The 30 Best Stocks of the Past 30 Years

Advocates of buy-and-hold index investing have a fresh batch of powerful evidence supporting the wisdom of their ways, new research shows.

Not only do the majority of stocks deliver long-term underperformance vs. pretty much the least risky asset you can find, but the great bulk of equity-market wealth is created by just a tiny percentage of the very best stocks.

A study of the performance of more than 64,000 global stocks from January 1990 to December 2020 revealed that the compound returns of 55.2% of U.S. stocks, as well as 57.4% of non-U.S. stocks, underperformed essentially risk-free one-month U.S. Treasury bills. Moreover, the entirety of the $75.7 trillion in net global stock market wealth created over the past 30 years was generated solely by the top-performing 2.4% of stocks.

The findings are courtesy of Hendrik Bessembinder, a finance professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, and they underscore the importance of diversification.

Accurately identifying the precious few "home run" stocks amid the many thousands of underachieving names is extremely difficult. Your portfolio is more likely to suffer because you guessed wrong and failed to invest in the market's best stocks over the long term. (A better alternative to trying to find a needle in a haystack? To paraphrase Jack Bogle, the Vanguard founder and pioneer of index investing: Just buy the haystack.)

But to be fair, those who guessed right and bet big have accumulated truly transformational wealth.

Here are the 30 best stocks of the past 30 years, measured by wealth created between January 1990 and December 2020. A quick note on wealth creation: The stocks below didn't necessarily deliver the highest percent changes in share price. Rather, they created the most shareholder wealth, which is essentially the increase in market value adjusted for cash flows in and out of the business, such as dividends and share repurchases.

Think of it this way: A microcap penny stock that grows into a small-cap stock after delivering a 10,000% price increase rewards anyone lucky enough to have bet on that name – but it adds very little to equity investors' overall collective wealth. It doesn't drive the major indexes higher, fill the coffers of pension funds or enrich anyone beyond a comparatively small number of traders and investors involved in the stock.

However, these 30 top stocks – a fairly familiar collection of Dow stocks, longtime dividend growth stocks, and mostly well-known foreign firms – have generated massive wealth for a great many investors over the decades.

30. Nvidia

• Wealth created: $309.4 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 27.5%
• Country: U.S.

Nvidia (NVDA) only recently muscled its way into the best stocks of the past three decades. Indeed, although the maker of graphics processing units (GPUs) was founded in 1993, it didn't go public until 1999. And although NVDA was a longtime market beater over the next decade-plus – and by a wide margin at that – shares went truly ballistic only in the past few years.

So what changed?

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Back in the day, NVDA's primary market consisted of PC and console video game enthusiasts. Happily for Nvidia, it just so happens that the power and architecture required to drive video games is also perfect for applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), data servers, supercomputers, mobile chips and even cryptocurrency mining.

Few blue chips offer so much exposure to so many emerging endeavors and technologies, which explains the semiconductor stock's relatively recent meteoric rise – and the outsized wealth it created for shareholders.

29. Walt Disney

• Wealth created: $311.6 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 10.6%
• Country: U.S.

Walt Disney (DIS) isn't just one of the best stocks of the past 30 years; it's also one of the top stocks of all time.

Shareholders can thank Disney's adaptability to an ever-changing media landscape for their outsized returns. In the past 20 years alone, Disney has gobbled up Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm (of Star Wars fame) and much of 21st Century Fox. ESPN and the Disney Channel are just two of its many cable properties. The company's Disney Plus streaming platform debuted as a smashing success. And let's not forget to mention Disney's theme parks, which remain global attractions.

Disney – a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1991 – has had its pandemic ups and downs recently, but you can't quibble with the stock’s past performance. Shares in the sprawling entertainment conglomerate have delivered outstanding multi-decade returns.

28. Oracle

• Wealth created: $318.5 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 19.5%
• Country: U.S.

Founded in 1977 and publicly traded since 1986, Oracle (ORCL) got its start as a provider of database management software.

As much as any high-tech company of the era, it rode the late-1990s tech bubble to lofty heights ... and then crashed. A long, slow recovery followed – it took about 14 years for ORCL to regain its pre-crash peak – driven by a wide portfolio of software aimed at corporate customers.

