Almost all U.S. stocks failed to produce long-term wealth over the past century, a new Arizona State University study found, after tracking 29,754 companies from 1926 to 2025.
Only 1,082 companies, about 3.7%, made a total profit in the market. Any other investment, on average, did not do better than Treasury bonds. Those bills are short-term government bonds, among the safest places to invest.
Information on US Stocks Trailed Treasury Bills
The paper“A Century of US Stock Markets,” uses the University of Chicago’s CRSP database. They thateRs every stock listed on the New York and American exchanges and Nasdaq since 1926.
Its author, economics professor Hendrik Bessembinder, revised his famous 2018 study on the same question. The original work showed for the first time how a small number of stocks controlled the entire market.
A hundred years show about 60% of stocks left investors worse off than safe-haven Treasury bills. Only about 41% managed to beat them.
Many are misleading. The average, or median, stock lost 6.9% over its lifetime. The overall average was up 30,000%, boosted by a few small winners.
The same imbalance is evident today, with profits driven by smaller, more research-oriented companies market size.
Few Giants Made Profits
Five companies made up more than one-fifth of the market’s wealth since 1926. Apple leads at $5.02 trillion, about 5.5% of the total. Nvidia follows with $4.58 trillion.
Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon round out the top five. They are all part of the Magnificent Sevena small group of Big Tech stocks that now dominate the market. The seven made up 24.2% of the century’s wealth, and added Warnings of the Big Tech bubble in 2026.
Time will tell how quickly this happened. Nvidia only went public in 1999, yet it and Apple now own about 10% of the total wealth created. This method helps to explain why semiconductor stocks did well Big Tech is crypto this year.
“People keep saying that the S&P is being carried by a few AI stocks, as if this is something new. It’s not. The market has been running on a small number of winners. What changed is the small amount that is now available,” Bull Theory expert he said.
Even the smallest markets Nvidia supplier stocks will join the meeting.
Market Stability is Increasing
The prison is growing rapidly. Using data up to 2016, a 2018 study found that 89 companies make up half of the total economy.
Nine years later, only 46 companies make up half. During the same period, the total wealth reached $91 trillion from $43 trillion. The winner’s circle got smaller as the prize pool got bigger.
Those nine years coincide exactly with the rise of Big Tech and the AI boom. The combination increases everyone’s interest stock selloff is coming in the market few leaders.
Bessembinder’s message has been around for thirty years. A small number of stocks carry the entire market, which they say favors more money than picking winners.
The working paper has not been peer-reviewed.
A note 96% of US Stocks Have Failed to Make Wealth Over the Years, Survey Finds appeared for the first time BeInCrypto.
