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Received yesterday — 30 July 2025

Massive News for Alphabet Stock Investors

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) delivered huge news to stock market investors that you will not want to miss.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

*Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of July 27, 2025. The video was published on July 29, 2025.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $630,291!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,075,791!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,039% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025

Parkev Tatevosian, CFA has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Parkev Tatevosian is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.

Alphabet Stock Investors Need to See This

Demand for Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) artificial intelligence services justify the increase in spending to boost supply.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

*Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of July 26, 2025. The video was published on July 28, 2025.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $630,291!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,075,791!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,039% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025

Parkev Tatevosian, CFA has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Parkev Tatevosian is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.

Received before yesterday

Alphabet Just Gave Nvidia Investors Some Great News

Key Points

  • Alphabet now expects to lay out $85 billion in capital expenditures this year -- up from a previously planned $75 billion -- and expects to further accelerate that spending next year.

  • Alphabet's AI capex will be allocated toward servers, accelerated data center buildouts, and cloud computing infrastructure.

  • Rising AI infrastructure spending from hyperscalers such as Alphabet bodes well for Nvidia and its thriving GPU business.

Over the next several weeks, companies will report financial and operating results for the second quarter of 2025. As usual, technology investors will be focused on one thing: artificial intelligence (AI).

"Magnificent Seven" member Alphabet kicked things off earlier this week, reporting robust results across its search, advertising, and cloud computing divisions.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

While Alphabet shareholders should be encouraged by the internet giant's strong performance, I saw Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) as the real winner from the company's second-quarter performance.

Let's dig into some of the important moves Alphabet is making and assess how Nvidia is benefiting from them.

Alphabet is picking up the pace on AI infrastructure construction

During the Q2 earnings call, Alphabet's management updated some details of its financial guidance. Alphabet now plans to spend around $85 billion on capital expenditures (capex) in 2025. Of note, this is a $10 billion increase over the company's prior guidance.

And there's more. "Looking out to 2026, we expect a further increase in capex due to the demand we're seeing from customers as well as growth opportunities across the company," said Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi.

Despite its increasingly aggressive spending on AI infrastructure over the last few years, Alphabet has stated that it doesn't plan on slowing down anytime soon. This should be music to Nvidia's ears.

GOOGL Capital Expenditures (TTM) Chart

GOOGL Capital Expenditures (TTM) data by YCharts.

Why is this good for Nvidia?

Management consulting juggernaut McKinsey & Company is forecasting that AI infrastructure spending could reach $6.7 trillion by 2030. And its research suggests that almost half of that money will be allocated toward AI hardware for further data center construction.

In addition, research from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan indicates that generative AI could add between $7 trillion and $10 trillion to global gross domestic product in the long run.

From a macroeconomic perspective, these secular trends bode well for Nvidia's compute and networking empire. Moreover, I think that Alphabet's decision to bump up its AI infrastructure spending again adds some credibility to those industry forecasts.

Alphabet's management specified that it is raising its planned capex in order to accelerate the construction of data centers and position itself to fill the rising demand for capacity on the Google Cloud Platform.

Increased spending on network equipment, servers, and cloud infrastructure should lead to rising demand for graphics processing units (GPUs). I see this as a major positive development as Nvidia is still scaling up production of chips made using its latest Blackwell architecture.

Considering Nvidia holds an estimated 90% share of the data center GPU market, I see Alphabet's investments in AI infrastructure as a major tailwind for the chip king and further propels the company's momentum over competition in the chip space.

Server racks with GPU clusters inside a data center.

Image Source: Getty Images.

Is Nvidia stock a buy right now?

With a market cap north of $4.2 trillion, Nvidia is currently the most valuable company in the world. While this might lead one to assume that the stock is expensive, its underlying valuation trends tell a different story.

NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) Chart

NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

Nvidia currently trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 40. While this isn't "cheap" by traditional benchmarks, it is notably lower than the peak levels Nvidia has witnessed during the AI revolution.

What makes these dynamics interesting is that Nvidia's growth trajectory is arguably far stronger today than it was 18 months ago when its forward P/E valuation peaked. The company remains at the center of the AI revolution, providing massive amounts of fast parallel-processing power to hyperscalers and accelerating AI workloads.

To me, buying Nvidia stock at its current price is a no-brainer, and I see Alphabet's rising AI infrastructure spending as a long-term catalyst that should not be overlooked by growth investors.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,063,471!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025

JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

5 Brilliant Growth Stocks to Buy Now and Hold for the Long Term

Key Points

  • Alphabet's AI strengths are being overlooked by the market.

  • Amazon is using AI behind the scenes to become more efficient and drive growth.

  • Meta Platforms and Pinterest are both using AI to drive advertising revenue growth.

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom continues to drive growth and transform industries, but it's not just infrastructure players that are benefiting. Some of the best long-term opportunities are with companies deploying AI behind the scenes.

Let's look at five brilliant AI-related growth stocks to buy and hold for the long haul.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

1. Alphabet

Investors continue to underestimate Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), as they worry about AI disrupting its search business. But that view ignores what Google, its major component, actually does. This is a company built around content discovery -- not just traditional search -- and it's integrating AI into tools billions of people already use. And no other company is better at monetizing that content discovery through advertising than Alphabet. Its search data and digital ad network just cannot be matched.

The Chrome browser and Android operating system give it unmatched distribution; Chrome is the default search engine on the majority of devices, giving it a huge built-in advantage. And a recent Oppenheimer survey revealed that users found Google Search's new AI Mode more helpful than not only traditional search but also ChatGPT.

YouTube remains the world's largest ad-supported streaming platform. Google Cloud, Alphabet's cloud computing unit, is growing fast, helping companies build, train, and run AI models.

Google is also becoming a chip leader. Its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are helping to power AI development, while its Willow quantum computing chip may be a future growth driver. And Alphabet subsidiary Waymo is expanding its robotaxi footprint.

Taken altogether, Alphabet is one of the most innovative companies in the world, and one you want to own.

2. Amazon

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is using AI to become even more dominant. While it's best known for e-commerce and cloud computing, the company's behind-the-scenes work is where the real long-term value is being built.

On the logistics and warehouse side, Amazon is using AI to determine where to store inventory, create more efficient delivery routes, and even navigate hard-to-find drop-off points. Its robotics division just passed 1 million deployed units, and some of its AI-powered robots can detect damaged products or even repair themselves. Amazon also created a new AI model called DeepFleet that coordinates its entire robot fleet to help boost throughput.

The company's largest and fastest-growing business is Amazon Web Services (AWS). It helps customers build AI models and apps with tools like Bedrock and SageMaker, and then has them run those programs on its infrastructure. It's also developed custom AI chips that give it a cost advantage, and continues to invest in AI infrastructure to meet rising demand.

Overall, Amazon is well positioned for an increasingly AI-focused world.

3. Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) owns one of the world's most valuable digital advertising businesses, and AI is making it better. Its Llama models are driving more engagement across Facebook and Instagram, boosting user time spent on the apps. That gives Meta more ad inventory to sell. It's also using AI to help advertisers create better campaigns and target potential customers, which is increasing demand and leading to higher ad prices.

But Meta's growth story is just getting started. The company is only now beginning to serve ads on WhatsApp, which has over 3 billion users. It's also rolling out ads on Threads, its new social platform, which had 350 million users at the end of the first quarter. With two massive platforms still early in their monetization cycles and AI continuing to drive performance, Meta looks like a long-term winner in the AI-powered digital economy.

But the company is not stopping there. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is spending aggressively to poach top AI talent. This is all part of an effort to -- as Zuckerberg says -- "deliver personal superintelligence to everyone in the world." If it's successful, Meta could become the top AI stock to own.

A digital rendering of a brain labeled Ai.

Image source: Getty Images.

4. Pinterest

Meta isn't the only social media company using AI to drive growth. Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) has been using AI to evolve into a more shoppable and advertiser-friendly platform. The company has built a multimodal model that understands both images and text, allowing for better personalization and powering new features like visual search. Users can now click on items within images and shop for similar products directly, making Pinterest far more transactional and more attractive to both users and advertisers.