But what really changed the company's fortunes was its often painful transition away from traditional software licensing to providing cloud-based services. It took a while for the market to buy into Oracle's transformation story, but once it did, the stock returned to its market-beating ways. 

Whether that's enough to drive further share-price outperformance remains to be seen.

27. LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton

• Wealth created: $327.3 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 12.4%
• Country: France

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMUY) is proof positive that luxury pays.

The French conglomerate's operations comprise a sort of who's who in luxe living: fashion house Louis Vuitton; prestige brands such as Givenchy and Marc Jacobs; Bulgari and TAG Heuer watches; Christian Dior perfumes; Tiffany & Co. jewelry; Moët et Chandon champagne ... the list goes on and on.

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The company was formed in 1987 via the merger of fashion house Louis Vuitton with Moët Hennessy. The combined company continued on its acquisitive path, and today claims a total of 75 prestige brands (or maisons, as the company calls them) organized into six business groups.

The pursuit of diversification through acquisitions – and the fact that luxury goods tend to hold up comparatively well during economic downturns – has allowed LVMH to create outsized wealth over the past three decades. It also doesn't hurt that luxury brands command fat profit margins.

Need proof? LVMH boasts a gross margin – or the difference between sales and cost of goods sold – of 64.5%. At the other end of the spectrum, discount retailer Walmart's (WMT) gross margin sits at 24.8%.

26. Coca-Cola

• Wealth created: $329.5 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 12.9%
• Country: U.S.

Tech stocks have been the market darlings of the past three decades, but that doesn't mean classic consumer brands have automatically gone out of fashion.

Witness Coca-Cola (KO), a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a dividend stalwart and one of Warren Buffett's all-time favorite stocks.

KO has maintained its edge over the decades by adding teas, coffee, sports and energy drinks, bottled waters, juices, and dairy and plant-based beverages to its traditional portfolio of fizzy refreshments. The company's ever-expanding lineup has allowed it to remain relevant as one of the world's most recognizable brands, even as consumers’ thirst for carbonated beverages has cooled.

Another key to KO's wealth-creation record is its generous and rising dividend. Coca-Cola has paid a quarterly dividend since 1920, and that cash payout has increased annually for 61 straight years.

25. Intel

• Wealth created: $340.2 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 16.0%
• Country: U.S.

Intel (INTC) has been one of the best stocks of the past 30 years, but it's hard to see the semiconductor maker extending that record for another 30 years.

Founded in 1968, INTC is an old-timer among technology companies, and the chipmaker's longevity has paid off handsomely for shareholders. Its early start positioned the company to run away with the market for the chips that serve as a computer’s brain. Intel had close to 100% market share in central processing units (CPUs) for personal computers at one point. It continues to claim around 80% today. Intel also remains the biggest player in making CPUs for back-end servers, which are very much in demand to power the rapid shift to cloud-based computing.

What's troubling is that Intel missed opportunities in mobile and numerous other applications. As a result, the Dow stock has been a market laggard for quite some time and has never recaptured its 2000 tech-bubble levels.

24. Altria

• Wealth created: $364.6 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 17.0%
• Country: U.S.

Altria (MO) is another stock whose greatest days of wealth creation are probably behind it.

But, hey, you never know.

The tobacco company doesn't have the greatest earnings growth prospects given ever-growing restrictions against its primary product. But it does generate a river of reliable free cash flow, which it returns to shareholders in the form of generous dividends. And MO's strategy of diversification and innovation has allowed it to deliver steady, if incremental, top-line growth.

Best known for its iconic Marlboro brand of cigarettes, Altria’s operating businesses continue to focus on tobacco: namely, cigarettes and heated tobacco products (Philip Morris USA), smokeless tobacco (U.S. Smokeless Tobacco) and cigars (John Middleton). Altria also owns St. Michelle Wine Estates, a major wine producer.

As a reminder: Altria changed its name from Philip Morris Cos. in 2003. Philip Morris International (PM) is a separate publicly traded company that was spun off from Altria in 2008 to sell cigarettes outside the U.S.

23. UnitedHealth Group

• Wealth created: $370.2 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 21.2%
• Country: U.S.

A string of acquisitions has helped make UnitedHealth Group (UNH) the largest health insurance company by market value and revenue – and by wide margins at that. It's also the most influential stock in the price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The company was incorporated under the UnitedHealthcare name in 1977 and went public in 1984. Since then, it hasn't looked back. Along the way, it beefed up its businesses by buying or merging with MetraHealth, HealthWise of America and AmeriChoice, among many others.

