors.

“At the end of the day, we think it’s fair to question the elevated capital intensity, as historically not all of Meta’s capex has yielded attractive returns on investment. However, in our view the business is more operationally efficient today, and they are showing some more capital discipline in regards to optimizing spend around compute,” Sechan says.

Microsoft

($2.89T)

Nate Garrison, chief investment officer at World Investment Advisors, foresees the massive investment in the AI boom continuing for several years, and he says today’s technology companies fully realize that the commanding heights of the economy are at stake. As this competition plays out, Garrison thinks the market’s deep, implicit trust of Microsoft blesses the company with a unique advantage.

 “Microsoft products and services are ubiquitous across businesses and have been for decades. ‘The world runs on Excel’ may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it contains great truth. As agentic AI starts to take on more responsibilities in the corporate world, companies that have trusted Microsoft with their data for decades will also trust it to deliver AI solutions using that data,” Garrison says.

He points out that startups, and even big tech companies competing for customers where Microsoft is already entrenched, will face a steep hurdle to win that business.

“It’s a great moat for Microsoft, giving it space and time that others won’t have,” Garrison says.