Study: 96% of U.S. Stocks Failed to Create Wealth Over the Past Century

Almost all U.S. stocks failed to build lasting wealth over the past century, an Arizona State University study found after tracking 29,754 companies from 1926 through 2025. According to BeInCrypto, finance professor Hendrik Bessembinder’s paper found just 1,082 firms (3.7%) generated all net market gains, while nearly 60% of stocks left investors worse off than Treasury bills and the median stock lost 6.9% over its life. Apple led wealth creation at $5.02 trillion, followed by Nvidia at $4.58 trillion; Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon rounded out the top five. The Magnificent Seven accounted for 24.2% of century wealth, and the number of firms making up half of net wealth fell to 46 from 89 in the 2018 study.