The company's Optum business is one of the largest pharmacy benefits managers in the U.S. and has been a main driver of UNH's share-price outperformance over the past few years. Indeed, UNH stock has beaten the broader market by substantial margins over the past five-, 10- and 15-year periods.

And Wall Street expects more good times ahead. In fact, UnitedHealth Group routinely ranks among analysts' favorite blue-chip stocks to buy.

22. Alibaba

• Wealth created: $374.1 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 17.2%
• Country: China

Although it has cooled off over the past few years, China's economy experienced a kind of explosive expansion over the last three decades that has rarely been seen on the world historical stage. The Middle Kingdom's e-commerce growth has been equally stunning.

So it should come as no surprise that Alibaba (BABA) makes an appearance on this list.

The e-commerce giant is often called the Amazon.com (AMZN) of China, and although there are important differences between the two, they do share a number of enviable traits. Alibaba – just like Amazon – has never shied away from investing heavily in itself to both build out its existing businesses and enter new ones. As a result, BABA also finds itself spreading its tentacles far beyond its core e-commerce business into cloud computing, digital payments and much, much more.

Chinese policymakers are cracking down on the country's tech sector, and that has caused considerable pain for BABA shareholders since late 2020. Nevertheless, the company remains a top name in total wealth creation.

21. Mastercard

• Wealth created: $374.9 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 33.0%
• Country: U.S.

Payments processors are hot properties these days. And analysts, hedge funds, billionaires and even Warren Buffett single out Mastercard (MA) in particular as one of their favorite stocks to buy.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns 4.6 million shares in Mastercard – a position initiated by lieutenant portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. Buffett has said he wishes he had pulled the trigger sooner, but if MA's future performance is anything like its past, the Oracle of Omaha will stop kicking himself soon enough.

Analysts credit MA's long-term outperformance to its "powerful brand, vast global acceptance network and strong business model." Substantial barriers to entry, thanks to Mastercard's massive scale, global reach, security and data management skills, information intelligence and trust, have also served it well.

Bulls say the relentless global adoption of digital transactions should keep Mastercard's record for wealth creation on track for the foreseeable future.

20. Roche

• Wealth created: $377.3 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 14.1%
• Country: Switzerland

Swiss healthcare giant Roche (RHHBY) is the world's largest pharmaceutical company by market value, and the second-largest by trailing 12-month revenue. The holding company also has a large diagnostics business, but it's the pharma division – and its leadership in cancer treatments – that gets the most attention from global investors.

A series of acquisitions and partnerships have been critical to driving the company's outsized wealth creation over the past three decades. The company's holdings and investments are vast, and include U.S. biotechnology company Genentech, Hoffmann-La Roche France, Ventana Medical Systems and Disetronic Holding AG.

A strategy of acquisitions, strategic alliances and investments has helped keep Roche's pipeline full of blockbuster drugs. The firm counts oncology treatments Avastin, Perjeta and Herceptin among its bestsellers.

Roche also stands out – and does well by its shareholders – as a dividend machine. Indeed, the company is a European Dividend Aristocrat, having maintained or increased its dividend annually for more than three decades.

19. Visa

• Wealth created: $385.0 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 23.8%
• Country: U.S.

Visa (V) wasn’t even known as Visa when the company got its start in 1958 after Bank of America (BAC) launched its BankAmericard credit card program. But as the card gained popularity abroad, the name was changed in 1976 to Visa because it was easier to pronounce.

Today, Visa operates the world's largest payments network. Despite its short life as a publicly traded company and the ill timing of its IPO – Visa went public in March 2008 during the global financial crisis – the stock has already created $385.0 billion in wealth for shareholders. Heck, including dividends, Visa's stock has returned 861% over the past 10 years. That beats the S&P 500's total return by nearly 490 percentage points.

And analysts expect more of the same going forward, thanks to the ongoing revolution in digital transactions. Visa, like rival Mastercard, is a favorite name with analysts, hedge funds and billionaires, including Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway owns more than 9.5 million shares in the payments processor.

