How the Top S&P 500 Companies Have Changed Over Time

The New Diplomat
Writer

Ad

How Nigeria raked in N7.46 trillion trade surplus in Q2 2025, NBS reveals

By Abiola Olawale The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that Nigeria achieved a trade surplus of N7.46 trillion in the second quarter of 2025 (Q2 2025). NBS explained that this figure underscores the country's growing export prowess, particularly in key sectors such as mineral fuels and machinery. The latest NBS report, titled Foreign…

Nigeria Records 15.92 % Inflation In March — NBS

Alleged N23bn fraud: Coalition Blast Ibas as Emergency Rule ends soon

Says Ibas dragged Rivers towards bankruptcy By Abiola Olawale With barely a week remaining until the expiration of the six-month state of emergency in Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), the state's sole administrator, is currently embroiled in an explosive accusation of allegedly orchestrating a massive financial heist amounting to about ₦23 billion. The…

Ad

In this graphic, we show the top S&P 500 companies over the past several decades to see how the index has evolved over time.
Data and Key Takeaways

The data we used to create this graphic was sourced from Goldman Sachs’ Global Strategy Paper (September 2024 edition). All figures are as of December 31st.

Starting with 1990, the three biggest companies on the S&P 500 were IBMExxon Mobil, and General Electric.

Company % of Index
💻 IBM 2.9
⛽ Exxon Mobil 2.9
🔌 General Electric 2.3
🚬 Philip Morris 2.2
🛢️ Royal Dutch Shell 1.9
💊 Bristol-Myers Squibb 1.6
🧪 Merck & Co 1.6
🛒 Walmart 1.6
📞 AT&T 1.5
🥤 Coca-Cola 1.4

IBM dominated the tech space in 1990 with its leadership in computers and enterprise systems. Today’s IBM is quite a different business, with a focus on cybersecurity, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.

Moving forward to 2000, IBM has fallen out of the top 10, replaced by other rising tech companies in Cisco SystemsMicrosoft, and Intel.
Company % of Index
🔌 General Electric 4.1
⛽ Exxon Mobil 2.6
💊 Pfizer 2.5
🌐 Cisco Systems 2.4
🏦 Citigroup 2.2
🛒 Walmart 2.0
💻 Microsoft 2.0
🛡️ American International 2.0
🧪 Merck & Co 1.8
🖥️ Intel 1.7

Cisco’s stock experienced a massive rally in the late 1990s (as did many other tech stocks), reaching a peak of $79.37 per share in 2000. The company’s shares have never reached this point since.

Next, in 2010, Exxon Mobil became the biggest constituent on the S&P 500. The company benefited from rising energy demand and increasing oil prices following the 2008 financial crisis.

Company % of Index
⛽ Exxon Mobil 3.2
🍏 Apple 2.6
💻 Microsoft 1.8
🔌 General Electric 1.7
🛢️ Chevron 1.6
💻 IBM 1.6
🧴 Procter & Gamble 1.6
📞 AT&T 1.5
💊 Johnson & Johnson 1.5
🏦 JPMorgan Chase 1.5

Note that Chevron, another major oil producer, also made it into the top 10 in this year.

Lastly, we look at the top 10 stocks of 2024 (the exact date of these numbers was not specified in the source material).

Company % of Index
🍏 Apple 7.0
🎮 Nvidia 6.4
💻 Microsoft 6.4
🔍 Alphabet 6.2
📦 Amazon 3.8
📱 Meta 2.4
💊 Eli Lilly 1.8
🖥️ Broadcom 1.6
🚗 Tesla 1.4
🏦 JPMorgan Chase 1.2

We can see how today’s tech giants have come to dominate the S&P 500 by looking at their relatively high percentage share of the index. The reason for this is that the S&P 500 is a capitalization weighted index, meaning stocks with higher market caps carry greater weight.

For investors who dislike this method, S&P offers an equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 (EWI) which includes the same constituents, but each is allocated a fixed weight of 0.2%.

Invesco manages the largest ETF tracking the S&P 500 EWI (Ticker: RSP), which has $63.6 billion in assets under management.

Source: Visual Capitalist

Ad

Unlocking Opportunities in the Gulf of Guinea during UNGA80
X whatsapp