In 2025, the three biggest stock gainers in the S&P 500 were Micron ( NASDAQ:MU) with around 250%, Western Digital ( NASDAQ:WDC) with almost 300%, and Sandisk ( NASDAQ:SNDK) with nearly 600%. To be more precise, SNDK stock gained approximately 580% last year, which is astounding no matter how you slice it. And in case you didn't see the connection, the three top performers are all involved in the market for memory-storage hardware.
As of mid-December, only Nvidia and Alphabet are beating the S&P 500 this year. The rest of the Magnificent Seven are trailing the benchmark. That surprised even seasoned investors. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) underperforming was not shocking, but Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) lagging the index caught many people off guard given its solid earnings and strong AI narrative. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) have also struggled on a relative basis.