NEW YORK, July 14 — The number that matters in American business right now is 45. That is the percentage gain for the Nasdaq-100 index in 2024, a surge powered by artificial intelligence. By the numbers: Nvidia, the chip designer founded in 1993, posted a 120% stock gain in 2024 and became the third most valuable U.S. company by market capitalization at $2.5 trillion.
The broader AI sector added $150 billion to U.S. gross domestic product in 2024, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Those figures tell a straightforward story: AI wealth is now a primary engine of the U.S. stock market and the economy.
The market math
The Nasdaq-100’s 45% rise was concentrated in a handful of firms that dominate the AI supply chain. Nvidia’s 120% gain accounted for a significant portion of the index’s performance. Nvidia’s market capitalization hit $2.5 trillion in 2024, placing it behind only Apple and Microsoft among American companies.
The bottom line: AI companies are no longer a niche sector. The $150 billion contribution to GDP from AI in 2024, as measured by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, makes the industry comparable in economic weight to entire traditional industries.
The policy risk
That concentration of wealth has drawn political attention. A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in January 2025 modeled the consequences of a proposed wealth seizure targeting AI assets. The study estimated a 20% decline in AI venture capital funding if such policies were enacted.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed the idea in a March 2025 statement, arguing that it would lead to job losses. The Chamber did not specify a number of potential job cuts, but its opposition signals that mainstream business groups view the policy as a direct threat to the industry’s growth trajectory.
What to watch
The tension between AI’s market dominance and political pressure to redistribute its gains is likely to define the sector’s next phase. Venture capital flows into AI startups have been the primary mechanism for spreading the technology beyond the largest firms. A 20% drop in those flows, as the NBER study projects, would slow the pace of new applications and startups.
For now, the figures that matter remain the ones from 2024: a 45% index gain, a 120% stock surge, and $150 billion in GDP contribution. Those numbers will be hard to repeat, but they set the baseline for any debate about what comes next.
