AI Stocks Drive S&P 500 Rally While Ex-AI Index Lags
The S&P 500 has surged 18.3% over the past six months, reaching 7,818.93 at Tuesday’s close. In contrast, Goldman Sachs’ ex-AI index, which excludes stocks deemed AI enablers, gained only 6.7% to 3,123.24. This 11.6 percentage point gap highlights the significant impact of AI-linked stocks on the benchmark’s performance.
Goldman’s ex-AI index, ticker SPXXAI, peaked in August and now sits 6.4% below its 52-week high of 3,337.19. The S&P 500, meanwhile, is just 0.3% below its own record. Chip stocks like AMD, Marvell, Synopsys, and Cadence Design Systems have driven recent gains, each rising 20% or more in about 20 trading days.
Despite the broad market rally, Schwab’s Kevin Gordon noted that the average stock fell 14% from its peak since early August. This suggests that the S&P 500’s records are largely supported by AI-linked stocks.
Jan van Eck, CEO of VanEck, suggested that power producers and nuclear energy could be the next phase of the AI trade, or AI 2.0. This sector has lagged due to political concerns about data center growth, but Constellation Energy jumped 12.3% on Tuesday after signing a power deal with Alphabet. Van Eck believes this could mark a turning point for the group, though a prediction market he cited puts the odds of one approved nuclear plant below 10% this year.