What a year it has been, especially for the five best-performing S & P 500 stocks. While Nvidia , Alphabet and the rest of the “Magnificent Seven” garnered many of the headlines in 2025, the benchmark index was led by the following five stocks: Western Digital , Micron Technology , Seagate Technology , Robinhood and Warner Bros Discovery . The first four names on the list more than tripled this year, while Warner surged more than 170% — far outpacing the S & P 500’s 17.3% gain. Western Digital, Micron and Seagate had a common driver: big demand for memory. The AI boom this year led to major shortages of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips in 2025, sending prices skyrocketing. Demand doesn’t appear to be letting up, either. Counterpoint Research said earlier this month that memory prices will “rise another 40% through Q2 2026, resulting in BoM costs increasing anywhere between 8% and over 15% above current elevated levels.” Robinhood, meanwhile, got a big boost from mom-and-pop traders, who had a major year. Retail traders, as Alex Harring’s story points out , knew when to buy into pullbacks — fueling the broader market’s rally to record levels. Many of these traders did so through their Robinhood accounts. The company also expanded its product offerings to include prediction markets betting . HOOD YTD mountain Robinhood, YTD Truist earlier in December initiated the online brokerage with a buy rating, noting: “HOOD’s leading product velocity has driven sizable growth in key metrics & share gains as the company expands its addressable customer universe, allowing it to keep moving upmarket towards larger wallets.” As for Warner, it’s been all about M & A. The company this year has entertained acquisition offers, sending shares soaring. Warner said Dec. 5 it would sell its film and streaming assets to Netflix for $72 billion. Paramount made rival offers, but Warner is expected to formally reject the CBS parent’s latest proposal, per reporting from CNBC’s David Faber.
