Apple and Meta powered the Nasdaq's sizzling rally in July, helping the tech-heavy index wrap up a 5-month winning streak

• Apple and Meta stocks have been the key drivers of the Nasdaq 100's July rally.
• The two tech giants have seen their shares surge about 51% and over 165% so far this year, respectively.

Apple and Meta have powered the Nasdaq 100's July rally, helping the tech-heavy index advance for the fifth straight month straight in the longest winning run in three years.

The two tech stocks have surged this year thanks to investor excitement around artificial intelligence, strong second-quarter earnings reports, and the optimism about their next-generation products, including "Apple GPT" and Meta's Twitter rival, Threads.

Apple and Meta stocks have surged about 51% and 165%% year-to-date, respectively, with the latter's stunning gains helping boost CEO Mark Zuckerberg's fortunes to $120 billion this year.

The two stocks helped fuel the Nasdaq 100's 3.81% advance through July, taking its year-to-date rally to almost 44%.

The benchmark index feeds off the performance of tech-heavy stocks which have been rallying since the start of 2023, as the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT sparked an AI frenzy among traders.

That's despite concerns about US inflation, higher interest rates, and a looming recession.

The rally in tech stocks has even taken market bulls by surprise, including Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson. "We were wrong," Wilson said about the AI-fueled rally. "2023 has been a story of higher valuations than we expected amid falling inflation and cost cutting," he added.