Should You Just Buy the Companies Everyone Knows?
By Chris Murray · Published Oct 1, 2026 · 2 min read
A common idea is to skip index funds and just buy the big companies everyone has heard of. The catch is that the companies everyone knows change over time. The names people would list today are not the names they would have listed ten years ago.
This article tests two lists against an S&P 500 index fund (SPY): ten names people know today, and the ten biggest companies of 2016. Each stock gets $10,000 on October 3, 2016. All figures include reinvested dividends and are valued at the September 30, 2026 close.
Ten names people know today
Ask someone today to name well-known stocks and a list like this one comes to mind: recent stars like Nvidia and Tesla, alongside long-familiar brands.
$10,000 invested October 3, 2016, valued September 30, 2026, dividends reinvested.
| Company | Value on Sep 30, 2026 | Average per year |
|---|---|---|
| Nvidia (NVDA) | $1,359,993 | 63.5% |
| Tesla (TSLA) | $249,048 | 38.0% |
| Apple (AAPL) | $129,420 | 29.2% |
| Microsoft (MSFT) | $100,594 | 26.0% |
| Amazon (AMZN) | $59,553 | 19.6% |
| S&P 500 fund (SPY) | $41,385 | 15.3% |
| Intel (INTC) | $39,401 | 14.7% |
| Coca-Cola (KO) | $27,924 | 10.8% |
| Boeing (BA) | $15,275 | 4.3% |
| Disney (DIS) | $12,310 | 2.1% |
| Nike (NKE) | $7,773 | -2.5% |
Five of the ten beat the S&P 500 fund and five trailed it. Familiar brands can trail the index or lose money: Disney returned 2.1% a year, and Nike lost money.
Nvidia and Tesla lead this list partly because they are famous now, after the gains. In 2016, neither was among the largest companies, and a list written then would have looked different.
The biggest names of 2016
Ten years ago, the companies everyone knew were a different group. These were the ten largest companies in the world by stock market value on September 30, 2016, according to the Financial Times FT500 ranking, which makes them the most objective list of famous companies at the time.
$10,000 invested October 3, 2016, valued September 30, 2026, dividends reinvested.
| Company (2016 rank) | Value on Sep 30, 2026 | Average per year |
|---|---|---|
| Apple (1) | $129,420 | 29.2% |
| Microsoft (3) | $100,594 | 26.0% |
| Alphabet, Google's parent (2) | $86,797 | 24.1% |
| Amazon (4) | $59,553 | 19.6% |
| Facebook, now Meta (8) | $56,855 | 19.0% |
| S&P 500 fund (SPY) | $41,385 | 15.3% |
| Berkshire Hathaway (6) | $34,638 | 13.2% |
| Johnson & Johnson (7) | $29,245 | 11.3% |
| ExxonMobil (5) | $28,798 | 11.2% |
| General Electric (10) | $24,372 | 9.3% |
| Tencent (9) | $22,064 | 8.2% |
- Five of the ten beat the S&P 500 fund and five trailed it. None lost money.
- All five that beat it were technology companies.
- ExxonMobil, the fifth-largest company in the world at the time, returned 11.2% a year, below the index.
- Buying all ten would have worked over this period. $10,000 in each, $100,000 in total, was worth $572,336 ten years later. The same $100,000 in the S&P 500 fund was worth $413,854.
What this shows
- "The companies everyone knows" is a moving target. Nvidia and Tesla were not on the 2016 list. ExxonMobil and General Electric were.
- Picking one or two well-known names was close to a coin flip. Half of 2016's ten largest companies trailed the index.
- Buying all of 2016's largest companies worked over this decade, mostly because of a few technology stocks. An S&P 500 fund already held most of those companies, plus about 490 others.
General Electric's figures are for the company now called GE Aerospace. Its price history accounts for the 2023 and 2024 spin-offs of GE HealthCare and GE Vernova. Tencent's figures use its US-traded shares (TCEHY).
Is there a company you would have bet on back then? Try it in the calculator, then run SPY with the same date to see how it compares.
Hypothetical results are for education only and are not financial advice.