This Time Is Different. Really.

Are technology stocks in a bubble? The Nasdaq composite index, home to tech superstars like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft, is up more than 21% this year. The boom is not just an American phenomenon. China’s Alibaba is up 24%, Taiwan’s TSM 38%, Germany’s SAP 20%, and Australia’s Atlassian 47%. The S&P 500 Semiconductor ETF is up 19% for 2020.

- RICH KARLGAARD

All very impressive. But one category of tech stocks has surpassed all others. These stocks are what the U.S. firm Bessemer Venture Partners calls “emerging cloud” companies. In 2013, Bessemer created its BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index, or EmCloud, to track returns in the cloud sector. This year, EmCloud’s index of 52 stocks—which includes fast-growers like Adobe, Atlassian, Crowdstrike, ServiceNow, and Zoom, but excludes large cloud incumbents like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle—is up 65%.