The “Magnificent Seven” tech companies (MAGS)—Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), Tesla (TSLA), and Nvidia (NVDA)—are no longer trading as a unified group, with investors now needing to evaluate each stock on its individual merits, according to Tony Wang, T. Rowe Price portfolio manager.
Wang described the current AI landscape as a “space race” that is “going to multiple moons,” with companies like Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Nvidia (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA) all pursuing distinct strategies and commanding increasingly different valuations.
In an interview with CNBC, Wang explained the contrasting market reactions to AI spending from Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT). While Meta surged on heavy AI investment plans, Microsoft declined on similar announcements.
“The market knew its cost but didn’t know its revenue,” Wang said of Meta’s (META) strong quarter, noting that when the company guided revenue growth from the low 20s to over 30%, “you can kind of spend whatever you want, because people believe that you’re getting a lot of ROI on it.”
Wang highlighted the diverse strengths across the tech landscape, pointing to Apple’s (AAPL) “great ecosystem on personal computing,” Meta’s (META) ability to roll out AI across its digital properties, and Tesla’s (TSLA) progress in full self-driving technology.
Meanwhile, Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO) continue building out the AI infrastructure that underpins the entire sector’s growth.
The portfolio manager expressed particular excitement about agentic AI, citing tools like Claude as evidence of rapid advancement. “These are really big step changes that we’re seeing by the month,” Wang said, adding that this evolution ensures the “need for compute is going to continue to be there” as the technology matures.
Wang sees large-cap companies as best positioned early in the tech cycle due to their “scale to develop AI and then roll AI across their platforms.”
As economic bottlenecks shift, he noted that the most successful investments will be in areas “capturing more value over time,” creating a broadening effect as the market matures.
Looking ahead, Wang offered an optimistic view on AI’s potential, noting that agentic AI “never needs to sleep, is on 24/7,” and can provide immediate, informed responses to customers.
His ultimate takeaway for investors: there has “never been a better time to be a tech investor.”