It's also working to simplify advertising on its platform. Performance+, its new AI-powered ad product, automates everything from campaign creation to targeting and bidding. That makes the platform easier to use for advertisers and helps them save time and drive better outcomes.

Pinterest has a global user base that has historically been undermonetized, especially compared to those of its peers. But with AI improving engagement, search, and ad performance, the company has a big opportunity to start to close that gap. If it can continue executing on its vision of merging content discovery with commerce, Pinterest could be a breakout growth story over the long term.

5. Toast

Toast (NYSE: TOST) has become one of the leading software platforms for the restaurant industry. What started as simply a point-of-sale system is now a full-stack software platform that helps restaurants streamline operations and drive more sales. Its newest tools -- like the AI-powered intelligence engine ToastIQ and the agent and assistant Sous Chef -- are designed to help restaurants make better decisions in real time.

Meanwhile, the company said a restaurant piloting its new menu upsell tool saw average order volume increase by 6%, while another restaurant group testing its new AI-powered advertising tool saw more than a "10x return on ad spend" with Google Ads.

Toast directly benefits from its customers' success, earning a cut of sales through payment processing. That creates a strong alignment between the business and its customers, so the company continues to innovate to help drive restaurant sales. Toast added 6,000 new locations in Q1 and now serves more than 140,000 restaurants. It's also expanding into chains like Applebee's and Topgolf, as well as adjacent verticals like hotel food service and retailers. It's slowly expanding overseas as well.

Toast's pace of innovation and expanding customer base give it a long runway of growth. This makes it a growth stock you want to own for the long term.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,774!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,064,942!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,040% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025

Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet, Pinterest, and Toast. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Pinterest, and Toast. The Motley Fool recommends Topgolf Callaway Brands. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The Best Stocks to Invest $1,000 in Right Now

Key Points

  • At 20 times earnings, investors are likely overlooking Google parent Alphabet's vast potential.

  • Autonomous driving could be a game changer for Uber stock.

  • Southeast Asian tech conglomerate Sea Limited appears to be following Amazon's path to success.

Starting off a portfolio with $1,000 may seem overly modest, but it can be a great place to begin. The more challenging task is finding stocks that can turn $1,000 into a significantly larger sum without incurring excessive risk.

Admittedly, investing in individual stocks is not entirely risk-free. Nonetheless, staying with established companies dramatically reduces investor risks, and the undervaluation in these three companies positions investors for gains as they realize more of their growth potential.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

A pile of $20 bills.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Alphabet

One of the more compelling bargains on the market today is Google's parent company, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Despite being an early pioneer in AI, Alphabet appeared to be caught flat-footed when OpenAI introduced its generative AI-driven version of ChatGPT. The company released Google Gemini soon after, but Google Search remains under threat from competition for the first time in decades.

Also, Alphabet still generates around 74% of its revenue from digital advertising. Since its generative AI directs users to websites less often, it has resulted in fewer opportunities to generate ad-driven income.

Google Cloud now accounts for 14% of the company's revenue. Moreover, its autonomous driving company, Waymo, could become a revenue source as self-driving cars become more prevalent. Alphabet also holds $95 billion in liquidity and generated almost $75 billion in free cash flow over the trailing 12 months, giving the company tremendous resources to compete in other business ventures.

Amid these struggles, Alphabet stock trades for just 21 times earnings. Given its optionality and non-ad revenue sources, its growth is likely not yet complete, meaning it could still experience market-beating growth for years to come.

2. Uber

Investors know Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) as the leader in ridesharing and one of the leading delivery companies. The company has established a globally recognized brand in these industries, as well as its freight business.

Although the mobility and delivery segments remain on a long-term growth trajectory, Uber's real future may lie in autonomous vehicles. The company has partnered with autonomous vehicle companies such as Alphabet's Waymo and the General Motors subsidiary Cruise.

Uber provides a platform to arrange rides and bring customers to these companies, allowing its partners to focus on improving autonomous driving and, to a lesser extent, air taxis, such as those being developed by companies like Joby Aviation.

Thanks to that emerging industry, Straits Research believes the autonomous vehicle will take the global ridesharing market to a 21% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2033, reaching a size of $918 billion.

Uber earned $44 billion in revenue in 2024, although it generated just over half of that from ridesharing, suggesting that Uber will likely claim a significant portion of the anticipated growth over the next few years.

A one-time income tax benefit makes its 16 P/E ratio a deceptive valuation measure. Nonetheless, with a 25 forward P/E ratio, Uber could be an excellent choice for both growth and value investors seeking outsize returns.

3. Sea Limited

Sea Limited (NYSE: SE) is not a household name for American investors, as its e-commerce and fintech arms operate primarily in Southeast Asia. However, for those who missed out on Amazon, the tech conglomerate may serve as a second-chance stock.

The company's Shopee segment is the leading e-retailer in Southeast Asia, a region with a population of around 650 million. Since its failed attempts to sell in most of its non-Asian markets, it has taken a page from Amazon's playbook and invested heavily in logistics.

Additionally, fintech giant Monee adds mobile payment options to cash-focused consumers in the developed world, while gaming company Garena had the world's most downloaded mobile game in 2024, Free Fire.

While Monee has remained consistently strong, Shopee's growth has recovered amid its investments in logistics. Furthermore, after several quarters of revenue declines, Garena has recovered amid Free Fire's renewed popularity.

With all three segments in growth mode, Sea Limited's revenue rose 30% year over year in the first quarter of 2025, far above the 5% annual growth in the first quarter of 2023.

This has led to an improved valuation, and while its P/E ratio of 112 may appear pricey, the forward P/E of 40, which is based on predicted growth, arguably makes this stock a bargain. Considering that its $94 billion market cap is a small fraction of Amazon's $2.4 trillion market cap, it appears positioned for considerable growth from current levels.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,056,790!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Will Healy has positions in Sea Limited and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Sea Limited, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Prediction: These 5 First-Half AI Stock Losers Will Be Second-Half Winners

Key Points

  • Alphabet and GitLab are misunderstood stocks that are poised to be AI winners.

  • Salesforce and ServiceNow are software companies with big AI opportunities in front of them.

  • SentinelOne has a big potential catalyst in the second half as its deal with Lenovo rolls out.

The first half of 2025 wasn't kind to a number of promising artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, particularly in the software space. However, the second half could be very different.

Let's look at five stocks that were AI losers in the first half of 2025 that look poised to rebound in the second half.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Alphabet

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG) continues to be one of the most misunderstood stocks in the market. Investors keep worrying about AI disrupting its core search business, but that misses the bigger picture. Google isn't a search company -- it's a content discovery platform with a huge distribution advantage and decades of behavioral data behind it.

Alphabet's browser and mobile operating system give it an enormous edge. Chrome commands more than 65% of global browser share, while Android runs on over 70% of smartphones. Meanwhile, Google has revenue-sharing deals to be the default search engine across Apple devices and other browsers. As search and AI evolve, that distribution becomes increasingly important.

At the same time, Google has stepped up its game with its new AI-powered Search Mode. In a recent Oppenheimer survey, 82% of users found it more helpful than traditional search, and 75% preferred it to ChatGPT. Importantly, Google doesn't need to change user behavior and have people switch over to its apps. Its billions of users just need to click AI Mode to get this experience.

Its cloud computing business is also gaining traction. Google Cloud revenue rose 28% last quarter, and the company is investing heavily to build capacity to keep up with demand. Add in under-appreciated assets like its Waymo robotaxi business and its Willow quantum chip, and Alphabet looks ready to rebound in the back half.

GitLab

Another company that is misunderstood is GitLab (NASDAQ: GTLB). Investors are worried that with AI, organizations are going to need fewer coders. However, thus far AI has led to more software development, while GitLab has quietly been transforming itself into a software development lifecycle platform.

The company took a big step forward in this direction with the release of GitLab 18. It added over 30 new features, including its Duo Agent Platform, which allows users to deploy AI agents across the entire development cycle from code generation to testing to compliance. This is important, as according to William Blair, developers only spend about 20% of their time actually writing code.

The company has already been growing revenue at a strong clip, including 27% last quarter. The growth is being driven by new customers as well as existing customers buying more seats and upgrading tiers. GitLab has also been expanding key partnerships, including with Amazon.

