While artificial intelligence (AI) is the trend behind this surge in stock valuations, it's the "Magnificent Seven" that have done most of the heavy lifting. They're also companies with markedly different outlooks, based on their operating cash flow. Ranking the Magnificent Seven according to their forward-year cash flowWhile the time-tested price-to-earnings ratio is the safety blanket for investors when quickly evaluating mature businesses, it doesn't do justice to growth stocks (i.e., the Magnificent Seven). Given that these companies aggressively reinvest their cash flow into high-growth initiatives, future cash flow serves as a far better measure of value. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla.