What is the best ETF for FAANG?

No ETF offers exclusive exposure to FAANG stocks. Your best bet among exchange-traded investments is the MicroSectors FANG+ ETN, which counts FAANG stocks as about half its total portfolio. Since there are only five stocks in the FAANG, it wouldn't be difficult to buy and hold all of them if you are looking for direct exposure.

How much of the S&P 500 is FAANG?

The percentage of the S&P 500 market cap comprising FAANG stocks varies, but as of mid-2026, it was about 20%. If you substituted Microsoft for Netflix, it would be about 25%. That figure shows how influential FAANG stocks are on the market. They are only five of the 500 stocks in the broad-market index, but their weight on the index is roughly 25 times that.

Which FAANG stocks pay dividends?

Currently, Apple, Alphabet, and Meta pay dividends. Netflix and Amazon do not.

Are FAANG stocks still a good investment?

FAANG stocks are still market leaders. While their valuations are always changing, their market positions have only gotten stronger. Overall, the group of stocks still looks like a good investment.

Are FAANG stocks overvalued?

FAANG stocks mostly trade at a premium valuation, but that's for good reason. These companies have demonstrated the ability to deliver superior growth and profitability over a long period of time. While they might be expensive, they are not overvalued, which implies that they're more expensive than they should be.

Are FAANG stocks suitable for conservative investors?

Yes, FAANG stocks are a good choice for conservative investors. While they're associated with growth and technology, they also generally trade at reasonable valuations, meaning that their downside is more limited than you might think.

What's the difference between FAANG, MATANA, and Magnificent 7?

The difference between these three groups are the stocks that they contain. FAANG includes Meta Platforms, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Alphabet. MATANA is made up of Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, Alphabet, Nvidia, and Amazon. Finally, the Magnificent Seven includes all of the stocks in MATANA plus Meta Platforms.

FAANG Stocks: What They Are and How to Invest

Q: What does FAANG stand for?

When the term was coined in 2013, FAANG referred to Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. Today, the original FAANG term is sometimes used. There are also alternatives like FAAMNG (to include Microsoft) and the "Magnificent Seven," which includes Tesla and Nvidia, but not Netflix.

By Jeremy Bowman – Updated Aug 19, 2026 at 9:50 PM EST | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

FAANG stocks heavily influence market performance due to their large S&P 500 index weighting.
Investing directly in FAANG may be beneficial, given their substantial market return contributions.
FAANG's evolution includes new acronyms like MAMAA, reflecting shifts in tech giant prominence.

It’s hard to talk about the stock market without mentioning one or more FAANG stocks. These tech giants make up a sizable portion of the S&P 500 index, and that means many investors already have at least some exposure to them.

Because of their heavy weighting in major indexes, FAANG stocks play an outsize role in market performance. That makes it worthwhile for investors to understand what FAANG means today, how the group has evolved, and whether adding direct exposure makes sense.

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An infographic showing the five FAANG or MAMAA tech stocks. — Image source: The Motley Fool.

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What does FAANG stand for?

FAANG is an acronym coined by Jim Cramer in 2013 to describe a group of fast-growing technology leaders. Originally, the acronym was FANG, which stood for:

Facebook
Amazon (AMZN)
Netflix (NFLX)
Google

In 2017, investors began including Apple (AAPL), turning the group into FAANG.

Over time, company names changed. Facebook became Meta Platforms (META), and Google became Alphabet (GOOGL/GOOG), but the acronym stuck. However, as Netflix’s growth cooled and other tech giants surged, many investors began using updated labels.

One popular variation is MAMAA, which replaces Netflix with Microsoft:

Meta
Apple
Microsoft
Amazon
Alphabet

You’ll also hear references to the “Magnificent Seven,” a broader group that typically includes Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, and Tesla. While the names differ, all of these terms point to the same idea: a small set of mega-cap tech companies driving a large share of market returns.

