Image Source: Pixabay

It was a wild year for the stock markets in 2025, with massive swings and significant volatility. In early April, the Nasdaq Composite was down about 21% and the S&P 500 was off roughly 16%. But by the end of the year, the Nasdaq was up 20% and the S&P 500 was up 16%.

The fluctuations of the markets, for the most part, mirrored the movement of the 7 largest and most influential stocks, the so-called Magnificent 7.

At one point, Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA), the world’s largest company, saw its stock price plummet to about $94 per share on April 4 — down 30% for the year. Since then, it more than doubled to a closing high of $207 per share on October 29. The stock settled back down a bit, ending the year at $186.50 per share.

But that was good for a 39% return for Nvidia in 2025. It is well short of the 239% return in 2023 and the 171% gain in 2024, but still, a 39% return beats the market by a long shot. Was Nvidia the best performing Magnificent 7 stock of 2025? Let’s take a look.

How did the Mag 7 stocks do in 2025?

While Nvidia had another strong year, it was not the best performing Magnificent 7 stock in 2025.

That honor went to Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG), the parent company of Google and YouTube. Which performed the worst among the Mag 7? That would be Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN).

Here’s a breakdown of how they each performed, best to worst.

• 1. Alphabet (GOOG) — Up 64.8% to $313.80 per share
• 2. Nvidia (NVDA) – Up 38.9% to $186.50 per share
• 3. Microsoft (MSFT) – Up 14.7% to $483.62 per share
• 4. Meta Platforms (META)– Up 12.7% to $660.09 per share
• 5. Tesla (TSLA) – Up 11.4% to $449.72 per share
• 6. Apple (AAPL) – Up 8.6% to $271.86 per share
• 7. Amazon (AMZN) – Up 5.2% to $230.82 per share.

There are actually two stocks that would displace Tesla and Meta on this list in terms of market cap – Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM and Broadcom (Nasdaq: AVGO). Taiwan Semiconductor is sixth largest by market cap followed by Broadcom at seventh.

If you were to consider these two stocks among the Magnificent 7, they would both rise to near the top of the list.

Taiwan Semiconductor stock returned 53.9% in 2025 to $303.89, while Broadcom stock jumped 49.3% to $346.10 per share.

Which will be best in 2026?

Looking to 2026, analysts are most bullish on Broadcom, with a median price target of $460, suggest 34% upside.

Microsoft is next with a median target of $630. which would suggest 33% upside.

Nvidia has a median price target of $250, which would project 31% upside, while Amazon has a median price target of $300, which would suggest a 29% return over the next 12 months.

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