I could probably come up with $1,000 to invest, but what I’d really like is a seven-figure brokerage account balance. I asked ChatGPT whether a few stellar stock picks could have enabled me to turn the former into the latter in just a decade, and, if so, which stocks I should have bought in 2015.
What I learned is that, while technically possible, a larger investment or a longer timeline would have given me a much better chance of becoming a millionaire investor.
A 1,000 Times Return in 10 Years? Maybe, but Probably Not
ChatGPT started by describing just how challenging it would have been to transform a $1,000 investment into a $1 million return between 2015 and 2025.
It wrote, “Turning $1,000 into $1,000,000 in a 10-year window requires a 1,000 times return. That kind of return is extremely rare in public, liquid, large-cap stocks.”
Here’s why such a feat is so unlikely, in the exact words of the world’s preeminent artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
- A 1000 times total return over 10 years is equivalent to 78% compound annual growth — sustained every year for a decade. Very few public equities achieve that.
- Many headline winners (Tesla, Nvidia, Shopify, Netflix, Amazon) produced huge returns, but generally not 1,000 times from a purchase in early 2015 through 2025. Most of the household winners produced tens to a few hundred times your money, not thousands.
- You can find isolated micro-cap or penny stocks (or a perfectly timed crypto purchase) that did produce 1000 times for early investors, but those are rare, often illiquid and highly risky.
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2 Potential Millionaire-Makers — but Only If Your Picks and Timing Were Perfect
The glass-half-full optimists will be glad to know that ChatGPT stated, “It is possible — a few stocks from 2015-2025 would have turned a $1,000 investment into a very substantial sum, though ‘millionaire,’ yes/no depends a bit on exactly when in 2015 you bought, and whether dividends were reinvested.”
Tesla (TSLA)
ChatGPT acknowledged that “Tesla has been among the top-performing large-cap growth stocks of the past decade, with massive price appreciation” and that it “would have grown many times over” since 2015.
It concluded, “In practical terms — depending on the exact date — that $1,000 could well translate to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly approaching or exceeding the million-dollar mark (especially if you invested in early 2015).”
Nvidia (NVDA)
The second possible millionaire-maker was Wall Street darling and graphics processing unit (GPU)/AI heavyweight Nvidia.
Here’s ChatGPT’s verbatim analysis of the 10-year, $1,000-to-$1 million gambit: “In practical terms — depending on the exact date — that $1,000 could well translate to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly approaching or exceeding the million-dollar mark (especially if you invested in early 2015).”
Possible Doesn’t Mean Probable — or Even Plausible
ChatGPT concluded with what it called a “rough reality check,” outlining why heavy-hitters like Shopify, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and even superstars like Nvidia and Tesla, very well might have turned $1,000 into “tens or low hundreds of thousands” between 2015 and 2025 — but almost certainly not $1 million.
It concluded that the only viable path would have been through micro-caps, meme stocks, biotech startups and cryptocurrencies, none of which provide a truly viable path at all.
ChatGPT summarized, “Some obscure or tiny companies and some early crypto plays produced 1000 times [returns] or more for the earliest buyers, but these are exceptions and usually require perfect timing or extreme luck.”
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I Asked ChatGPT What Stocks Would’ve Turned $1,000 in 2015 Into $1 Million Today