The FAANG stocks at a glance

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Ticker Information Table
Name and ticker	Market capMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.	Current price	Industry
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)	$1.4 trillion	$549.90	Interactive Media and Services
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)	$2.8 trillion	$258.63	Multiline Retail
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)	$4.5 trillion	$309.35	Technology Hardware, Storage and Peripherals
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX)	$331.4 billion	$79.59	Entertainment
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)	$4.2 trillion	$344.82	Interactive Media and Services
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)	$3.6 trillion	$483.24	Software

Data as of Aug 23, 2026. Showing 6 of 6 total entries.

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1. Meta Platforms

NASDAQ: META

Meta Platforms

Today's Change

(0.75%) $4.07

Current Price

$549.90

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$1.4T

Day's Range

$543.23 - $553.87

52wk Range

$520.26 - $790.80

Volume

13.8M

Avg Vol

18.5M

Gross Margin

81.75%

Dividend Yield

0.38%

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Meta Platforms owns two of the world's largest and most engaging social media apps (Facebook and Instagram) and two of the biggest messaging apps (WhatsApp and Messenger). It makes money by displaying ads to users while they browse photo and video feeds. Meta is investing heavily in virtual reality (VR) technology, led by its Quest headset. It's also developed the Muse Spark large language model and its Meta AI assistant.

As of August 2026 Meta AI had reached 1.5 billion monthly active users in May 2026, a testament to the company's broad reach and its strategy. Meta is losing more than $10 billion a year on Reality Labs, the division that powers its AI technology, but growth in its advertising has been more than enough to overcome that headwind. The company announced layoffs in Reality Labs earlier this year, which could help trim some of those losses, though Zuckerberg is committed to achieving superintelligence.

2. Amazon

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NASDAQ: AMZN

Amazon

Today's Change

(-0.57%) $-1.48

Current Price

$258.63

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$2.8T

Day's Range

$257.04 - $261.09

52wk Range

$196.00 - $287.20

Volume

35.7M

Avg Vol

49.7M

Gross Margin

50.77%

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Amazon is the world's largest business-to-consumer e-commerce company. Its Prime membership program has more than 200 million global subscribers who have proven extremely loyal to the company's online marketplace.

Although e-commerce accounts for the bulk of its revenue, Amazon has also found profit engines in cloud computing services and advertising; most of its profit now comes from its cloud infrastructure business, Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Like its peers, Amazon is also investing in AI, taking a significant stake in Anthropic, an AI start-up and creator of the chatbot Claude, and Bedrock, an AWS service that offers users a range of foundation models such as those from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI, and DeepSeek.

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3. Apple

NASDAQ: AAPL

Apple

Today's Change

(-0.63%) $-1.95

Current Price

$309.35

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$4.5T

Day's Range

$307.01 - $312.38

52wk Range

$224.69 - $344.57

Volume

46.9M

Avg Vol

56.4M

Gross Margin

48.65%

Dividend Yield

0.34%

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Apple is one of the biggest smartphone manufacturers in the world. Device sales account for most of Apple's revenue. However, in recent years, the company has expanded its focus.

Apple now brings in a significant percentage of its profits from higher-margin services, including app store fees, music and video streaming, gaming, news, and cloud storage. The recent launch of its new spatial computing headset, Vision Pro, has been a disappointment thus far, but it could help drive the transition to the next major computing platform. Investors are also hopeful that Apple Intelligence, its new artificial intelligence (AI) platform, will have an impact, though that may need to wait for later iterations.

4. Netflix

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NASDAQ: NFLX

Netflix

Today's Change

(-0.69%) $-0.55

Current Price

$79.59

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$331B

Day's Range

$79.17 - $80.49

52wk Range

$65.08 - $126.71

Volume

23.8M

Avg Vol

42.6M

Gross Margin

49.53%

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Netflix is one of the first internet-born media companies. In 2007, it started shifting from a DVD-by-mail service to on-demand streaming and began investing in its own original content for the streaming service in 2012.

Today, Netflix is one of the biggest buyers of film and television productions worldwide, serving more than 300 million subscribers and experiencing strong global growth. While legacy media companies have launched their own streaming platforms, Netflix remains the clear leader in the industry, and after a post-pandemic lull, profits have surged with the help of its new advertising tier.

