New Delhi, Feb. 19 -- The Magnificent Seven dominate the artificial intelligence narrative because they sit at the most visible points of the ecosystem. Nvidia designs the chips, Microsoft and Amazon provide cloud platforms, Alphabet trains large-scale models, and Meta and Tesla integrate AI into consumer-facing products. Their size and visibility made them the default proxy for AI exposure.

But in 2024 and 2025, the US stock market performance revealed a more selective truth.

While the Magnificent Seven absorbed attention across the US stock market news, a meaningful share of AI-linked investor gains came from companies positioned closer to where AI spending turned into orders, contracts, and recurring revenue. These were not the firms...