The best stocks of the last decade, led by Nvidia, did not win on luck: each rode a big trend such as AI, cloud infrastructure, energy or aging buildings that was visible years before the price jump. Everyone wants to know which stocks make the most money, but the video argues the real secret is why they do well. Winners like Nvidia, Celsius and Tesla grew because they were part of big trends shaping the world.
It breaks down 15 of the best-performing stocks of the past 10 years and what each teaches. It also notes that 2024 was a record-breaking year for the market because of AI. This is a review of the video’s examples, not investment advice, and prices are those quoted in the video.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The 15 stocks at a glance
- Quanta Services (PWR) (1:02)
- Axon (AXON) (2:54)
- Super Micro Computer (SMCI) (4:02)
- Comfort Systems USA (FIX) (5:32)
- Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) (7:00)
- NexGen Energy (NXE) (8:13)
- Builders FirstSource (BLDR) (9:53)
- Broadcom (AVGO) (10:58)
- Arista Networks (ANET) (11:56)
- Tesla (TSLA) (13:15)
- Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT) (14:50)
- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) (16:16)
- Celsius Holdings (CELH) (17:17)
- Applied Digital (APLD) (18:06)
- NVIDIA (NVDA) (19:13)
1. Quanta Services (PWR)
Quanta builds power grids, 5G networks and renewable energy systems, which the video calls the backbone of modern infrastructure. In 2015 power grids were aging and failing, telecom networks were slowing under demand, 5G was about to roll out and billions were heading into renewables.
A lot of the hype around 5G was negative, but the advice is to follow the money, not the hype. It suggests three questions: what are governments worried about, what is rising, and what will need to get better to handle capacity? Today’s examples include a falling birth rate threatening the workforce, decades-old roads, bridges and water systems, AI’s demand for data storage and fragile supply chains.
2. Axon (AXON)
Axon began as TASER International in 1993 and made one thing: tasers. Founder Rick Smith lost two friends to a road rage incident and set out to build a non-lethal form of self-defense. Safety became a theme that could spread across many products.
Axon expanded into body cameras, cloud-based evidence storage and AI-powered policing tools. By 2015, protests and calls for police transparency were pushing departments to adopt body cameras, and Axon was one of the only companies building them at scale. You would have paid about $26 in 2016, and today it is worth more than $700.
The question to ask is what people are demanding right now.
3. Super Micro Computer (SMCI)
Super Micro designs and makes high-performance servers, storage and networking systems. Founder Charles Liang, an electrical engineer, started it in 1993 wanting energy-efficient servers, and he saw that data centers would be in demand. Ten years ago the stock hovered around $3, and it now sits above $55.
How could an ordinary investor in 2015 have known? You never really know the outcome, but you can look where predictions are made. Publications were pointing to fast cloud growth, and businesses were being pushed by the coming Paris Climate Agreement to be greener. Put the two together, look for a long-standing company covering both, and you have a potential big winner in ten years. Patience is key.
4. Comfort Systems USA (FIX)
Comfort Systems does not sound like the next big thing and it did not ten years ago. Its stock still went from $17 to $390. The business is heating, ventilation and air conditioning: installing, upgrading and maintaining systems in large buildings.
Seventy percent of US offices are over 20 years old, running outdated systems that waste millions in energy. New energy standards and the pandemic added demand for better filtration and ventilation in offices, hospitals and schools. Commercial real estate reports had been flagging aging infrastructure before that. Companies only spend this money when it is essential, and anything essential with billions pouring in will see rising demand.
5. Fair Isaac Corp (FICO)
Fair Isaac built the FICO score, the number that decides who gets a loan. Lenders, insurers and even landlords use it to judge risk. The stock sat around $80 in 2015, and by 2023 it had passed $800. Today it is at $1,790.
Banks were tightening credit after the 2008 crash and moving to data-driven lending. Fintech startups tried loans without FICO scores, using transaction data, and some thought that would disrupt traditional credit models. It did not. Banks doubled down on FICO, and the company expanded into AI-driven fraud detection, custom risk models and predictive analytics.
6. NexGen Energy (NXE)
NexGen is a uranium exploration and development company. It does not mine yet, but it holds one of the world’s largest high-grade uranium deposits. Nuclear got little attention in 2015: oil was cheap, renewables were expanding and nuclear looked expensive and risky.
Meanwhile governments were waking up to the limits of solar and wind, which cannot give constant, reliable power, and fossil fuels were not a long-term answer. As countries committed to nuclear expansion and uranium supply tightened, prices rose. The stock went from about $0.30 in 2015 to $4 in 2023 and around $6 now, almost 2,000% in ten years.
7. Builders FirstSource (BLDR)
Builders FirstSource is the largest US supplier of building materials: lumber, insulation, roofing and windows. The stock was around $11 in 2015, and it now trades around $140, up over 1,000%.
Low interest rates, a housing shortage and supply chain disruptions changed the picture. Builders needed a faster, cheaper way to meet demand, so instead of assembling everything on site they bought prefabricated walls, flooring and roof trusses. When millions of new homes were needed and labour shortages slowed construction, the company was positioned to step in.