As a company that is helping drive end-to-end development workflow efficiency, GitLab has a strong future ahead and looks like a solid rebound candidate.

Artist rendering of AI in a brain.

Image source: Getty Images.

Salesforce

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) has spent the last year refocusing its platform around AI. Its new Agentforce platform has over 4,000 paying customers already, and it's at the center of what could become a much bigger digital labor platform.

The company's strategy is to unify apps, data, automation, and metadata to a single framework called ADAM. It will then use this as a foundation to build and scale AI agents, helping create a digital workforce. It also recently rolled out a more flexible pricing model tied to outcomes to help increase adoption.

Salesforce is already the leader in customer relationship management (CRM) software, and its push into AI agents could be a huge growth driver. With the stock lagging in the first half, it could rebound if Agentforce starts to gain more traction.

ServiceNow

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) may not be an obvious AI name, but it's also using AI to help transform its business. The company's roots are in IT management, but it has since expanded into human resources, finance, and customer service.

The company's strength has always been connecting siloed departments and helping organizations streamline their operations. It has embedded AI into its Now Platform, helping take these efforts to the next level. It's been seeing strong traction, with AI-driven Pro Plus deals quadrupling year over year last quarter. As organizations increasingly focus on efficiency and automation to help reduce costs, ServiceNow is well-positioned.

While some investors worry about enterprise software budgets, ServiceNow is a cost-saving platform that should continue to perform well in the current environment. That should help set the stock up to rebound later this year.

SentinelOne

SentinelOne's (NYSE: S) stock was under pressure in the first half of the year, but there's a good reason to believe that it will perform much better in the second half. The big reason is that its new partnership with Lenovo is about to ramp up.

Lenovo is the world's largest enterprise PC vendor, and starting in the second half, it will pre-install SentinelOne's Singularity Platform on all new computers it sells. Existing Lenovo users will also be able to upgrade to SentinelOne's AI-powered security platform. That's a huge opportunity for the cybersecurity company.

SentinelOne has already been seeing solid revenue growth, including 23% last quarter. While it's not the leader in the endpoint security space -- that would be CrowdStrike -- its platform receives high marks from Gartner. Meanwhile, its Purple AI solution, which helps analysts hunt complex security threats through the use of natural language prompts, has been the fastest-growing solution in its history.

All in all, SentinelOne is a solid company whose stock trades at a big discount to some of its bigger peers. Meanwhile, the Lenovo deal should be a catalyst in the second half.

Should you invest $1,000 in GitLab right now?

Before you buy stock in GitLab, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and GitLab wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,056,790!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet, GitLab, Salesforce, and SentinelOne. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, CrowdStrike, GitLab, Salesforce, SentinelOne, and ServiceNow. The Motley Fool recommends Gartner. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Be Too Cheap to Ignore Right Now

Key Points

Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks and "cheap" aren't often placed in the same sentence, but I think that's true of two stocks in particular. Both Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) appear to be cheap, but for two separate reasons.

In a market that's growing increasingly expensive, I think taking a hard look at these two stocks is worthwhile, as the value they provide investors is near the best available.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Investor looking at a tablet with financial information.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Alphabet

Alphabet is the parent company of Google, YouTube, Waymo, and the Android operating system. However, Alphabet derives the majority of its revenue from one source: advertisements.

This is also the major concern from the market, as Alphabet's primary revenue source, the Google Search engine, is under attack from generative AI. Google Search accounted for 56% of revenue in the first quarter. While we don't have an individualized breakdown of Google Search's operating margin, the Google Services division generated an operating margin of 42%, accounting for over 100% of Alphabet's total operating profits.

That's because this division funds various Alphabet investments that don't generate any profits, so this segment needs to continue performing well for Alphabet to remain attractive to investors.

However, there are some signs of Google's dominance slipping, as its market share has fallen below 90% for the first time since 2015. Furthermore, many Wall Street analysts and other tech-savvy people have replaced Google Search with generative AI. As a result, many are forecasting the downfall of Google, which is why the stock trades at a huge discount to the market.

GOOG PE Ratio (Forward) Chart

GOOG PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts. PE Ratio = price-to-earnings ratio.

At 19 times forward earnings, Alphabet's stock is far cheaper than the broader market, as measured by the S&P 500. The S&P 500 trades for 23.7 times forward earnings, so there is a tangible difference in valuation between these two securities.

However, I think this bearish sentiment is unwarranted. In Q1, Google Search's revenue increased 10% year over year -- not a sign of a company that's failing. Additionally, I think the majority of the population could do without the capabilities of a generative AI web browser or search capabilities and are perfectly fine with the AI Overview Google offers at the top of every search result.

We'll receive more information from Alphabet on July 23 when it reports its Q2 results, but I expect Google Search revenue to remain healthy, which could lead to the stock rising.

2. Taiwan Semiconductor

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) is the world's leading chip foundry, producing chips for giants such as Apple and Nvidia. TSMC has beaten out other chip foundries for multiple reasons, but chief among them is that it doesn't market any chips directly to consumers. Taiwan Semiconductor is a chip fab facility only, so its clients don't have to worry about it stealing their technology to produce a product that rivals their own.

Additionally, Taiwan Semiconductor is always at the forefront of new chip technology. This remains true, as they are launching their 2-nanometer (nm) chip node later this year and a 1.6 nm offering in 2026.

This dominance has enabled it to establish itself firmly at the forefront of the chip fabrication industry, and its services are in high demand. As a result, clients often place chip orders years in advance, which gives TSMC unparalleled insight into the direction the market is heading. Over the next five years, management projects a 45% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in AI-related revenue and a nearly 20% CAGR in total revenue.

That's market-crushing growth, and if it pans out, Taiwan Semiconductor stock will be a must-own. Despite management's strong track record and the obvious tailwinds in the chip industry, TSMC's stock trades at only 24.9 times forward earnings.

TSM PE Ratio (Forward) Chart

TSM PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts. PE Ratio = price-to-earnings ratio.

While this is technically more expensive than the broader market, the difference is only slight. Furthermore, with the market's long-term growth rate hovering at around 10%, TSMC's projected 20% growth rate significantly outpaces it.

As a result, TSMC appears undervalued for its growth and should be acquired before the stock rises further.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

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The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,056,790!*

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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Apple, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Want to Invest in Quantum Computing Without the Crazy Risk? Buy These 3 Stocks.

Key Points

  • Alphabet is playing to win in the quantum computing space.

  • Microsoft believes it will build a scalable quantum supercomputer within "years, not decades."

  • Nvidia is investing heavily in quantum computing and has an all-star lineup of partners.

Some things come in pairs. Chopsticks, gloves, salt and pepper, socks, and cartoon characters Tom and Jerry come to mind. Unfortunately, so does investing in quantum computing stocks and a high level of risk.

While quantum computing is highly promising, it's still a largely unproven technology. Several of the small, high-flying quantum computing stocks on the market could become even bigger winners over the next several years -- or they could go bust.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Want to invest in quantum computing without the crazy risk? Buy these three stocks.

A finger pointing to the high end of a digital display of a risk gauge.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Alphabet

Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google Quantum AI (artificial intelligence) has achieved two major quantum computing milestones in recent years. In 2019, its quantum technology solved a problem in 200 seconds that the company said would have taken the world's fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to handle. In 2023, Google Quantum AI made a big breakthrough in quantum error correction.

Make no mistake about it: Alphabet is playing to win in the quantum computing space. But unlike the smaller quantum computing companies, the Google parent is already highly profitable (raking in over $100 billion in earnings last year). Alphabet is also sitting on a cash stockpile of $95 billion, enough to gobble up all the smaller rivals if it wanted to.

Alphabet isn't generating much money from its quantum computing efforts yet. The company's cash cow is still its advertising business, led by Google Search and YouTube. Google Cloud is also the fastest-growing member of the top-tier cloud providers.

Granted, buying Alphabet comes with some risk. Google is appealing two major antitrust lawsuits, and generative AI could eventually threaten the company's search engine dominance. However, these risks aren't as great as those of some quantum computing companies. I think Alphabet will continue to be a big winner for investors over the long run.

