Many growth-oriented investors dream of finding the next hot stock that can churn out millionaire-making gains from a modest investment. But for every stock that delivers those multibagger returns, dozens of other promising stocks fizzle out.
While it's impossible to consistently predict which stocks will generate millionaire-making gains, we can look back at how some top tech stocks minted new millionaires before. Let's see why Nvidia (NVDA 0.80%), Broadcom (AVGO 1.67%), and Micron (MU +0.01%) delivered those big gains and whether they're still worthwhile investments today.
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1. Nvidia
Nvidia, the world's largest producer of discrete graphics processing units (GPUs), went public in 1999. A $10,000 investment in its initial public offering (IPO) would be worth roughly $6.7 million today. From fiscal 1999 to fiscal 2025 (which ended this January), its annual revenue grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29%.
NASDAQ: NVDA
Key Data Points
Nvidia originally generated most of its revenue from its gaming GPUs, which are used to render graphics in high-end games. But over the past few years, more data centers have installed its high-end GPUs to process complex artificial intelligence (AI) tasks.
Nvidia now generates most of its revenue from the data center market, and it's clearly selling the best picks and shovels for the AI gold rush. It also reinforces that market dominance by locking developers into its own CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) platform for developing Nvidia-optimized AI applications.
From fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028, analysts expect Nvidia's revenue and earnings per share (EPS) to both grow at a CAGR of 35% as the AI market continues to expand. Its stock still looks reasonably valued at 28 times next year's earnings, so it could have plenty of upside potential over the next few years.
2. Broadcom
Avago, a diversified chipmaker once based in Singapore, acquired the original Broadcom and inherited its brand in 2016. If you had invested $10,000 in Avago's IPO in 2009 and held it through that ambitious expansion, your investment would be worth about $4.5 million today.
NASDAQ: AVGO
Key Data Points
This "new" Broadcom -- which is now based in the U.S. and sells a wide range of wireless, storage, networking, optical, and radio frequency chips -- subsequently built a massive infrastructure software business by acquiring CA Technologies in 2018, Symantec's enterprise security business in 2019, and the cloud software giant VMware in 2023. It generated 42% of its revenue from that massive software business last year, which makes it a more diversified tech giant than stand-alone chipmakers like Nvidia.
From fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2024 (which ended last November), Broadcom's revenue grew at a CAGR of 19% as it continuously expanded through bold acquisitions. Today, most of its growth is being driven by its AI-oriented networking, optical, and custom accelerator chips.
From fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2027, analysts expect Broadcom's revenue and EPS to grow at a CAGR of 26% and 90%, respectively. Its sales of AI chips will continue to rise, its weaker non-AI chip and infrastructure software segments should warm up again, and it will likely pursue more acquisitions. It might not seem cheap at 55 times next year's earnings, but it still has plenty of ways to expand its sprawling businesses.
3. Micron
Micron, one of the world's top manufacturers of DRAM and NAND memory chips, went public in 1984. A $10,000 investment in its IPO would be worth nearly $1.4 million today.
NASDAQ: MU
Key Data Points
Micron didn't grow as rapidly as Nvidia or Broadcom, because it served a more cyclical industry. It follows the memory market's boom and bust cycles, which usually seesaw back and forth between tight supplies and high inventories within the span of a few years. But over the long run, its business continued expanding as faster PCs, servers, mobile devices, and other computing platforms demanded more memory to support the latest software applications.
From fiscal 1984 to fiscal 2024 (which ended last August), Micron's revenue grew at a CAGR of 15%, even as the memory market went through multiple contractions and expansions. From fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2027, analysts expect its revenue and EPS to grow at a CAGR of 28% and 168%, respectively, as it sells more NAND and DRAM chips to support the latest AI applications.
Its stock still looks dirt cheap at 11 times next year's earnings, and it should continue rising over the next few decades as memory chips become even faster, denser, and more power efficient to serve the ever-evolving computing market.
