There are several strong artificial intelligence (AI) stock picks available in the market right now. The AI infrastructure build-out is expected to last through at least 2030, so scooping up shares now with a long-term investing mindset is a smart way to approach the current market environment. These five in particular look like solid buys right now.
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Nvidia (NVDA +0.15%) has been the top AI stock pick since 2023 for a good reason: Its products sit at the core of the AI build-out. Nvidia makes GPUs (graphics processing units), which are the primary computing units deployed in data centers to handle AI workloads. Though it's already the world's largest company by market cap, Nvidia continues to see incredible growth, with its revenue rising 85% in its most recent quarter.
Its growth is far from over, given projections that annual data center capital expenditures will rise to the $3 trillion to $4 trillion range by 2030. That's a major, long-term investing opportunity. With Nvidia's chips likely to be at the center of that, it's well worth buying its shares now.
Because of the AI infrastructure build-out, demand for memory chips now far exceeds supply, and the companies that make those chips are profiting from the shortage. When the supply of any commodity lags behind rising demand, basic economics dictates that the commodity price will soar, and that's exactly why Sandisk (SNDK +5.26%) has done so well lately. It makes NAND memory for solid-state drives (SSDs) for long-term data storage in data centers. Its revenues and profits are undergoing monstrous growth, and even though the stock has risen by a tremendous amount over the past year, it doesn't appear to be stopping.
Wall Street analysts expect 336% growth during Q4 of its fiscal 2026 (which ends this month), and 122% in fiscal 2027. With the memory chip crunch expected to persist for years, that makes Sandisk a solid investment pick right now.
Microsoft (MSFT +0.11%) used to be one of the more popular investment options in the AI realm. However, the market has lost some faith in it, and the stock is down around 25% from its all-time high. Yet all that Microsoft has been doing is growing its two primary AI divisions.
Microsoft's annual recurring AI revenue (from products like Copilot) crossed $37 billion last quarter, up 123% year over year. Its cloud computing division, Azure, saw 40% revenue growth, reflecting the huge demand for AI computing resources. Microsoft looks like a bargain buy right now, and investors should scoop up shares of this proven winner before it returns to setting new all-time highs.
Meta Platforms (META 0.14%) is probably the biggest wildcard among the four AI hyperscalers. It doesn't rent out its computing capacity to others, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims it's using it all. So, all of its AI spending has gone into boosting its own capabilities, which has worked out well for it on the advertising front.
Meta Platforms operates the social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and WhatsApp, and advertising on these platforms generates nearly all of Meta's revenue. Meta has used its AI investments to improve the effectiveness of its ad platform, which has led to solid 33% revenue growth. However, investors want more.
Meta is working on "more" with some products like AI glasses and a personal superintelligence model. If either of these two is a hit, Meta's stock could be primed for a major upside. Even if they don't pan out, Meta's ad business is still a solid reason to buy and hold the stock.
Although many may focus on Amazon's (AMZN 1.24%) e-commerce business, as an investor, I prefer to look at its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS provides more than half of Amazon's operating profits, so it's one of its most important business units. In Q1, it grew revenue by 28% year over year — its best pace in nearly four years. With demand for cloud computing capacity booming and Amazon spending $200 billion on data center capital expenditures this year alone, the growth rate for AWS will likely explode in the next few years.
Given that AWS' profit margins are substantially better than those of the e-commerce segment, this should lead to outsize growth on the bottom line, which is why I expect Amazon to be one of the best-performing stocks over the next few years.
Keithen Drury has positions in Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.
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There are several strong AI stock picks available right now.
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