Year in Review: The Most Popular Stocks of 2025

Nvidia: Remember DeepSeek? Nvidia started the year with a bump but despite headwinds from China sales to tariffs it extended its leadership in AI datacentre hardware and GPUs. Rallied over 30% YTD but wobbled a bit since October as the AI capex nerves came to the fore.

Tesla: Ramped into the year end – could be a possible play on the SpaceX IPO in 2026. Bill Ackman wants to help SpaceX go public with a special purpose acquisition vehicle that would provide Tesla shareholders with priority access to the SpaceX shares.

Palantir: Massive momentum AI stock proved popular with retail investors. It was a monster year and despite some extreme volatility it’s been one of the best performers on the S&P 500, rising 158% YTD as of the close on 22 December.

Amazon: Basically flat on the year, it’s not really taken part in the AI trade as much as investors would have liked despite surging cloud revenue growth. Suffered a steep decline in April on tariff man before staging a recovery.

Meta: Metaverse makes way for AI – rallied about 10% YTD but suffered big selloffs twice. 2026 depends on the AI capex story and monetisation benefits from the investment. Investors seem to approve of dialling back the spending on the loss-making Reality Labs business. One I looked at as an idea for 2026.

AMD: Yet another AI play, the chipmaker posted a record $4.3bn in Q3 2025 data centre revenue. Alibaba just placed a big order after Trump’s limited approval of GPU sales to China.

Alphabet: A standout performer of the year. Warren Buffett likes the stock. Alphabet is all about improving growth in Google Cloud - 40% in Q1 26 potentially, its Gemini AI model is probably the leader, Waymo is streets ahead of Tesla, worries about search revenues are evaporating as fears of AI cannibalisation of search didn't really take into account Google's ability to be an AI leader.

Apple: A much steadier play than many in the tech space, shares have risen about 10% YTD. It’s not really taken part in the AI narrative – is 2026 the year this changes? The last iPhone reboot was greeted positively.

Broadcom: A positive year for the semiconductor firm, up about 47%. Despite blockbuster earnings with AI chip sales +74% in Q3 the stock tumbled in December as AI angst weighed on sentiment. Costly buildouts may weigh on margins but Broadcom remains the big supplier to Alphabet, Anthropic, Meta and OpenAI soon.

Strategy: Until the launch of crypto ETNs for retail investors in October, Strategy was one of the most straightforward plays on cryptos. But with Bitcoin prices falling below $90,000 the stock has had a tough time, sliding 45% YTD and more than 60% from its highs earlier in the year.

Have a look at our key themes to watch for in 2026.