Facebook parent Meta and Nvidia have both seen their stock prices double within the first 5 months of 2023

• Two Big Tech stocks have doubled in price within the first five months of this year.
• Meta Platforms has surged on Mark Zuckerberg's cost-cutting efforts, while Nvidia has established itself as a key name in AI.

Two Big Tech stocks are up over 100% in 2023, fewer than five months into what many investors had expected would be a difficult year for equities.

Social media giant Meta Platforms and microchip maker Nvidia have both doubled in price since January, making them the S&P 500's two best-performing stocks.

Facebook parent Meta is up 102% year-to-date, powered higher by investors' enthusiasm around CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "year of efficiency" cost cuts, which have involved laying off tens of thousands of employees in a bid to boost profits.

Meanwhile, Nvidia has jumped 106% in 2023, with the world's leading producer of graphics chips needed for high-intensity AI computing benefiting from the explosion of interest in technologies like ChatGPT.

The S&P 500 itself is up 8% this year, with the outsized gains of Meta, Nvidia, and a cluster of other high-flying tech stocks accounting for nearly all of the benchmark index's returns.

As well as cost cuts and the rise of ChatGPT, Meta and Nvidia have likely benefited from investors' growing belief that the Federal Reserve is about to wind down its war on inflation.

More than 70% of traders think the central bank raised interest rates for the final time this cycle in May, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.

When the Fed stops hiking, listed companies don't have to worry as much about their borrowing costs rising. That tends to particularly favor growth stocks, because it boosts the future, prospective cash flows that make up a core part of their valuations.

Meta and Nvidia's massive gains come after a dismal 2022 in which they plunged 61% and 45% respectively as the Fed started aggressively raising rates in a bid to tame soaring prices.

The S&P 500 fell nearly 20% and only one of its constituents – Occidental Petroleum – doubled in price.

The energy company, which has become a favorite of Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett, surged 117% in 2022.

Read more: Big tech stocks have started 2023 on a tear. Now they face a moment of truth.