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years, although this has yet to have any meaningful impact on revenues. And for Amazon in particular, there are some niggling questions around its outlook. Although its cloud business remains solid, its original e-commerce business has seen growing competition recently, notably from rival retail giant Walmart, which is eating into its business in the US. This is one reason why holding Amazon shares provided an annual return over the past two years of -16.7%, as of early December, according to my calculations. Unstoppable AI Also linked to the cloud computing industry, California-based chip maker Nvidia Corporation has been the runaway success of the magnificent seven this year. This is all thanks to its dominance in processing AI workloads on the cloud. The majority of cloud players use Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs). But while its two-year return of 43.3% is the most impressive of the seven tech companies, there are competitors on the horizon that could nibble away at some market share. Nvidia’s nearest rival AMD drew attention with its latest chip offering in 2023 – it’s betting the market will be worth US$400 billion by 2027. A number of other start-ups are also developing chips for niche AI fields. Can Nvidia maintain its dominance? If it does, its earnings will skyrocket alongside the growth of AI. But even if it loses some market share, the AI market will boom for years. The outliers For those keeping track, that just leaves two final members of the magnificent seven. Apple Inc – the world’s largest company by market capitalisation – consistently delivers solid returns: 16.2% over the past two years by my calculations. At the other end of the scale, social media company Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp) is the only one of the group to have shown an essentially flat stock market performance over the past two years. Although Meta’s revenues and earnings have consistently beaten expectations this year, the threat of anti-trust legislation in the US and Europe hangs over the company, as does an advertising market that is bottoming out. Both of these issues could harm Meta’s revenue outlook next year. So, the magnificent seven have all survived to ride out of town at the end of 2023, but it’s as clear as a tumbleweed rolling down a deserted main street that not all of them are in for a leisurely horseback ride through 2024. Saddle up, partners! Image by StickSnap, Pixabay