Netflix had agreed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, but was later outbid by Paramount Global. Still, Netflix stock rose when WBD chose Paramount, a sign that Netflix may be better off without it.

5. Alphabet

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NASDAQ: GOOGL

Alphabet

Today's Change

(1.22%) $4.15

Current Price

$344.82

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$4.2T

Day's Range

$340.40 - $346.20

52wk Range

$205.28 - $408.61

Volume

20.8M

Avg Vol

32M

Gross Margin

60.94%

Dividend Yield

0.25%

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Alphabet is a tech conglomerate primarily split between Google and its "other bets" segment. Although Google started as an internet search company, it has continued acquiring and developing consumer-facing products, with nine of them boasting more than 1 billion users each. Google also encompasses a growing cloud computing business, Google Cloud,which has accelerated in the AI era, and a relatively small hardware business, though search advertising still brings in a majority of its profits.

The other bets segment includes Alphabet's moonshots, such as the Waymo automated-vehicle business and health research company Verily. Waymo is starting to have a material impact on Alphabet as the service is now providing 500,000 rides per week in about 15 metro areas. Since OpenAI's ChatGPT launched, Alphabet has touted its own AI capabilities and introduced its own chatbot interface and AI assistant, Gemini, staking its claim as an AI leader.

6. Microsoft

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NASDAQ: MSFT

Microsoft

Today's Change

(0.43%) $2.09

Current Price

$483.24

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$3.6T

Day's Range

$478.53 - $486.36

52wk Range

$349.20 - $553.72

Volume

22.5M

Avg Vol

39.6M

Gross Margin

67.94%

Dividend Yield

0.93%

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Microsoft started out by licensing its Windows operating system to PC manufacturers, but it's a much broader company 40 years later. Windows licensing sales are now exceeded by its cloud computing operation, Azure, and its Office productivity suite.

The company also operates a gaming segment led by Xbox and Activision Blizzard, an advertising business across its search engine, a web portal, and the LinkedIn social network. Additionally, it has a relatively small consumer device segment, including products like Surface.

Driven by its relationship with OpenAI, in which it's a major investor, the company sees AI as the next major frontier and has invested significantly in new products like the Azure OpenAI and its Copilot AI assistant.

Microsoft's diversification arguably gives it an edge over its fellow FAANG stocks.

How to Invest in FAANG Stocks

If you want to buy a FAANG stock, the process is simple. Just follow the steps below.

Open your brokerage app: Log in to your brokerage account where you handle your investments. If you don't have one yet, take a look at our favorite brokers and trading platforms to find the right one for you.
Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.

Future outlook for FAANG stocks

The future outlook for FAANG stocks is strong. These companies rose to dominate the tech industry and the stock market because of their competitive advantages, and those only seem to be getting stronger in the AI era.

While there is some concern about antitrust investigations, thus far, these companies have been resilient and have only continued to grow.

Additionally, most FAANG stocks trade at reasonable valuations, meaning they're less exposed to a sell-off or a bear market than most investors might think.

AI only seems to be accelerating demand for key technologies like cloud computing, and these companies are also taking advantage of AI to drive efficiencies in areas like digital advertising.

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Are FAANG companies a good investment?

FAANG stocks have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Microsoft has been the worst performer of the bunch since June 2013, but it's still more than tripled the performance of the S&P 500. The strongest performer in that time has been Netflix, up roughly 24-fold.

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Data source: YCharts. As of August 19, 2026
Stock/Index	Total Return Since June 19, 2013
NFLX	2,320%
META	2,170%
AAPL	2,360%
AMZN	1,810%
GOOGL	1,440%
MSFT	1,620%
S&P 500	496%

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The five FAANG companies combined account for close to 20% of the S&P 500 and close to 40% of the Nasdaq-100 index. Replacing Netflix with Microsoft bumps those percentages up to about 26% and almost 50%, respectively.

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Are FAANG stocks profitable?

All five FAANG companies and Microsoft have intangible assets that should make them more profitable than their rivals. Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet have troves of user data they can tap into to target advertisements. Netflix's move to original content and exclusive licenses makes its content library irreplaceable.