18. Kweichow Moutai

• Wealth created: $395.9 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 39.0%
• Country: China

China's growth over the past three decades into the world's second-largest economy has made fortunes across a range of industries. And that definitely extends to booze. As much as has been made about the Middle Kingdom's unbalanced economy – that it depends too much on investment and too little on consumption – don't tell that to shareholders in Kweichow Moutai (SHSE:600519).

The company, which trades only on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is the world's largest beverage company, with a market value of roughly U.S. $345 billion. Diageo (DEO) is a distant second with less than half its Chinese counterpart's market cap.

In addition to being the largest beverage company in the world, Kweichow Moutai is also China's most valuable non-technology company.

Prodigious consumption of Kweichow Moutai's spirits and wines helped create nearly $400 billion in wealth over the past three decades – albeit with much of that wealth piling up rather recently. The pandemic, you see, was particularly kind to the company. Lockdowns led to a surge in demand for spirits, which in turn sent shares soaring nearly 70% in 2020.

17. Home Depot

• Wealth created: $399.8 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 16.6%
• Country: U.S.

Home Depot (HD), the nation's largest home improvement retailer, has been a publicly traded company since 1981. It was included in the S&P 500 index in 1988 and added to the Dow in 1999.

As great a wealth creator as HD has been, the bulk of its outperformance has come in only the past decade or so. The collapse of the housing market that precipitated the Great Recession of the late 2000s was a painful period for Home Depot.

Its resurgence on the back of low mortgage rates – coupled with a shortage of new housing, which prompted homeowners to stay put and renovate, and, more recently, the pandemic – is what truly made investors' fortunes. Including dividends, shares in Home Depot rose about 1,240% over the past decade, according to data from YCharts. The S&P 500 generated a total return of 373% over the same period.

Wall Street typically ranks HD as one of its favorite Dow stocks, with analysts expecting even more outperformance in the years ahead.

16. JPMorgan Chase

• Wealth created: $414.1 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 9.8%
• Country: U.S.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) traces its roots all the way back to 1799, when The Manhattan Company was chartered to supply clean water to New York City.

It has come a long way since.

Today’s JPMorgan Chase is a sprawling multinational financial powerhouse that ranks as the nation's largest bank by assets. Thanks to decades of mergers and acquisitions, the bank boasts more than 1,200 predecessor institutions, including Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank One, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Chemical Bank and Bear Stearns, just to name a few.

Then known as J.P. Morgan & Co., the stock was added to the Dow in 1991 to reflect not only its place of prominence in the financial industry, but its weight in the American business landscape.

The company name changed to JPMorgan Chase in 2000 after J.P. Morgan & Co. merged with Chase Manhattan. Acquisitions, a well-regarded management team and strength across a wide range of financial businesses has allowed JPM to generate more than $414 billion in wealth for shareholders over the past three decades.

15. Exxon Mobil

• Wealth created: $437.1 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 10.7%
• Country: U.S.

The future looks to be very different from the recent past for Exxon Mobil (XOM). After all, the outlook for fossil fuels and its relevance to the U.S. economy has changed radically since 1990.

Exxon Mobil's removal from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2020 only underscored this new reality.

Nevertheless, the integrated energy giant sure had a heck of a run. Over the past 30 years, amid cycles of oil booms and oil busts, XOM generated more than $437 billion in wealth. Shareholders can thank the company's policy of regular dividend increases for much of that windfall. Exxon Mobil's dividend payments have grown at an average annual rate of 6.1% over the last 38 years.

Here's how that's relevant: from 1990 to 2020, XOM stock gained 230% on a price basis alone. Add in the dividends, however, and XOM's total return came to 808%.

XOM might not repeat as a top stock of the next 30 years, but it could still be a solid buy-and-hold pick if the dividend hikes keep coming.

14. Procter & Gamble

• Wealth created: $451.1 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 13.1%
• Country: U.S.

Procter & Gamble (PG) is another consumer products stock that created outsized wealth for shareholders over the past three decades – even as tech stocks got all the glory.

Partly that's due to the Dow component's defensive characteristics. Demand for products such as Charmin toilet paper, Crest toothpaste, Tide laundry detergent, Pampers diapers and Gillette razors tends to remain stable in both good times and bad. Well more than 60 consecutive years of annual dividend hikes – PG is a member of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats – also helped smooth out the ups and downs of the business cycle.

