Investing $10K in the S&P 500? Nearly $2K Goes to Just 3 Stocks

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The S&P 500 is a benchmark for the U.S. stock market. When you invest in the S&P 500, you're investing in the top 500 companies in the United States (and some of the largest companies in the world).
The easiest way to invest in the S&P 500 is through an index fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF). But when you buy shares of these funds, what exactly are you buying?
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Here's a breakdown of exactly what you own when you put $10,000 into the S&P 500, including how many dollars are invested into the top 20 companies.
Also see why Warren Buffett says an S&P 500 index fund is the best option for most investors.
The S&P 500 is a stock market index that tracks the performance of the top 500 companies in the United States. The index actually tracks 503 total stocks, because some companies have multiple share types in the top 500.
The index is market cap-weighted — meaning that the larger a company is, the higher percentage of the index is represented by that company.
For example, Nvidia (NVDA) is currently the largest company in the world by market cap, and represents 7.15% of the entire index. But Paramount Global is a much smaller company and represents only 0.02% of the entire S&P 500 index.
So when you buy an S&P 500 index fund or ETF, you're buying a small percentage in all 503 stocks. But you own a whole lot more of the larger companies than you do of the smaller ones.
Here's how it breaks down.
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Let's say you have $10,000 to invest in an S&P 500 index fund. Here's what you're actually buying.
Company
Symbol
Weight
Amount
Nvidia
NVDA
7.15%
$715
Microsoft
MSFT
6.65%
$665
Apple Inc.
AAPL
5.55%
$555
Amazon
AMZN
4.27%
$427
Meta Platforms
META
3.25%
$325
Broadcom
AVGO
2.31%
$231
Alphabet Inc. (Class A)
GOOGL
2.01%
$201
Alphabet Inc. (Class C)
GOOG
1.91%
$191
Berkshire Hathaway
BRK.B
1.83%
$183
Tesla Inc.
TSLA
1.80%
$180
JPMorgan Chase
JPM
1.42%
$142
Walmart
WMT
1.35%
$135
Lilly (Eli)
LLY
1.27%
$127
Visa
V
1.22%
$122
Oracle Corporation
ORCL
1.14%
$114
Netflix
NFLX
0.96%
$96
Mastercard
MA
0.90%
$90
ExxonMobil
XOM
0.87%
$87
Costco
COST
0.77%
$77
Johnson & Johnson
JNJ
0.67%
$67
These are the top holdings of the S&P 500 index as of July 14, 2025. Out of your entire $10,000 invested, $4,730 goes to the top 20 holdings. And just three stocks make up almost $2,000 of your investment.
The S&P 500 has performed well over the last 50-plus years. In fact, the S&P 500 has seen an annual rate of return around an average of 10% since its inception, per SmartAsset.
This means investing $10,000 in the S&P 500 could generate 10% returns (on average) for keen investors. And since most brokers offer low fees on index fund ETFs, it can be still a solid investment choice for long-term investors.
Editor's note: The S&P 500 weight figures were sourced from SlickCharts.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Investing $10K in the S&P 500? Nearly $2K Goes to Just 3 Stocks