Magnificent 7 across markets: Comparing private and public company performance

In 2025, the “Magnificent 7” or Mag 7 were in the news for driving the performance of public markets. The Mag 7 are high-performing companies, mostly in the technology space, that have significant influence on the return profile of the S&P 500 given their market cap, innovation, and growth potential.

In recent periods, investors have also identified a “Magnificent 7” for private markets that are driving significant innovation, growth, and potential disruption in their respective markets. These market innovators include companies that are now household names such as SpaceX and OpenAI, as well as others such as Anduril, Databricks, and xAI.

The performance of these two groups of companies is starkly different; even though the public Magnificent 7 have performed strongly and generated a 41% cumulative return between September ’24 and the beginning of January 2026, the private Magnificent 7 have generated an even stronger cumulative return of 219%.

_{Source: Forge Global, Inc., The Private Magnificent 7, as of January 7, 2026.}

Just as the return profiles are substantially different, so are the characteristics of the underlying constituents. The table below shows how younger, and smaller, the privately held companies are.

The difference in company size and age is noteworthy; privately held companies are much younger and smaller, which may signify that they have more potential for growth over time. Furthermore, their potential for disruption that each company has in their respective industries may also drive value.

Companies referenced are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute investment recommendations or an endorsement of or by the Companies.
¹ Source: Latest available public information.