Apple is one of the few companies that makes both the hardware and the software for its devices -- and it is certainly the only one at its scale. It's hard to find an enterprise that doesn't use Microsoft's Office suite. Switching costs are too high for a manager to risk his job by selecting another suite of services and training everyone on how to use it.

Can you invest in a FAANG ETF?

There is no traditional exchange-traded fund (ETF) that exclusively tracks FAANG stocks. However, the NYSE FANG+ Index tracks the five FAANG stocks along with five additional technology leaders, including Microsoft.

One way to gain exposure is through the MicroSectors FANG+ ETN (FNGS). Because it’s an ETN rather than an ETF, investors should understand the additional risks involved.

Given the concentration of the index, some investors may prefer building their own FAANG allocation using individual stocks, especially since most brokers now offer commission-free trading and fractional shares.

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The bottom line

FAANG stocks remain some of the most important companies in the global market. Given their size, most investors already own them indirectly through index funds.

If you choose to add direct exposure, do so intentionally. Understand how much of your portfolio is already tied to big tech, and balance growth potential with concentration risk.

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FAQ about FAANG and MAMAA stocks

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About the Author

Jeremy Bowman has been a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst, covering technology, consumer goods, and macroeconomic trends since 2011. Before The Motley Fool, Jeremy was a newspaper reporter, restaurant manager, and English teacher abroad. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Colorado College and a master’s degree in business administration from American University. One of his Motley Fool headlines was briefly featured on Late Night with Stephen Colbert.

TMFHobo

@TMFBowman

Jeremy Bowman has positions in Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Netflix. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Netflix. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

FAANG Stocks: What They Are and How to Invest

Key Points

What does FAANG stand for?

The FAANG stocks at a glance

1. Meta Platforms

Key Data Points

2. Amazon

Key Data Points

3. Apple

Key Data Points

4. Netflix

Key Data Points

5. Alphabet

Key Data Points

6. Microsoft

Key Data Points

How to Invest in FAANG Stocks

Future outlook for FAANG stocks

Are FAANG companies a good investment?

Are FAANG stocks profitable?

Can you invest in a FAANG ETF?

The bottom line

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Walmart (WMT) Stock Predictions: What Investors Should Expect in 2026 and Beyond

FAQ about FAANG and MAMAA stocks

What does FAANG stand for?

What does FAANG stand for?

What is the best ETF for FAANG?

What is the best ETF for FAANG?

How much of the S&P 500 is FAANG?

How much of the S&P 500 is FAANG?

Which FAANG stocks pay dividends?

Which FAANG stocks pay dividends?

Are FAANG stocks still a good investment?

Are FAANG stocks still a good investment?

Are FAANG stocks overvalued?

Are FAANG stocks overvalued?

Are FAANG stocks suitable for conservative investors?

Are FAANG stocks suitable for conservative investors?

What's the difference between FAANG, MATANA, and Magnificent 7?

What's the difference between FAANG, MATANA, and Magnificent 7?

About the Author

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Premium Investing Services

What does FAANG stand for?

The FAANG stocks at a glance

Key Data Points

2. Amazon

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

4. Netflix

Key Data Points

5. Alphabet

Key Data Points

6. Microsoft

Key Data Points

How to Invest in FAANG Stocks

Future outlook for FAANG stocks

Are FAANG companies a good investment?

Are FAANG stocks profitable?

Can you invest in a FAANG ETF?

The bottom line

Best AI Stocks to Buy in 2026 and How to Invest in Them

6 Best Internet of Things Stocks for 2026 and How to Invest

Best Semiconductor Stocks for 2026 and How to Invest

Walmart (WMT) Stock Predictions: What Investors Should Expect in 2026 and Beyond

FAQ about FAANG and MAMAA stocks

What does FAANG stand for?

What does FAANG stand for?

What is the best ETF for FAANG?

What is the best ETF for FAANG?

How much of the S&P 500 is FAANG?

How much of the S&P 500 is FAANG?

Which FAANG stocks pay dividends?

Which FAANG stocks pay dividends?