And make no mistake about how important those rising payouts have been to shareholders' returns. From 1990 to 2020, PG rose 1,500% on a price basis. Include dividends, however, and PG's total return balloons to 3,290%. The S&P 500's total return came to 1,950% over the same period.

13. Nestlé

• Wealth created: $478.1 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 13.2%
• Country: Switzerland

Speaking of consumer products stocks, none has created more wealth over the past three decades than Switzerland's Nestlé (NSRGY).

It's also no coincidence that the world's largest food company by revenue is a dividend stalwart. This European Dividend Aristocrat has a quarter-century of stable or rising payouts to its name.

A period of intense international growth from 1990 to 2011 made the sprawling packaged food conglomerate what it is today. Its brands are legion, and approximately 30 of them boast annual sales of at least $1 billion. The company's biggest hitters include Nespresso, Nescafé, Kit Kat, Smarties, Nesquik, Stouffer's, Vittel and Maggi.

Consumer staples stocks like Nestlé are defensive in nature and tend to lag in up markets. But they also tend to hold up better when the cycle turns. Nestlé serves as proof that when held patiently over several market cycles, defensive dividend payers can create more than their fair share of wealth over the long haul.

12. Berkshire Hathaway

• Wealth created: $504.1 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 11.7%
• Country: U.S.

It should come as no surprise that the greatest value investor of all time would be behind one of the best stocks of the past 30 years.

Warren Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), a struggling textile manufacturer, in the early 1960s. It quickly became clear that U.S. textile manufacturing was in decline, and so Buffett decided to shift gears. By the late 1960s, Buffett had already diversified into banking, insurance and newspaper publishing.

He never looked back.

Berkshire is now a holding company comprising dozens of diverse businesses, selling everything from underwear (Fruit of the Loom) to insurance policies (Geico). Key acquisitions since 1990 include the aforementioned Geico, BNSF Railway, Lubrizol, Precision Castparts and General Re.

Berkshire also has been a vehicle for Buffett to invest in stocks, which he has done shrewdly and successfully. Just have a look at Apple (AAPL). Buffett's single biggest investment, at 39% of Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio, makes a starring appearance on our list below.

11. Taiwan Semiconductor

• Wealth created: $525.5 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 18.3%
• Country: Taiwan

The digital revolution is a running theme when it comes to the best stocks of the past three decades, and so it follows almost axiomatically that Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) should make the list.

The second-largest semiconductor manufacturer by market value (after Nvidia) and revenue (after Intel), TSM was founded in 1987. A decade later, the world's original dedicated semiconductor foundry became the first Taiwanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It has since grown into perhaps the single-most important source of chips in the world. Indeed, TSM claims a total global foundry market share of 54%.

Shareholders can credit the company's outsized wealth creation to a remarkable track record of long-term growth on both its top and bottom lines. Taiwan Semiconductor boasts a compound annual revenue growth rate (CAGR) of 17.2% since 1994. It's earnings CAGR stands at 16.7% over the same span.

TSM also is proud to note that it has paid a dividend since 2004 – one which it has never reduced.

10. Johnson & Johnson

• Wealth created: $535.3 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 13.9%
• Country: U.S.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) cracks the top 10 best stocks of the past 30 years as a three-headed giant.

Alas, the corporate structure that served investors so well is coming to an end.

JNJ split off its consumer health business – the one that makes Tylenol, Listerine and Band Aid – from its pharmaceuticals and medical devices divisions. The breakup is meant to free the faster-growth, higher-margin parts of J&J from the drag of its more mature, less profitable operations.

It remains to be seen how that works out, but the old formula of being a sprawling, defensive dividend grower – this Dividend Aristocrat has lifted its payout annually for  60 years – was indisputably a successful one.

Thanks in no small part to dividends, Johnson & Johnson’s total return comes to 4,220% from 1990 to 2020, per YCharts, versus 1,950% for the S&P 500. If you were to exclude dividends from this Dow stock’s performance, JNJ would have gained just 2,020% over those same 30 years.

9. Samsung Electronics

• Wealth created: $540.6 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 20.2%
• Country: South Korea

Samsung Electronics (KRX:005930) has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of globalization over the past 30 years.