2. Microsoft

Like Alphabet's Google Quantum AI, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has accomplished two big milestones on its quantum computing roadmap. In May 2023, it announced a breakthrough that enables the creation of a new type of qubit (the quantum bit that's the basic unit of information in quantum computing). Earlier this year, Microsoft introduced Marjorana 1, a quantum chip that uses the world's first topoconductor (a material that helps create more scalable qubits).

Microsoft's goal is to build a scalable quantum supercomputer in "years, not decades." The company claims that it's "leading the industry with advanced technology that accelerates scientific discovery." For some businesses, those statements might be dismissed as mere hype. But with Microsoft, which made $270 billion in sales over the last 12 months, I wouldn't be so skeptical.

Few companies are as heavily invested in as many high-growth areas as Microsoft. In addition to quantum computing, Microsoft is a leader in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud services, cybersecurity, and augmented reality/virtual reality.

Investing in Microsoft isn't risk-free. The company could stumble, and/or the stock's valuation (shares trade at 33.4 times forward earnings) could become problematic. But the risks associated with this tech titan are trivial compared to those of a business that's burning through cash.

3. Nvidia

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang sparked a sell-off of quantum computing stocks early this year after stating that quantum computing won't be "very useful" for at least another 15 years. He later backtracked on those comments.

The reality is that Huang's company is investing heavily in quantum computing. Nvidia is building an accelerated quantum research center in Boston. It has also developed CUDA-QX, a collection of libraries and tools to help quantum researchers use Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) to accelerate their applications. And the company is partnering with many of the world's leading quantum computing pioneers.

Does Nvidia's success hinge on quantum computing fulfilling its potential? Not at all. AI should provide a sufficiently strong tailwind to keep Nvidia's revenue and profits growing for a long time to come.

Sure, Nvidia faces some challenges. Rivals and even customers have developed their own AI chips. Chinese tech company DeepSeek has also raised concerns that the underlying technology of AI models could require significantly fewer GPUs, potentially threatening Nvidia's growth. However, Nvidia's chances of delivering market-beating returns over the next decade still look pretty good, in my view.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,056,790!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Keith Speights has positions in Alphabet and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

AI, Superman, and Solar's Kryptonite

In this podcast, Motley Fool host Anand Chokkavelu and contributors Jason Hall and Matt Frankel discuss:

  • AI stocks in the data center space (including CoreWeave).
  • Winners and losers in energy and solar from Trump's "big, beautiful bill."
  • Ranking the intellectual property of Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast, Disney, and Netflix.
  • Prime Day and other made-up holidays.
  • Stocks to watch.

And Dave Schaeffer, founder and CEO of Cogent Communications, talks with Motley Fool analysts Asit Sharma and Sanmeet Deo about how Cogent's deals with customers like Netflix and Meta Platforms work and what keeps him awake at night.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy.

A full transcript is below.

Where to invest $1,000 right now

When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,053%* — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500.

They just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now, available when you join Stock Advisor.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of July 14, 2025

This podcast was recorded on July 11, 2025.

Anand Chokkavelu: Yes, we're talking all kinds of stocks. This week's Motley Fool Money Radio Show starts now. It's the Motley Fool Money Radio Show. I'm Anand Chokkavelu. Joining me are two of my favorite fools, Jason Hall and Matt Frankel. Today, we'll talk about stock market winners and losers from the Big Beautiful Bill. We'll pit Superman versus the Hulk, and we'll of course debate stocks on our radar. But first, we'll discuss whether there's an AI opportunity in investing in data centers. Upstart data center company, CoreWeave, again made news this week this time for announcing the purchase of Core Scientific for $9 billion. This allows it to add infrastructure to consolidate vertically as it seeks to gain market share among AI and high performance computing customers. CoreWeave is just the tip of the data center iceberg. Matt, what categories of data center opportunities are out there?

Matt Frankel: First, you have hyper scalers. These are companies like AWS, Microsoft, Desha. They are companies that operate the large scale data centers. They offer computing and storage infrastructures to customers. As Anand put it, there's CoreWeave, which is one of the least understood recent IPOs that I know. [laughs] They rent out GPU data center infrastructures to customers. It's not always practical for companies to invest in all of NVIDIA's latest chips on their own, for example. That's really what they do. There's the REITs still, Digital Realty and Equinix are the two big ones. They own the data centers. CoreWeave is actually a big Digital Realty tenant. Then there's power generation. I know Jason's going to talk about this a little bit later in the show, but data centers consume a lot of power, and it's growing at an exponential pace. These chips that NVIDIA produces, they are power drains. Nuclear, especially, could be a big part of the solution, but solar and other renewables are also in there.

Jason Hall: We're definitely in the land grab phase of the infrastructure buildout for accelerated computing. I think accelerated computing is maybe a better description than just AI. We talk about the Cloud REIT large. As we see more of the companies involved start to monetize things like AI agents at scale. I think that's where these investments are going to pay off.

Anand Chokkavelu: Big question. Do any of these categories interest you all for investing?

Matt Frankel: Well, I'm well known as being the real estate guy at the Motley Fool, so it shouldn't be a big surprise, but Digital Realty is my second largest and my second longest running REIT investment in my portfolio. I'm an Amazon shareholder, and I know that's not their only business, but AWS is the primary reason I own it. I don't own CoreWeave yet, and I think the stock is a little bit pricey, to say the least. But the more I read about it, the more I'm intrigued by the company. As I mentioned, they're a big tenant of Digital Realty, so I have some exposure already.

Jason Hall: The things about CoreWeave that concern me is the stock is definitely expensive. But if the opportunity is even close to as large as we think, it could still work out, but they're going to need a lot of money to pay for what they're trying to do and depending on how much of that is from raising debt versus secondary offerings of shares, there's still a lot of questions there. But, Anand, you've given me a chance to talk about Brookfield here. [laughs] How do I not take that opportunity? But I do think that there's a couple of Brookfield entities that are positioned really well here. I want to talk about the providing the energy part of it. Brookfield Renewable is really in the driver seat here as a global provider of renewable energy on multi decade contracts. It is not just accelerated computing, it's the energy transition REIT large. We've already seen it strike big deals with Microsoft and others to provide renewable power on those multi decade contracts. The dividend is really attractive, too. BEP, that's the partnership, yields over 5%. The corporate shares BEPC, it yields about 4.5%. Since mid 2020, that's when Brookfield Renewable rolled the corporation part out and restructured its dividend. The payouts been increased almost 30%. There's a lot to like here. Beyond the yield, I think it's primed to be a total return dynamo over the next decade. If you don't want to own a company that's in the energy part, you want to own the infrastructure, just take a look at sister company Brookfield Infrastructure. The tickers there are BIP and BIPC.

Anand Chokkavelu: Of course, these aren't the only AI stocks out there. Hi, NVIDIA. Do any other areas of AI interest you guys?

Matt Frankel: I love that. You can't talk about AI and data centers without talking about the chipmakers. NVIDIA just hit $4 trillion today as the day we're recording this. NVIDIA is an amazing business, and it has more room to grow than people think just in the data center accelerator space, which is why they're getting so much attention for good reason. The market size is expected to roughly double over the next five years. That's not even to mention the opportunities they have in chips for autonomous vehicles, chips for gaming and more but I prefer AMD, which is often referred to as NVIDIA junior, but I don't think it should be. It's an incredibly well run company that's been a mistake to bet against in the past. As Intel found out the hard way, just having a dominant market share in an area of chip making is not always enough.

Jason Hall: An area of the market that I think could do really well some of the legacy enterprise software giants. I think there may be underappreciated winners from AI. I'll use Salesforce, ticker CRM as an example. It's really starting to get traction with things like it's data cloud and with AI agents. It's starting to sell. We're seeing really rapid uptake of those things and monetization. It has a benefit, an advantage over a lot of these AI start-ups that are just pure AI businesses. It's already a trusted integrated partner with hundreds of thousands of enterprises. It knows their business, it knows their challenges, regulations, opportunities and that credibility, I think, is an edge that we don't give enough credit to. We shouldn't underestimate switching costs, I guess, is what I'm really getting at. You look at Salesforce rates for about 21 times free cash flow and less than seven times sales. That's a really good opportunity. I think it equates to double digit returns if it can just grow revenue around 8-12% a year over the long term, which I think it can.

