Sometimes it's hard to separate hype from reality in the stock market.
That's especially true with artificial intelligence (AI) stocks. We're told that businesses are spending big on AI and that AI investments are driving the stock market's recent gains. We also saw in late 2025 how fears about a coming reduction in AI spending can cause the market to stall out. But is this backed up by evidence, or is it all just speculation?
New data from The Motley Fool shows that top AI companies have, in fact, produced long-term market-beating returns. In The Motley Fool's 2026 AI Investor Outlook Report, among many other valuable insights, The Motley Fool provides data-based evidence to show AI stocks beat the S&P 500 by 136% over the last five years.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Real results, not clickbait
Sometimes, clickbaity headlines will trumpet "Stocks in Industry X Beat the S&P 500!" when really, the gains were limited to just one or two companies. This kind of claim is technically true as long as a couple of stocks handily beat the index, even if all the other stocks in the industry lag.
For example, you could say that electric vehicle stocks beat the S&P 500 over the last three years as long as one of the stocks was Tesla (TSLA +2.06%). Tesla's 285.4% gain goes a long way to offset companies like Rivian Automotive (RIVN 3.37%) and Nio (NIO 1.90%), which had a 21.3% gain and a 54.3% loss, respectively. But the average gain of those three companies -- thanks to Tesla -- was 84.1%, which does (barely) beat the S&P 500's 77.7% gain over the last three years.
NASDAQ: TSLA
Key Data Points
The Motley Fool's 2026 AI Investor Outlook Report shows that, unlike the above example, the AI industry's gains weren't limited to just one company. In fact, a majority of the 10 publicly traded companies that scored highest in The Motley Fool's Moneyball database for AI readiness and execution as of November 2025 have beaten the index over the last five years.
The average return of those 10 companies was 220%, decisively beating the S&P 500's 84% gain, indicating that the industry's outperformance was both strong and broad.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
What's next for AI
Of course, past results don't guarantee future performance. Still, a majority of Motley Fool survey respondents say that they're confident AI stocks will generate long-term returns, and the industry itself is showing no signs of slowing down.
So, which AI stocks will be the biggest winners moving forward?
Unfortunately, there's no way to know for sure. But the good news that the report revealed for AI investors is that the recent outperformance of AI stocks hasn't been limited to just one or two lucky choices. That should give investors confidence that they can capitalize on the ongoing AI boom with a modest investment in a handful of stocks, rather than feeling the need to try to buy every AI stock out there.
