Millionaire-Makers: Visa, Microsoft, Apple Set Stage for Next Decade of Growth
The pattern of turning ordinary investors into millionaires is not new and has been observed in several stocks over the past decade. These stocks have a consistent framework that includes durable moats, decades of compounding revenue and earnings, expanding margins, aggressive shareholder returns through buybacks and dividends, and a credible engine to power the next decade.
The three stocks that fit this pattern are Visa (NYSE:V), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Visa has returned more than 350% over the past 10 years, with a 64% gain over the last five. It prints money by taking a small slice of every swipe, tap, and cross-border transaction on the world's largest payments rail.
Fiscal Q3 2026 net revenue rose 14% year-over-year to $11.6 billion, and payments volume crossed $4 trillion for the first time in Visa’s history. Cross-border volume ex intra-Europe grew 12% constant-dollar, and value-added services revenue expanded 34% year-over-year in constant dollars.
Microsoft has compounded shareholders at a staggering pace: around 760% over 10 years and more than 66% over five. The stock trades at roughly 27x earnings, and the business now looks less like a software company and more like the world’s most important AI infrastructure operator.
Fiscal Q4 2026 revenue hit $90 billion, up 18%, and Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion in full-year revenue, growing 41%. Commercial RPO surged to $678 billion, up 84%, and Microsoft 365 Copilot passed 30 million paid seats.
Apple is the top of this list because no other mega-cap combines Apple’s installed base, cash generation, and buyback discipline. The 10-year return is more than 1,100%, the five-year return over 112% and shares are up nearly 34% over the last year alone.