Anand Chokkavelu: We started to talk a bit about energy and the need for it with all this AI. Let's talk about the energy industry implications of the Big Beautiful Bill, which was signed into law last week. Jason, can you give us the summary of the energy portions?

Jason Hall: Summarizing anything's hard for me, but I'll try. I think the short version is the incentives for renewables, they're getting gutted, really. There's a 30% investment tax credit or ITC for short. The residential solar and battery systems portion of that had been in place to run through 2032 before gradually declining for a few years after that. That now expires. The systems have to be fully installed and commissioned by the end of this year. The commercial ITC for solar and wind projects was on a similar track, but now it expires at the end of 2027, but those projects must begin construction by July 4th of 2026 to qualify for that 30% tax credit. It also terminates the tax credit for new and used EVs, $7,500 for a new EV and up to 4,000 for a used EV. The purchase has to happen before September 30th of this year, so a couple of months. Lastly, it ends the US regulatory credits around vehicle emissions that automakers buy largely from Tesla. This is a significant and profitable revenue stream for EV makers that essentially is going away.

Matt Frankel: Jason, when you say renewables are being gutted, you're essentially referring to solar and wind, if I'm not mistaken. It's not gutting anything for nuclear power, correct?

Jason Hall: That's correct. These things you get are the pure renewables as we think of them.

Anand Chokkavelu: Let's put a fine point on this with specifics. Who are the relative winners and losers, Jason?

Jason Hall: This could be an hour long show, but I'll try to summarize it here. Thinking about the companies that are most directly affected, I think Canadian Solar, which is a large manufacturer of solar panels and energy storage, and they really largely target the utility market, but also residential is definitely a loser here. In the near term Sunrun, its business model is tied to these tax credits as an installer and to some degree, First Solar is also going to be affected. I don't think there's really any winners out of this when it comes to solar. But I think Enphase is probably still in a better position in the market may believe. Maybe First Solar as well. It's been through these battles before, and it has been a winner over the long term. If you look at wind, GE Vernova has been on a huge run. I love that business, but I don't love the stock right now. Tesla, I think maybe one of the bigger losers that investors haven't really considered. Last fiscal year, it earned 2.76 billion in revenue from regulatory credits. That's largely pure profit. Then there's also the loss of those EV tax credits for buyers. That might be offset from some incentives for US made autos that are part of the bill now that were part of the law, but I think this puts Tesla in a tougher spot. The tailwinds are not favorable for fossil fuels before this. This doesn't really change any of that. There's opportunities there, but not because of the law.

Matt Frankel: The reason I asked about nuclear a minute ago is because that's really what I see as the big winner here. I like some of the nuclear focused utility providers. Constellation Energy is one that comes to mind. One of their stated goals is to have the largest carbon free nuclear power fleet in the US by 2040. Jacob Solutions, they provide consulting and design services to the industry. Ticker symbol is J, so it's really easy to remember. They recently had some really big nuclear contract wins. I'm going to push back on Jason's Tesla as a big loser. One, they're American made cars. They qualify for that new auto loan interest deduction, so that could help offset what they're losing from the EV tax credits. They have a big energy storage business, and AI has not only giant power demands, but very variable power demands, and it's going to create a lot of need for large scale energy storage, and Tesla does that. I think they're worth watching.

Jason Hall: That's the one part of Tesla's business that's done extraordinarily well. Over the past few years, as the EV business has weakened, is that the battery business.

Anand Chokkavelu: Now quickly the big question, is solar still investable, Jason?

Jason Hall: I think so. We have a very US centric view, obviously, and the US is a massive important market for solar. But you look around the world and the regulatory environment is still largely favorable. I think if you're willing to write out plenty of volatility, that global opportunity is still really good. Businesses like Enphase, businesses like First Solar that have been through these battles before, and even a Canadian Solar, where it has a ton of projects that it's been funding to build on its books that the math just got changed for them in some big ways. The valuation is so cheap that I think that there's some opportunity there.

Matt Frankel: Taking a step back, the reason you have incentives for solar energy, for EVs, for all this, is because without them, they're not price competitive with the existing technologies. The gap has narrowed significantly, especially in solar over the past say 10 years as to the efficiency of the products themselves and just how much they cost. Eventually, solar is going to be able to stand on its own without incentives. But like Jason said, you have to be able to write out some volatility because that could be five years, that could be 10 years, that could be 20 years so eventually, it won't matter.

Anand Chokkavelu: After the break, we'll move from solar to something else that gets its power from the yellow sun. Stay right here. This is Motley Fool Money.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Anand Chokkavelu, here with Jason Hall and Matt Frankel. One of our Brothers Discovery's much anticipated latest reboot of Superman hits theaters on Friday. Hoping the Justice League can one day catch Disney's Marvel cinematic universe and hot on the heels of last week's Jurassic World Rebirth from Comcast. In honor of Summer movies, we're going to rank those three companies based on the value of their intellectual property. We'll throw in Netflix for good measure. Its headline this week was stating that half of its global audience now watches anime. Chokkavelu household certainly does with one piece. My kids have gotten me into it. For those unfamiliar, they have more episodes than the Simpsons. Matt, once again, your four choices are Warner Brothers Discovery. That includes the DC Universe, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Harry Potter, the Matrix, Looney Tunes, all our favorite HBO shows. You got Comcast with Shrek, Minions, Kung Fu Panda. You got Disney with Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and Mickey Mouse. Finally, you got Netflix with things like Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Squid Game, newer Adam Sandler movies, and tons of niche content. Mentioned anime, you could argue whether that's niche content or not at this point. Whose intellectual property do you most value, Matt?

Matt Frankel: See, I said Disney. All four of these have excellent intellectual property, and I'll give you a more elaborate description there. In my household, you mentioned your household, how you have all these streaming things. We have a streaming service from all four of these. We have the Peacock service, which is a comcast product. We have HBO Max, which is a Warner Brothers discovery product. We have Disney Plus, and we have Netflix. Disney Plus also has Hulu attached to it. I ask myself, which is the least dispensable? I could cancel all the other ones before I'd be allowed to cancel Disney Plus for the other members of my household. Their film franchises are beyond compare. They have a much longer history of building intellectual property than all of these, especially in terms of valuables. Mickey Mouse is so old, it's not even intellectual property anymore. It's over 100-years-old, so I think it's actually in the public domain now. I have to say Disney, although it's a lot closer than I would have thought a few years ago.

Jason Hall: Yeah, if you had have asked me a few years ago, I absolutely would have said Disney, but I'm going to give the advantage to Netflix here. Let me contextualize that. I think the total value of Disney's IP is probably higher, but Netflix's ability to monetize it more effectively all over the world, I think, is even better than Disney's. I don't think any of these businesses in their studios have done a better job of making content that's relevant in more markets around the world than Netflix does. Let's be honest, I was able to watch Happy Gilmore with my eight year old son this weekend and I watched that on Netflix, that's bridging generations right there.

Anand Chokkavelu: Three things. One, Chokkavelu household is very excited for Happy Gilmore, too. Even my wife is in on it. Two, the Steamboat Willie era, Mickey Mouse is free to the world. The other ones aren't. I'm glad I'm not the only one with way too many streaming services, Matt. Let's talk about Last Place. Who are you cutting first, Matt?

Matt Frankel: Well, all those streaming services are still less than I was paying for direct TV a few years ago, so I think I'm doing all right. For me, the last place, it was between Comcast and Warner Brothers Discovery, both of which have amazing intellectual property, just to show you what a tight race this is. Comcast has universal. I was just in Orlando, and the universal theme parks are massive down there. But I have to put Comcast in last place. Just because Warner Brothers, I think the HBO Max acquisition was such a big advantage for them. They have some of the most valuable television assets of all time. More people watch the sopranos now than they did when it was originally on TV. It's a very valuable valuable asset, Game of Thrones. All these HBO shows that are among the highest rated shows of all time are part of their library. In addition to their film studio and all the other assets that we can't name because it's not that long of a show. I'd have to give Comcast last place, although, like I said, there's a good argument to be made for most of these to be in the top one or two.

