For investors looking at the S&P 500 in the 7,800s, the view can feel both rewarding and uncomfortable. Reaching record territory offers validation to those who endured repeated crises, remained invested, and kept their attention on the long run.
Those gains may appear to reward one decision above all others: putting money into the stock market a long time ago. That idea captures the first part of the familiar saying about planting trees.
“The best time to plant a tree is decades ago.” Yet the rest of the saying, “the second-best time is right now,” can also apply to stocks, according to DataTrek’s Jessica Rabe.
Putting fresh money to work when stocks are at a record requires conviction. Investors are directing their capital into unknown territory while confronting the nagging question of whether current conditions are fundamentally different from what came before.
The stock market’s concentration adds to those concerns. The issue reaches beyond the split between market winners and losers, touching the broader course of the US economy and prompting some investors to think about Rome.
Rabe offers a source of reassurance that goes further than the basic observation that stocks usually rise over time. Her evidence comes from the flow of money into global venture capital and the innovation pipeline that funding supports.
Global venture capital funding so far this year has already surpassed 2025’s total by 53% during the first three quarters, according to Crunchbase. The surge gives wealthy accredited investors opportunities to enter companies early, but Rabe’s argument extends the potential benefits much further.
Public market investors may benefit from the experimentation taking place in private companies even if they cannot invest in those businesses directly. That process creates a wide field of companies testing ideas, seeking scale, and competing to become major players.
“Venture capital effectively serves as a free R&D engine for stock investors,” Rabe wrote. “VCs do the hard work of identifying, funding, nurturing, and scaling thousands of potentially disruptive companies.”
Most of those companies will fail, which is one reason limited access to them may not be a disadvantage for most investors. Venture capital accepts that reality while spreading money across numerous companies and ambitious ideas.
A substantial portion of these private ventures is based on artificial intelligence, creating its own form of market concentration. That resemblance matters because concentration is already among the worries facing investors as major public indexes trade near record territory.
Still, the venture capital system treats both risk and failure as part of doing business. Companies are tested inside what the source describes as a corporate petri dish, where losses are accepted alongside the possibility of extraordinary success.
The companies that survive may become the next Nvidia or Anthropic, businesses positioned to dominate markets and deliver returns. That possibility helps explain why strong venture funding can matter to investors who never directly own shares in the private companies receiving the money.
“That innovation pipeline is one of the underappreciated strengths of US capital markets,” Rabe added. Venture investors take on the task of selecting, financing, supporting, and expanding companies long before many public investors would have an opportunity to participate.
The pipeline does not erase the dangers of buying stocks near a record, nor does it guarantee that individual venture backed companies will succeed. Rabe’s point is that the depth of private innovation can provide public markets with a continuing stream of potential future leaders.
That gives investors another reason for confidence when the S&P 500 stands in the 7,800s. Rather than depending only on today’s established winners, the market may eventually draw strength from private companies currently competing for capital and scale.
For Rabe, that continuing supply of disruptive companies supports a favorable outlook extending beyond current market levels. “That deep pipeline of disruptive, US-based companies reinforces our long-term bullish view on US equities.”