The analysis, published in August 2026, covered all 503 constituents of the S&P 500, categorising each by its role in the AI economy using market-cap data as of July 2026. The result: 218 companies across eight categories, with combined market capitalisation of around $42.4 trillion, represent 62.04% of the index. The remaining 285 companies, accounting for 37.96%, have no material AI exposure under BestBrokers' methodology.
The largest single category by index weight is AI Chips and Hardware Suppliers at 18.14%, covering 28 companies including Nvidia, Broadcom, Micron Technology, AMD, and Intel with a combined value of $12.39 trillion. Cloud and Model Providers — Microsoft, Oracle, Meta Platforms, Amazon, and Alphabet — follow at 17.18% and $11.74 trillion, making five companies alone responsible for roughly a sixth of the entire index.
AI Software and Applications accounts for a further 10.82%, a category that includes Apple, Tesla, Palantir, and IBM. Security and Trust firms such as Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, and Fortinet add around 1%. The less-visible parts of the supply chain — energy and utilities (6.01%), data centres and infrastructure (3.14%), and AI infrastructure suppliers (2.99%) — together represent roughly $8.3 trillion.
"AI's influence on the stock market has grown far beyond the handful of companies most commonly associated with the technology," said Alan Goldberg, data analyst at BestBrokers. "Our analysis shows that companies with material exposure to the AI value chain now represent 62.04% of the S&P 500 by market capitalisation, meaning investors are increasingly exposed to AI even without directly targeting it. The striking part is how much of this value sits outside AI software itself, with chips, cloud providers and supporting infrastructure accounting for much of the market's AI exposure. This also highlights a potential concentration risk: a relatively small number of companies have an enormous influence on the index and, consequently, on investors' portfolios. AI may still be a transformative technology story, but it has already become a defining stock-market story."
The full dataset and methodology are available on the BestBrokers website, including a breakdown by category and individual constituent.
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