Jason Hall: Yeah, I think that's fair. I agree with Matt that Comcast is the Number 4 here. But I don't think that's a flaw. It's just the nature of its business. About two thirds of its business comes from its cable subscriptions and high speed Internet. It's built differently than these other companies. I think it's fine that it's a little bit smaller.

Anand Chokkavelu: I will say, just to defend Comcast a little. I was thinking about my parents live in Florida, and it's high time we bring my two boys to Disney World or something like that. Honestly, the Universal theme park, the new one with Nintendo, Mario and the Harry Potter realm, it's close. We might we might prefer that one, but just to give a little love to Comcast and Universal. Jason Hall and Matt Frankel, we'll see you a little bit later in the show, but up next, we'll talk to the founder of one of the top five networks in the world, so stick around. This is Motley Fool Money. [MUSIC].

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Anand Chokkavelu. Dave Schaeffer is the founder and CEO of Internet Service Provider Cogent Communications. Believe it or not, Cogent's the seventh successful company Dave Schaeffer has founded. Shaffer joined Fool analysts Asit Sharma and Sanmeet Deo to discuss how it deals with customers like Netflix and Meta platforms work and what keeps him up at night.

Asit Sharma: Well, hello, fools. I am Asit Sharma and I'm joined by fellow analyst Sanmeet Deo today, and our guest is Dave Schaeffer. Dave is CEO of Cogent Communications. He's also the founder of this company founded in 1999. Dave has grown Cogent Communications into a global tier one Internet service provider. It's ranked as one of the top five networks in the world. Dave is also a serial entrepreneur. He's founded six successful businesses prior to Cogent, and foolishly, he's also one of the longest serving founder CEOs in the public markets. We're delighted to have him with us today. Dave Schaeffer, welcome.

Dave Schaeffer: Hey, well, thanks for that great introduction.

Asit Sharma: To get started, let's jump in. Dave, for our members who might be unfamiliar with the ISP or Internet service provider industry, can you just explain what Cogent does and how it makes money?

Dave Schaeffer: Yeah, sure. Cogent provides Internet access to customers and to other service providers. I think virtually everyone uses the Internet, but rarely understands how it operates. Cogent has a network of approximately 99,000 route miles of intercity fiber that circumnavigates the globe and serves six continents. We then have an additional 34,000 route miles of fiber in 292 markets in 57 countries around the world. That network is solely built for the purpose of delivering Internet connectivity. When a customer buys Internet access, what they are really buying are interfaced routed bit miles connected to other networks. If you tried to sell a customer that they would have no idea what you're talking about. The average bit on the public Internet travels about 2,800 miles. It goes through eight and a half unique routers and 2.4 networks between origin and destination. Coaching carries approximately 25% of the world's Internet traffic on its network and has more other networks connected directly to it than any other network.

Asit Sharma: Yours is a primary network. Oftentimes, we hear of middlemen carriers in between ourselves sending that bit. Let's say I'm chatting with Sanmeet over Slack, sending him some bits as we have been exchanging through the day and him receiving that. But you are, I think we can think of Cogent as being the primary fiber that is the backbone of this information communication network, is that correct?

Dave Schaeffer: That is correct. We operate two very different customer segments, roughly 95% of our traffic, but only 37% of our revenue comes from selling to other service providers. We provide Internet connectivity to 8,200 access networks around the world and about 7,000 content generating businesses. Whether it be Bell Canada, British Telecom, China Telecom, Comcast or Cox. They could be customers of Cogent on the access side, where they aggregate literally billions of end users. Then on the other side, we sell connectivity to large content generating companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, where they use us as their Internet provider. The second portion of Cogent's business is selling directly to end users. That represents about 63% of our revenues, but only approximately 5% of our total traffic. Cogent is an ISP, primarily in North America, where we connect to a billion square feet of office space, where we sell directly to end users. Then globally, we sell to multinational companies, oftentimes using last mile connections from third parties.

Asit Sharma: I always like to understand how exactly the companies I'm looking at make money. For example, for Netflix or Meta, or you pick a content provider, whoever it might be, when they work with you, explain that to me how they buy? Do they buy bandwidth in a package? Do they have a contract? How does that work? When they look to you to say, hey, we want to buy some bandwidth?

Dave Schaeffer: Yeah, so typically, we will provide them connections in multiple markets around the world. They will then have a minimum commitment level, and then above that, they pay on a metered basis. The way in which we bill is megabits per second at peak load over the course of the month. We bill at the 95th percentile, which means if you have a very spiky event that lasts less than 18 hours in a month, you don't pay for that incremental bandwidth but everything below that peak utilization, you pay a bill on a per megabit basis.

Dave Schaeffer: That is the way in which any service provider, whether it be an access network like Telkom South Africa, or a cable company like Rogers in Canada would buy from us. But for our corporate customers, the billing model is very different. For corporate customers, they typically buy in end user locations, not in data centers, and they are paying us a flat monthly fee for a fixed connection that is unmetered. I think of it as an all you can eat model.

Sanmeet Deo: There is a monthly recurring revenue that you get. It's just that with your network or your content customers, it could vary based on their usage. They could dial it up, dial it down, based on, like, this week, actually, they're dropping Squid Game, so they can anticipate they're going to need a lot of bandwidth versus maybe next month, their content late is a little lower, so they won't use up as much versus the corporate customers are paying more of a recurring, not based on volume. Is that accurate?

Dave Schaeffer: Is correct, Sanmeet. Virtually all of our revenue is predictable, even for those variable usage customers, there is oftentimes a very consistent pattern to their usage, and their bills do not vary by more than a couple percent month over month.

Sanmeet Deo: Dave, let's go on to looking at a review of recent performance. 2024 was a great year for Cogent. It crossed $1 billion in annual revenue. Can you just walk us through the highlights of your key business segments, wholesale, enterprise, net-centric? What drove the performance? Also did anything about the year surprise you as you went through it?

Dave Schaeffer: Two things. First of all our Internet based business represents 88% of our revenues across all three segments. We do derive about 12% of revenues from selling some adjacent services. Those being co location in our data center footprint. Optical transport or wavelength services and the leasing out of IPV4 addresses. We did generate about $1 billion in revenue in 2024 and 2024 was a year of significant transition for Cogent. Cogent had organically grown between 2005 and 2020 as a public company with no M&A at a compounded growth rate of 10.2% per year average over that period. We also were able to experience significant margin expansion during that period, where our EBITDA margins expanded at roughly 220 basis points per year over that same 15 year measurement period. When COVID hit, our corporate segment slowed materially because people were not going to offices, and as a result, Cogent's total growth rate had decreased to about 5% and our rate of margin expansion slowed to about 100 basis points. In May of '23, we acquired the former Sprint Long Distance Network, a Sprint Global Markets Group business from T-Mobile. That business was actually in decline and burning cash. In 2024, we significantly reduced that cash burn, and we were able to begin to repurpose some of the flow Sprint assets. In order to facilitate this transaction, T-Mobile paid us in cash over a 54 month period beginning in May of '23, $700 million. In 2024, a significant milestone for Cogent was our ability to take out much of that burn from that business and to actually accelerate the decline in that acquired business, as many of the products that were being sold or gross margin negative services.

Anand Chokkavelu: As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. Don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. See our full advertising disclosure. Please check out our show notes. Up next, we've got stocks on our radar. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.

I'm Anand Chokkavelu, joined again by Jason Hall and Matt Frankel. This week's been Prime Day week invented out of thin air in 2015 to boost sales. It's almost literally become Christmas in July for Amazon, and to a lesser extent, all the imitating retailers. Got me wondering. Is this the greatest feat of something from nothing marketing we've seen? If not, what's competing with it, Jason?

Jason Hall: I think it's not even something from nothing. I think they stole this idea. Christmas in July has been around literally since the 1900. I think they're getting maybe a little bit too much credit for just being a really big retailer, smart enough to say, hey, we're doing a sale when there was nothing else going on, and people were like, oh, it's a big sale. Well, people kept coming, so it just gets bigger every single year.

