I Asked ChatGPT What Stocks Would’ve Turned $1,000 in 2015 Into $1 Million Today
Written by
Andrew Lisa
Edited by
Levi Leidy
Commitment to Our Readers
GOBankingRates' editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and services - our reviews and ratings are not influenced by advertisers. You can read more about our editorial guidelines and our products and services review methodology.
20 Years
Helping You Live Richer
Reviewed
by Experts
Trusted by
Millions of Readers
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.
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.”
More From GOBankingRates
