Apollo’s Torsten Slok says AI is paying off for Big Tech, not the rest of the S&P 500

Revenue per worker is climbing at the Magnificent Seven while the other 493 companies in the index are stuck in place Corporate America has spent the past few years telling shareholders that artificial intelligence will change everything. According to Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok, it has mostly changed things for seven companies. In a note published on October 24, 2026, Slok argues that AI is lifting revenue per worker at the Magnificent Seven. Everywhere else in the S&P 500, that same measure has barely moved. That matters because revenue per employee is one of the cleanest ways to check whether a technology is actually making a business more productive. Two stock markets wearing one index Slok splits the S&P 500 into two camps. The first is the Magnificent Seven: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. The second is everyone else, a group he calls the “S&P 493.” The gap between them is wide. Inflation-adjusted revenue per employee at the Mag 7 has climbed to approximately $780,000. In early 2023, that figure sat at roughly $565,000. The S&P 493, by contrast, remains at around $525,000. That level has held steady since 2...