Whereas the Biden presidency wasn’t clean crusing for the inventory market (the S&P 500 fell practically 20% in 2022), the fairness market beneath the forty sixth president finally got here out forward: the S&P 500 returned greater than 65% between Jan. 20, 2021, and Jan. 20, 2025.
In the beginning of the Biden presidency, the inventory market yielded sturdy returns as rates of interest remained low and the federal authorities offered financial stimulus to help Individuals. But in 2022, the market plunged when the Federal Reserve started rapidly mountain climbing charges to tamp down on excessive inflation. When ChatGPT was launched in late 2022, enthusiasm for AI finally took over, boosting expertise shares.
The Dow Jones, Nasdaq Composite, and S&P 500 elevated considerably beneath Biden.
YCharts
We appeared on the shares that carried out the perfect (trace: most of them have been A.I.-related) throughout Biden’s presidency based mostly on whole return from Jan. 20, 2021, to Jan. 20, 2025. We analyzed solely shares included in not less than one main index: the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, or Dow Jones Industrial Common.
1. NVIDIA
Whole return: ~930%
NVIDIA (NVDA) inventory jumped greater than 900% in Biden’s time period, rising from $13.71 to greater than $137.
This Silicon Valley-based firm first launched its signature product, graphics processing items (GPUs), in 1999, which have been used to create pc graphics.
A long time later, these chips can be utilized to energy synthetic intelligence fashions like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, first launched in 2022. In line with the Wall Avenue Journal, NVIDIA accounted for greater than 80% of AI chip gross sales as of February 2024.
2. Tremendous Micro Pc
Whole return: ~815%
Between 2021 and 2025, Tremendous Micro Pc (SMCI) rose greater than 800%, notching an all-time excessive above $110 in March 2024, the identical month the inventory was added to the S&P 500 for the primary time.
Like NVIDIA, Tremendous Micro Pc benefited from investor enthusiasm for A.I.: the Silicon Valley firm produces servers which are utilized in information facilities that energy generative A.I.
Nonetheless, Tremendous Micro Pc has confronted controversy. In 2024, quick vendor Hindenburg Analysis launched a report claiming that the corporate had made accounting errors, which impressed a Justice Division probe into the matter, in accordance with the Wall Avenue Journal.
Only a few years earlier, in 2020, the corporate had settled with the Securities and Alternate Fee after an investigation into its accounting practices.
3. Vistra
Whole return: ~780%
Vistra (VST) jumped from simply over $20 initially of 2021 to greater than $150 simply 4 years later, a greater than 750% enhance. Like NVIDIA and Tremendous Micro Pc, the inventory’s beautiful ascent could be chalked up, partly, to investor pleasure about AI.
This Texas-based energy firm offers pure gasoline, photo voltaic, and most significantly, nuclear energy. Nuclear energy has turn out to be more and more fashionable with tech corporations as a result of immense quantities of electrical energy required to energy the info facilities that AI methods depend on.
In consequence, tech corporations, corresponding to Microsoft, are turning in direction of nuclear energy as a extra environmentally pleasant choice (although nuclear energy nonetheless produces radioactive waste) in comparison with vegetation that burn fossil fuels.
4. Targa Sources
Whole return: ~683%
Targa Sources (TRGP) inventory rose greater than 650% between 2021 and 2025, growing from $28.77 to greater than $215. Included within the S&P 500, Targa Sources is a midstream pure gasoline firm working in two segments: gathering and processing, and logistics and transportation.n.
Like Vistra, Targa Sources is an influence firm that is been buoyed by curiosity in AI. Whereas tech corporations have expressed curiosity in various vitality choices to energy information facilities, they’re prone to be reliant on pure gasoline within the meantime. A 2024 Goldman Sachs report predicts that by way of 2030, 60% of energy for U.S. information facilities might be generated by pure gasoline.
5. Technique
Whole return: ~620%
Technique, previously often called MicroStrategy (MSTR), rose greater than 600% through the Biden presidency, growing from a value of $57.70 to $396.50. The Virginia-based firm was based as a software program agency in 1989 however is now often called a bitcoin proxy due to the massive bitcoin holdings it purchases, beginning in 2020.
The corporate has turn out to be one of many largest company holders of bitcoin and buys cryptocurrency with leverage, or borrowed cash. The corporate does this, partly, by issuing a kind of debt often called convertible notes and issuing widespread and most well-liked inventory.
As a result of Technique is a ‘Bitcoin Treasury Firm’, the inventory value fluctuates with adjustments within the value of Bitcoin. The worth of bitcoin skyrocketed shortly after the 2024 Presidential election in November when President Trump received and buyers anticipated a crypto-friendly administration. Between November 4 and November 20, 2024, Technique’s inventory rose greater than 100%.
The Backside Line
Regardless of market turbulence early in President Biden’s time period, shares tied to AI, vitality infrastructure, and cryptocurrency posted large positive aspects. Corporations like NVIDIA and Tremendous Micro Pc soared on the again of AI demand, whereas others, corresponding to Vistra and Targa Sources, benefited from rising energy wants. Technique, a guess on bitcoin, surged with crypto optimism.
These high performers underscore how market management shifted throughout Biden’s presidency to a tech- and energy-driven growth.
