Apollo's Torsten Slok sees zero AI payoff outside the Magnificent 7

On October 24, 2026, Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok published a note finding that artificial intelligence has lifted revenue and margins only at the Magnificent 7—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla—and not across the rest of the S&P 500. He reported inflation-adjusted revenue per employee of about $780,000 at those firms versus about $525,000 for the S&P 493, which has stayed flat since 2019, while margins were near 30% and about 10%, respectively. Slok also said the top 10% of firms account for 99.5% of spending on model serving and inference, the computing of AI outputs.