Tech's biggest winners of 2025

Engadget’s year-end roundup spotlights the tech winners of 2025: Nintendo’s iterative Switch 2 has outperformed expectations with the company raising its fiscal-year unit target to 19 million (from 15 million), Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 shrank weight/size and drove a ~50% sales uplift for flagship foldables, and NVIDIA’s GPUs remain dominant in AI infrastructure—its stock has surged ~1,235% over five years—though competition from hyperscalers’ chips poses a medium‑term risk. The piece also flags systemic trends with investor implications: the rapid spread of AI-generated video (OpenAI’s Sora 1M downloads, Google’s Veo 40M videos) creating content-authenticity and regulatory exposure; rising traction for smart glasses and magnetic accessory standards (Pixel adopting Qi2) expanding hardware ecosystems; and fast‑charging advances from wearables to EVs (notably BYD’s 1,000 kW claims) that shift component demand and could compress product‑cycle frictions. Additionally, the concentration of wealth among tech billionaires—Oxfam cites a $698 billion increase for the 10 richest US billionaires—underscores political and regulatory tail risks that could affect M&A and tax policy for the sector.

Analysis

Engadget highlights several hardware-driven winners in 2025: Nintendo's Switch 2 retained core strengths while upgrading battery life, a 1080p HDR LCD, stronger performance, magnetic Joy-Cons and increased base storage, earning a review score of 93 and prompting Nintendo to raise its fiscal-year unit target to 19 million from 15 million by March. Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 materially reduced size and weight (7.58 ounces, 72.8mm wide, 8.9mm folded), added a 200MP camera and 5,000 mAh battery, and coincided with a roughly 50% uplift in flagship foldable sales, underscoring durable consumer demand for iterative hardware improvements.

NVIDIA remains the dominant supplier for AI training and inferencing, with the stock up ~1,235% over five years from $13.56 in 2020 to a $202.49 peak in October, reflecting outsized exposure to parallel compute demand. The article explicitly flags competitive risk from hyperscalers (Google, Microsoft) building custom AI chips and notes that a broader AI adoption slowdown would disproportionately impact NVIDIA.

Systemic trends create cross‑market implications: AI-generated video is exploding (OpenAI's Sora ~1M downloads; Google's Veo ~40M videos) while more than half of Americans report low confidence distinguishing AI content, increasing regulatory and platform risk. Concentrated billionaire wealth growth (Oxfam: $698bn) and reported political donations raise policy and oversight tail risks, and renewed NHTSA scrutiny of Tesla's FSD exemplifies regulatory exposure for automotive software vendors and OEMs.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Consider a tactical overweight in NVDA to capture continued AI infrastructure demand but employ options hedges or position limits and watch Google/Microsoft chip announcements as a key downside trigger
• Increase selective exposure to consumer hardware beneficiaries tied to Switch 2 upside and foldable adoption while monitoring Nintendo's unit shipment cadence against the raised 19 million guidance and its first‑party release schedule
• Allocate a modest portion of hardware/auto exposure to fast‑charging and power‑management suppliers and EV charging developers (monitor BYD's 1,000 kW claims) as component vendors could re‑rate if tech proves scalable
• Trim or hedge TSLA exposure until regulatory outcomes and NHTSA investigations around full‑self driving are resolved, given heightened scrutiny noted in the article
• Limit unhedged exposure to ad‑dependent platforms vulnerable to AI‑video authenticity risks (track Sora/Veo usage metrics and any regulatory actions) and consider short‑duration hedges for potential ad‑revenue volatility