Best investments over the last 100 years? Almost all are tech companies.

Why do so few stocks drive long-term market gains? A W. P. Carey finance expert explains why fewer than 4% of companies created wealth for shareholders over the past century.

In this article published June 26, 2026, in The New York Times:

We've had very high returns for extraordinarily large firms in recent years, and the first few days of SpaceX as a public company were a case study of that. To me, the most striking thing over the last nine years is that not only is wealth creation highly concentrated in just a few companies, but that the trend has been accelerating.

— Hendrik Bessembinder, Francis J. and Mary B. Labriola Chair in Competitive Business and professor of finance