Matt Frankel: Before e-commerce, Jason's right, remember the Sunday paper that had all the flyers from all the stores. They'd have their semi annual sales. The President's Day weekend sales were the ones I remember that were the biggest deals ever that really were just meant to invigorate sales in a historically slow time of year. But really, this concept has been applied over and over. Think of how many tourist destinations create random festivals in the worst months to go, like, weather wise. I used to live in Key West, Florida, and the biggest party of the year is called Fantasy Fest. It was created to invigorate tourism during hurricane season. It's a concept that's worked over and over, and this is a big one.

Anand Chokkavelu: Dan.

Dan Boyd: I just wanted to jump in here and mention Father's Day and Mother's Day. Surprised that you guys didn't mention those. We're all fathers here on the podcast, so I know that we enjoy Father's Day, but, like, come on. They're nothing. They were just created to sell stuff.

Anand Chokkavelu: You're not going to mention Valentine's Day, Mr. Grinch.

Dan Boyd: Valentine's Day has somewhat historical significance with all the St. Valentine's stuff. I didn't want to go too far into it in my grumpiness Anand, but I guess we can throw that one on the fire.

Anand Chokkavelu: Speaking of Singles Day in China. The Alibaba took that cemented in the '90s. I think less commercy, but then it became more commercy. Two other things, Sears' catalog. Let's not forget. A lot of times Sears really is the Amazon before Amazon we forget about it because we see it at its late phases. It wasn't the first catalog, Tiffany, Montgomery Ward, they beat it to the punch. But when it was going, it was called the Consumer Bible. Then on a smaller scale, I'll give one more. Just shout out to Spotify rapped. They do a wonderful job inventing a thing to get us more engaged. Let's get to the stocks on our radar. Our man behind the glass, who we just recently, Dan Boyd, is going to hit you with a question. We're more likely, historically, an amusing comment. Jason, you're up first. What are you looking at this week?

Jason Hall: How about Church and Dwight? Ticker C-H-D. I don't know if we give some of these legacy consumer brands companies enough talk. What's Church and Dwight? You've probably heard of Arm & Hammer baking soda. But they also own a lot of other retail brands. You might be familiar with Orajel, if you've ever had a sore tooth or you have a baby that kind of thing comes up. They own Trojan, which is another brand that people might be familiar with. But here's my personal. Right now, I have a cold. I'm living and functioning off of Zicam. That's a Church and Dwight product that's really getting me through. Over the long term, it's been a great investment. Over the past 10 years, the stocks returned about 10.5% in total returns. That's underperformed the market, but it's better than the market's long term average. I think there might be something there.

Anand Chokkavelu: Dan, a question about Church and Dwight?

Dan Boyd: Not really a question, Anand, but more of a comment. Jason, you forgot to mention OxiClean in the Church and Dwight product catalog here as a parent of a three-year-old and a nine month old laundry is a very important thing on our house, and I don't think we could survive without that OxiClean.

Jason Hall: I will raise your three-year-old and nine month old with an eight and a half year old who plays soccer. My house runs on that stuff. I'm with you there.

Anand Chokkavelu: Matt, what's on your radar?

Matt Frankel: Well, now what's on my radar is the OxiClean that I have in the closet right there. But as far as the stock, I'd have to say SoFi. Ticker symbol S-O-F-I. Fantastic momentum. They've done a great job of creating capital white revenue streams in recent years. The growth is actually accelerating. They recently announced they're bringing crypto back to their platform now that the banks are allowed to do so. That's going to be a big driver. Not only crypto, they're going a step further. They're going to start bringing blockchain facilitated money transfers across border for free. They have lots of big plans. They recently started doing private equity investing for everybody. Guys like you and me can invest in companies like SpaceX and OpenAI that are pre IPO through SoFi's platform through venture funds. There's a lot going on in this business, and it's still a relatively small bank, and they aim to be a Top 10 bank within the next decade.

Anand Chokkavelu: Dan, question about SoFi.

Dan Boyd: Well, absolute F to name. SoFi, just terrible. I feel like smart people like them could have come up with something better, but private equity investing is very interesting, Matt, though a little scared to me without the reporting regulations that public companies have to do.

Matt Frankel: I do think it was a natural thing, though, now that all these companies are waiting longer than ever to go public. SpaceX is a massive business. OpenAI has a, $100 billion plus valuation. There's a lot to like there and a lot of potential.

Anand Chokkavelu: Dan, which company you're putting on your watch list, OxiClean or private equity stuff.

Dan Boyd: I'm going to go with Church and Dwight for some of that beautiful OxiClean.

Anand Chokkavelu: That's all for this week. See you next time.

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Anand Chokkavelu, CFA has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, First Solar, Microsoft, Netflix, Salesforce, SoFi Technologies, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery. Asit Sharma has positions in Amazon, Digital Realty Trust, Microsoft, Nvidia, Salesforce, Upstart, and Walt Disney. Dan Boyd has positions in Amazon and Walt Disney. Jason Hall has positions in Brookfield Asset Management, Brookfield Infrastructure, Brookfield Renewable, Enphase Energy, First Solar, Nvidia, SoFi Technologies, Upstart, and Walt Disney and has the following options: short January 2026 $27 calls on SoFi Technologies, short January 2027 $32.50 puts on Upstart, and short January 2027 $40 puts on Enphase Energy. Matt Frankel has positions in Amazon, Brookfield Asset Management, Digital Realty Trust, SoFi Technologies, Upstart, and Walt Disney and has the following options: short December 2025 $95 calls on Upstart. Sanmeet Deo has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Netflix, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Brookfield Asset Management, Constellation Energy, Digital Realty Trust, Equinix, First Solar, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia, Salesforce, Tesla, Upstart, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group, Brookfield Renewable, Comcast, Enphase Energy, Ge Vernova, and T-Mobile US and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Soar in the Second Half of 2025

Key Points

  • Many AI stocks suffered in the first half as investors fled growth-oriented stocks, but positive momentum has returned in recent weeks.

  • These two players are leaders in their industries and are ready to benefit from the AI boom.

The first half of the year was a difficult one for many artificial intelligence (AI) stocks as investors fled high-growth players. The reason? They worried that President Donald Trump's import tariff plan might lift prices for a wide range of goods -- and this could hurt the consumer's buying power, weigh on corporate expenses, and eventually stop growth companies in their tracks.

As a result, the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq Composite slid in April, but in recent weeks, investor sentiment has improved. Initial trade deals with the U.K. and China helped, as did commentary from tech giants, who reiterated capital spending plans, suggesting that potential tariffs wouldn't stop their momentum.

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Though the tariff situation remains uncertain, the market's more sanguine view, as well as certain companies' solid long-term outlooks, make now a fantastic time to get in on AI stocks. And two in particular may be well positioned to soar in the second half.

An investor cheers behind a laptop.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Amazon

The best word to describe Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock performance in the first half is "lackluster." The company actually finished the half at the same level it started, posting a 0% move for the period. Investors may have been concerned about Amazon getting hit by tariffs in two ways: Higher prices may weigh on e-commerce demand and revenue, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) might see customers rein in spending.

But there's reason to believe those problems won't occur. Amazon has a wide selection of products and sourcing countries, making it easy for the company to be nimble in an import tariff environment. As for AWS, so far, the strong spending message from companies suggests customers are sticking by their AI strategies and aren't slowing down.

I also like the idea that Amazon has proven its ability to handle difficult environments. A few years ago, when inflation was soaring, the company revamped its cost structure. That move had immediate results, helping Amazon recover from its first annual loss in about a decade. This new cost structure should also make it easier for the company to overcome future pressures on costs, such as import tariffs.

AMZN Net Income (Annual) Chart

AMZN Net Income (Annual) data by YCharts.

Finally, AI infrastructure buildout continues, and AWS, as the world's biggest cloud company, should benefit as its customers seek compute and other AI solutions. This should keep Amazon's billion-dollar earnings growing. And that, as well as a valuation of 35 times forward earnings estimates, down from more than 40 times late last year, could prompt investors to pile into this stock in the second half.

2. Alphabet

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) stock slipped more than 6% in the first half of the year amid the general uncertainties I mentioned above. It's on the rebound from its lowest point in April, having gained more than 20% since, and I think the stock will move considerably higher in the months to come amid the improving sentiment for growth players.