8. Broadcom (AVGO)
Broadcom makes the semiconductors that power phones, Wi-Fi networks and data centers. If your device connects to the internet, there is a good chance Broadcom technology is inside. More devices mean more data and a bigger need for speed, across streaming, gaming and cloud computing.
Shares rose about 2,100% in ten years, from $10 to around $220. Then AI came: training large models meant huge demand for data center chips, and Broadcom shifted toward custom AI accelerators and high-performance networking chips.
9. Arista Networks (ANET)
Arista builds the high-speed connections that cloud services, AI and data centers rely on. Amazon, Google and Microsoft run huge data centers that need ultra-fast networking to move information instantly. Shares were around $4 and now sit near $111, a gain of more than 2,600%.
By the mid-2010s data traffic was surging and legacy networking equipment was not built for that scale. Arista focused on low-latency, high-speed networking so companies could handle large workloads without bottlenecks. Tech giants were competing to dominate the cloud, and Arista became a standard for the modern internet.
It was not luck. It was demand.
10. Tesla (TSLA)
Tesla is a tech and energy company disguised as a car company. As tech, it updates cars through software, develops self-driving technology and designs its own chips. As energy, it builds giant batteries for solar and wind power, home batteries that cut electricity costs and charging stations.
A decade ago electric cars were expensive, gas was cheap and most carmakers did not take electric seriously. Tesla ignored them, and the stock rose more than 2,000%, from $14 to $350. Rivals are catching up, investors have raised doubts, and the electric vehicle industry is sending mixed signals. First movers gain loyalty but face competition that can build on their foundation, so the video says who knows where this one goes.
11. Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT)
The company is working on machines that solve problems thousands of times faster than today’s best supercomputers. In 2015 quantum computing was mostly theoretical and investors were not paying attention, but AI, cybersecurity and complex simulations were demanding more power than traditional computers could provide.
Instead of ones and zeros, quantum computers use quantum bits, which lets them process multiple possibilities at once. Shares were under a dollar in 2015 and is around $7, still up more than 2,000%. It is in the red now because of competition from Google and IBM, which are investing billions, but the video says a comeback could be on the horizon.
12. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Ten years ago AMD looked like an underdog. Intel dominated CPUs, NVIDIA owned high-end graphics and AMD was known for budget hardware. It pivoted and built Ryzen processors, which are faster, cheaper and more efficient, and within a few years gamers, creators and businesses left Intel in droves.
When the data boom came and high-performance chips were needed, AMD took market share from Intel. Deals with Microsoft and Sony for the PlayStation and Xbox helped drive a stock rise of more than 5,000% in ten years.
13. Celsius Holdings (CELH)
Celsius is the biggest deviation on the list: everything else is tech-related, and this is an energy drink. Red Bull and Monster dominated, but people wanted the boost without the health downsides, and Celsius positioned itself as the healthy alternative. The fitness boom and influencers posting it in workout routines gave it free advertising.
It has been a rollercoaster. Shares were around 30 cents in 2015, jumped past $90 in 2024 and now hover near $20, still a huge gain over ten years despite a hit in the last year.
14. Applied Digital (APLD)
Every tech revolution needs infrastructure. The internet needed data centers, cloud computing needed server farms, and AI needs something bigger: high-performance computing facilities built for massive workloads.
Applied Digital builds and operates specialized data centers that power AI, machine learning and blockchain processing. AI models generate large amounts of heat that standard data centers were not designed to manage, so the company develops custom, high-efficiency facilities. Shares have also had a rollercoaster ride, with big jumps over ten years, and analysts predict a surge as quantum computing nears reality.
15. NVIDIA (NVDA)
The biggest name on the list changed thousands of lives. All the company did at first was create graphics processing units for gaming, which needs fast, realistic visuals and real-time play. Deep learning and AI models need far more power than average CPUs, and having proved itself in gaming, NVIDIA turned out to be perfect for AI training.
By 2023 it dominated AI infrastructure, and by 2024 demand hit record levels. From 50 cents in 2015 it went to $139. The video calls NVIDIA the big daddy of investments of the last decade, and ends by asking where things go next.
Follow the trend, then be patient
The pattern across all 15 is that the signals were public years early: aging grids, police transparency, cloud growth, uranium supply and AI demand. The video’s advice is to ask what governments worry about, what is rising and what people demand, then pick durable companies and wait.
It promises a follow-up on predictions for the next decade.
FAQ
Which stock performed best over the last 10 years?
In this video it is NVIDIA, which rose from about 50 cents in 2015 to $139, because its gaming chips turned out to be ideal for AI training.
How can you spot a winning stock early?
The video suggests following the money rather than the hype, and asking what governments are worried about, what is rising and what will need to improve to handle future capacity.
Why did Comfort Systems USA rise so much?
Its stock went from $17 to $390 because 70% of US offices are over 20 years old, and new energy standards and the pandemic created demand for better heating, ventilation and filtration.
Why did Broadcom and Arista Networks surge?
Both supply the chips and high-speed networking that data centers, cloud services and AI need, so demand grew as data traffic and AI training exploded.
What does the video say about investing patience?
In the Super Micro example it says that finding a long-standing company covering two rising trends can pay off in ten years, and that patience is key.
Keep reading
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