The Sell-off
The sell-off in software companies seems endless.
In a healthy market, the stock price follows Free Cash Flow. But today, reality seems divorced from logic.
Adobe (ADBE) and Salesforce (CRM): Free Cash Flow is steadily rising, yet their stock prices are collapsing.
Duolingo (DUOL): Free Cash Flow surged by 703%, yet the stock is dropping sharply.
ServiceNow (NOW): The stock is being sold off after excellent quarterly results.
There are two scenarios here.
Either the market is right and these companies will indeed be replaced by AI, or this reaction is driven by panic, thus creating opportunities.
Obviously, no one can know with certainty what will happen in the future.
Personally, however, I believe this specific sell-off is not justified.
Hyperscalers
Google Cloud (GCP): The ultimate surge. With 48% growth in Q4 2025, Google is stepping on the gas and proving that AI is its new rocket. In four years, it nearly doubled its market share from 13% to 21%.
Amazon (AWS): The giant that refuses to slow down. Despite its enormous size, holding 41% of the market, AWS managed to accelerate to 24%. It is impressive how the largest player finds a way to raise the pace again.
Microsoft Azure: The steady value with 38% market share and 39% growth, remaining the main hub for enterprises.
Overall, I am very happy that I have invested in my favorite companies, Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN), which benefit significantly from cloud growth.
S&P 500: The Leaders I Did Not Expect
In this list, we see the 10 companies in the S&P 500 with the best performance in 2026.
If someone told me that the S&P 500 would be at all-time highs, my mind would immediately go to the well-known Big Tech names.
And yet, the Magnificent 7 are notably absent.
The dominance of memory: 3 out of the 10 companies are in the memory sector.
The big picture: The market is showing incredible breadth. The fact that we are at all-time highs without relying exclusively on the usual suspects is an extremely healthy sign.
Why this is important in my view:
Distribution of strength: The rally is not supported by 10 stocks, but spreads across the entire board.
Upside potential: The major technology companies that are missing from the list still have fuel left.
