CSCO, NVDA, AMZN, CAT, AAPL, UNH: The 6 Stocks Behind Dow's 50,000 Return

• Caterpillar and Apple have also contributed significantly to the Dow’s uptick. 
• UnitedHealth Group has also aided the Dow’s rally, gaining more than 45% since the index’s February record.
• Aside from these six stocks, other companies in the index have largely declined.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average regained its 50,000 level on Thursday for the first time since February, with artificial intelligence-related technology stocks driving the rally.  The benchmark index added more than 370 points, closing at 50,063.46.

Five AI stocks, namely Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO), Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), Amazon.com (AMZN), Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), and Apple Inc. (AAPL) have been the dominant drivers of the 30-stock index since it breached the 50,000 mark for the first time in history on Feb. 6.

AI Boom Drives Dow Higher

Cisco shares have surged nearly 37% since Feb. 6, making it a key driver of the price-weighted index. The company surged more than 13% on Thursday alone, clocking a record high of $119.36 in intraday trading after its third-quarter results blew past Wall Street expectations.

“Networking is a critical enabler of, and bottleneck to, AI model performance. This leads to high spending on AI network infrastructure that supports growth for Cisco and its peers. We expect this trend to continue powerfully over the next five years,” a recent Morningstar Report said.

Meanwhile, Nvidia also notched a fresh 52-week high of $236.54 on Thursday on media reports about Washington’s greenlight for the sales of its H200 chips to 10 Chinese firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance. The chipmaker has been in the green for nine weeks since Feb. 6 and has risen almost 25% since the start of the year.

Amazon has also had a solid run this year, gaining nearly 18% so far in 2026, and surging more than 27% since Feb. 6. The company has been making moves to bolster its AI offerings since announcing a $200 billion capital expenditure allocation for 2026. Earlier this week, Amazon introduced "Alexa for Shopping," calling it "the world's best, most personalized AI assistant for shopping," in the U.S.

Caterpillar and Apple have also contributed significantly to the Dow’s uptick. The Texas-based construction company has experienced significant demand for its power generation products, primarily due to the AI boom. Meanwhile, Apple’s strong quarterly results have reinforced optimism for demand around its AI-focused products.

What About Other Stocks?

Apart from the AI-heavy names mentioned above, healthcare and insurance company UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) has also aided the Dow’s rally, gaining more than 45% since the index’s February record.

Earlier this week, BofA analyst Kevin Fischbeck raised the price target on the company to $420 from $380 and kept a ‘Neutral’ rating on the shares, indicating a further upside potential of 5% from its last close, noting that the tone of a discussion with the leadership team at the BofA Healthcare Conference was "bullish."

Aside from these six stocks, other companies in the index have largely declined, with Nike Inc. (NKE), International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), and Home Depot, Inc. (HD) clocking the steepest falls.

Meanwhile, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA), which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average index, has gained 3.55% so far this year. Retail sentiment around DIA was in the ‘bullish’ territory at the time of writing amid ‘high’ message volumes.

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