The sprawling South Korean technology and industrial conglomerate is engaged in a vast swath of activities. It manufactures consumer electronics, semiconductors, displays, storage systems and sundry other computer parts. The company is also a maker of major household appliances. And it designs software, provides logistics, financing, marketing and consulting services. Samsung is also active in artificial intelligence and cloud-based services.

As much as Samsung has emerged as a major supplier to the tech sector's supply chain, consumers know it best for its ubiquitous smartphones, televisions and home theater systems. Samsung washers, dryers and refrigerators are likewise major brand ambassadors helping to drive top-line growth.

But more than any other endeavor, shareholders can credit Samsung's success in mobile devices for cracking this list of the best stocks of the past three decades. Indeed, Samsung handsets are the perennial leader in global market share.

8. Meta Platforms

• Wealth created: $553.7 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 30.4%
• Country: U.S.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms (FB) got off to a rocky start when it went public under the Facebook name in May 2012 at $38 a share. Technical glitches marred the initial public offering, and the stock traded below the IPO price for more than a year.

Since then, however, it has been nothing but blue skies – and then some.

Meta' share price has gained roughly 800% in its relatively short life, creating more than $553 billion in wealth. The S&P 500 is up about 250% on a price basis over the same span.

Credit the relentless growth of digital advertising, and Meta's once duopoly with Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) in that industry. (Amazon.com's emergent ad business has since turned it into a tri-opoly.) As the world’s most popular social media network – with roughly 2.9 billion global monthly active users – advertisers are happy to pay Meta to reach all those eyeballs.

Indeed, no company on this list has created as much wealth as FB has in such a short period of time.

7. Walmart

• Wealth created: $568.7 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 13.5%
• Country: U.S.

It stands to reason that the world's largest retailer happens to have one of the best-performing stocks over the long haul.

From humble beginnings as a single discount store, Walmart (WMT) now operates approximately 10,500 retail locations under 48 nameplates in 24 countries, and it employs 2.2 million workers. WMT also happens to be the world's largest company by revenue.

Analysts project the company's top line to surpass $600 billion before 2025. The evolution of Amazon, in particular, as a competitor prompted Walmart to invest heavily in its e-commerce business, and the returns from those efforts have been nothing short of astonishing. Walmart is now the second largest e-commerce retailer in the U.S. behind Amazon – albeit a distant second.

A component of the Dow since 1997, Walmart has increased its dividend every year since 1974, and those dividends have really added up. From 1990 through 2020, Walmart stock gained 2,470% on a price basis alone. Include dividends, however, and WMT's total return comes to 3,890%. Both figures easily top the broader market.

6. Tesla

• Wealth created: $639.3 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 65.4%
• Country: U.S.

Tesla's (TSLA) annualized return towers over every other name on this list. But as much wealth as the electric vehicle maker has created in its relatively short life, it has done so with gut-wrenching volatility.

You can chalk up TSLA's astounding wealth creation and roller-coaster price performance to its mercurial CEO Elon Musk. The market isn't just enthralled with the superiority of Tesla's vehicles and the promise of the EV industry as a whole. It also loves Musk. (Even if he sometimes tweets things that make TSLA stock go nuts.)

Similar to the late Steve Jobs at Apple, Musk's showmanship, close identification with the company and his evident genius is a major selling point.

Known as Tesla Motors when it went public in 2010, the company adopted its current moniker in 2017 to reflect an expansion into lithium ion batteries and solar energy.

Although TSLA has had some stumbles over the years – production snafus, delivery shortfalls – the hype and promise of the Musk-backed firm has led the market essentially to abandon normal valuation metrics. Tesla has created an astonishing level of wealth so far, and investors seemingly just price shares for more of the same.

5. Tencent

• Wealth created: $691.7 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 48.1%
• Country: China

Tencent (TCEHY), the Chinese multinational technology conglomerate, has delivered an annualized dollar-weighted return of more than 48% over the past three decades. Investors can thank the company's sprawling operations in the world's largest consumer market for those eye-popping results.

Founded in 1998, Tencent is the world's largest vendor of video games, and has massive footprints in social media, music, e-commerce, payments systems, venture capital and much, much more. A small sample of the firm's hit products include instant-messaging platform Tencent QQ, multiplayer online battle arena game Honor of Kings, and QQ Music, a streaming music service.

With a current market value in excess of U.S. $600 billion, Tencent is China’s most valuable company and a top-10 most valuable stock in the world.

Shares in Tencent, which trade over the counter in the U.S. as American depositary receipt (ADRs), have soared 1,530% on a price basis over the past 10 years. The S&P 500 gained about 290% over the same span.

4. Alphabet

• Wealth created: $979.1 billion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 19.3%
• Country: U.S.

Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) has certainly made the most of its relatively short time as a publicly traded company.

Shares of what was then known as Google – the corporate name was changed to Alphabet in 2015 – were initially offered to the public less than 20 years ago. And by the end of the first trading day in 2004, the company was worth $27 billion. Today, Alphabet has a market value of about $1.2 trillion.

The Google search engine is Alphabet's most important business, but not its only one, thus the corporate name change. Alphabet is also home to self-driving car startup Waymo; Nest Labs, a developer of gadgets for the Internet of Things; and X, which describes itself as a "moonshot factory" trying to invent technologies that will make the world a "radically better place."

The aforementioned digital-ad duopoly with Facebook still drives the bulk of GOOGL's business, which critics say makes Alphabet a "one-trick pony." But after creating nearly $980 billion in wealth in less than two decades, even bears have to concede it has been one heck of a trick.

3. Amazon.com

• Wealth created: $1.57 trillion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 31.1%
• Country: U.S.

Amazon.com (AMZN), which began life as a modest website for book buyers, went public in 1997 and has since created nearly $1.6 trillion in value for shareholders. The stock’s 31.1% annualized return is among the highest on this list. The performance is all the more remarkable considering most of the best stocks of all time goose their returns by paying out generous dividends for decades.

Amazon's emergence as the nation’s largest e-commerce company is only part of the story behind its extraordinary wealth creation. The firm is a giant in the fast-growing industry of cloud-based services, and a leader in streaming media, content creation and even digital advertising.

Amazon continues to make huge strides in the analog retail world too. For example, it owns the Whole Foods grocery store chain and built its own freight and logistics operations. The latter operations comprise a vast assemblage of distribution centers, as well as fleets of commercial aircraft and trucks.

With its relentless focus on investment and expansion, analysts expect Amazon to continue to deliver outsized growth for the foreseeable future.

2. Microsoft

• Wealth created: $1.91 trillion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 19.2%
• Country: U.S.

Not long ago, Microsoft's (MSFT) glory days looked to be behind it as sales of desktop PCs slipped into a seemingly irreversible decline amid the consumer shift to mobile technology. Although the dot-com days of the 1990s minted many a "Microsoft millionaire," the aftermath of the tech bust led MSFT stock to trade mostly sideways for a decade.

But the past 15 years have been nothing short of a renaissance for the software giant.

Microsoft's focus on enterprise customers and – most importantly – its shift to selling cloud-based services such as Azure and Office 365 have been an astounding success. Today, Microsoft is a dominant player in cloud computing, and the stock price shows it. Shares in Microsoft, which joined the Dow in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom, generated a total return of 57,730% from 1990 to 2020. The S&P 500's total return comes to a mere 1,950% over the same span.

Along the way, Microsoft created $1.91 trillion in wealth for shareholders, good for an annualized return of more than 19%.

1. Apple

• Wealth created: $2.67 trillion
• Annualized dollar weighted return: 23.5%
• Country: U.S.

To say that Apple (AAPL) had a better time of it than Microsoft in the decade following the bursting of the tech bubble is quite an understatement.

True, AAPL stock traded sideways for the first few years of the 21st century, but an explosion of innovation soon put an end to that. Under the visionary leadership of the late Steve Jobs, Apple essentially reinvented itself for the mobile age, launching revolutionary gadgets such as the iPod, MacBook and iPad.

But what really set Apple on its course to becoming the world's largest publicly traded company – and the greatest wealth creator of the past 30 years – was the 2007 debut of the iPhone.

Today, Apple isn't just a purveyor of gadgets; it sells an entire ecosystem of personal consumer electronics and related services. And it's a sticky ecosystem, at that. No less an eminence than Warren Buffett has called the iPhone maker Berkshire Hathaway's "third business," noting Apple fans' fantastic brand loyalty as one reason for being all-in on the stock. (Apple accounts for almost 40% of the value of Berkshire's equity portfolio.)

The iconic tech firm was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2015, replacing AT&T (T).