Like Amazon, Alphabet is a market leader that has proven itself over time, generating significant growth and billions of dollars in earnings. This is thanks to the company's Google platform and its cloud computing business, Google Cloud. The Google platform brings in revenue through advertising, as advertisers flock to the world's internet search leader to reach us where they know we'll be, and Google Cloud's wide range of services is also a billion-dollar revenue driver.

And AI is at the center of the story right now. The company has developed its own large language model (LLM), and this is fueling better search experiences for users and more targeted ad campaigns for advertisers. Both of these elements should keep advertisers spending, and even increasing spending, on Google.

As for Google Cloud, AI products and services have been driving growth, and the unit reported a 28% increase in revenue to more than $12 billion in the latest quarter. This momentum should continue as cloud customers develop and scale up their AI programs, as we're still in the early days of the AI story.

What may particularly attract investors to Alphabet right now is its dirt-cheap valuation, trading for only 18 times forward earnings estimates. And that could help this top AI stock to roar higher in the second half of 2025.

Should you invest $1,000 in Amazon right now?

Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $671,477!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,010,880!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adria Cimino has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Prediction: This Will Be The Next $4 Trillion-Dollar Stock

Key Points

  • Microsoft is the second-largest company by market cap, behind Nvidia.

  • The cloud computing leader is well positioned to be the next $4 trillion stock.

  • Microsoft could continue to perform well long after it reaches $4 trillion.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been firing on all cylinders over the past two years, and the company just added one more accomplishment to its long list of medals: The chipmaker became the first stock to hit the $4 trillion mark. It now sits as the most valuable company in the world, but others are close behind.

Other corporations will eventually reach that valuation too, perhaps even sooner than many think. And the stock most likely to get to $4 trillion next is Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Read on to find out why.

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Person sitting at a desk working on a laptop.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why Microsoft has the clear edge

Most of the members of the "Magnificent Seven" have market caps above $1 trillion, but some are much closer to the $4 trillion mark than others. The two largest companies behind Nvidia are Apple, valued at $3.16 trillion, and Microsoft, at $3.72 trillion. The others are much further behind.

And while there's the possibility that they will soar while these two drop, assuming they all perform relatively similarly in the next few months, Microsoft will get there first simply because it's the closest.

However, Microsoft has an excellent chance of performing better than, at the very least, its closest competitor, Apple. The iPhone maker has been hit hard this year due to the current U.S. administration's trade policies. The Trump administration aims to bring manufacturing back to the United States, which poses a challenge for Apple, as the company outsources most of its manufacturing to countries such as China, a favorite target of Trump's aggressive tariffs, and other Asian nations.

Trump recently doubled down on his threat of aggressive tariffs. Additionally, Apple has fallen behind Microsoft and its tech peers in the artificial intelligence (AI) race. While I think Apple could still perform well over the long run, the company's short-term prospects don't look attractive.

What about Microsoft? The tech leader delivered excellent results during its latest update, which covered the third quarter of its fiscal year 2025, ending on March 31. Microsoft's cloud computing and AI businesses are booming. It has been gaining ground on Amazon in the competitive cloud field.

Further, the company's latest update provided strong guidance, indicating a growing demand for its services, despite a somewhat shaky macroeconomic environment. The smart money is on Microsoft outperforming Apple in the next few months.

Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta Platforms are also performing well, but with market caps of $2.36 trillion, $2.15 trillion, and $1.82 trillion, they are too far behind to make serious runs at the $4 trillion mark before Microsoft.

For all these reasons, Microsoft seems by far the most likely to join Nvidia in the $4 trillion single-company (for now) club next.

To $4 trillion and beyond

$4 trillion isn't a finish line. Once Microsoft reaches that point -- whenever that may be -- there will still be plenty of upside left for the company afterward. In fact, here is another prediction: Microsoft will reach a $10 trillion valuation within the next decade.

From its current levels, that would require a compound annual growth rate of at least 10.4%. That's no easy feat, but Microsoft can pull it off as the company continues to make headway within its two biggest sources of growth: AI and cloud computing.

While the company is already generating significant sales from these businesses, this is likely still the early stages of these industries' growth stories. According to Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, more than 85% of IT spending still occurs on-premises. Meanwhile, AI applications reached a new level a little less than three years ago with the launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI, a Microsoft-backed company. Both technologies enable businesses across all industries to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Companies that don't use cloud computing or AI services might, eventually, become like modern businesses that don't use computers: They hardly exist. That could be the scale of the revolution investors are witnessing, and Microsoft is one of the leaders driving it. Though competition will continue to intensify, the tech giant has a strong competitive edge due to switching costs. Plus, it has already proven it can perform well despite competitive pressure from Alphabet and Amazon.

Microsoft's long-term prospects look attractive thanks to this duo of massive growth drivers. Investors shouldn't buy the stock because it could soon reach $4 trillion. They should purchase it because it will likely continue performing well long after that.

Should you invest $1,000 in Microsoft right now?

Before you buy stock in Microsoft, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Microsoft wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $671,477!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,010,880!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Prosper Junior Bakiny has positions in Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

These 3 Technology Leaders, Up 36% to 69%, Have Soared Since Trump's "Liberation Day." Should You Buy Them Now?

Key Points

  • Palantir's growth is on fire, but investors may also wonder whether it can continue.

  • Reddit stock is once again surging, thanks to its growth and role within the AI ecosystem.

  • Netflix has become a cash cow, and the future remains bright.

The stock market has been somewhat of a roller coaster since President Donald Trump unveiled widespread tariffs on April 2, a day the administration called "Liberation Day."

After some extremely volatile market action, stocks have since stabilized and gone on to challenge new all-time highs. Technology stocks have helped lead the charge. Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) surged 69% since the announcement, followed by Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) at nearly 50% and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) at 36%.

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It's only natural to wonder whether stocks can sustain such impressive momentum.

Three contributing analysts from The Motley Fool tackled these leading technology names one by one to find out. Here is whether you should still buy these tech winners now.

A newspaper with a headline that says Stock Rally.

Image source: Getty Images.

Investors should weigh the valuation of this stock versus its growth potential

Will Healy (Palantir Technologies): Given the power of its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), it may not surprise active tech investors that Palantir rose 69% since April 2.

That gain occurred as the power of its technology became better known to investors, and indeed, one does not have to look far to find AIP's success stories. One insurer reduced an underwriting workflow from two weeks to three hours, while a telecom company utilized it to save money by accelerating the process of decommissioning outdated technologies.

Palantir's financial results also seem to reflect its clients' successes. The company reported 39% yearly revenue growth in the first quarter of 2025, and its Q1 net income increased by 105% over the same period to more than $214 million.

Unfortunately, even with that gain, the company's financials may also indicate its stock is too expensive in the near term.

Palantir's trailing P/E ratio of just over 600 may give investors pause. Also, the forward P/E ratio of more than 230 confirms that the trailing earnings multiple is not an anomaly. The forward one-year P/E ratio, which measures the earnings multiple against next year's estimated earnings, is approximately 185, indicating that the current price already reflects its anticipated earnings gains years into the future.

Whether that valuation makes Palantir stock a "bubble" is a matter of debate. Bubbles are typically not apparent until after the fact, and one could argue that the power of Palantir's technology justifies the stock's valuation. Nonetheless, the chances of it being a bubble are high enough that investors should probably refrain from adding shares.

More importantly, investing is a personal endeavor. If such valuations keep you awake at night, moving your money to lower-cost investments may be a wise decision.

Shares of Reddit advanced by more than 300% since its debut in March 2024

Jake Lerch (Reddit): As of this writing, shares of Reddit have soared by nearly 50% since April 2. That's an excellent run; however, shares have performed even better when viewed on a longer time scale. Since Reddit stock debuted via an initial public offering (IPO) on March 21, 2024, it advanced by more than 300%.

So, what's behind this big move? In short, it's down to Reddit's combination of growth and its role within the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem.

Let's start with its growth. After years of existence as a privately held company, Reddit's debut on the stock market brought about a change in its business model. The company increased its efforts to grow its user base, lure advertisers, and increase its revenue.

In its most recent earnings report (for the three months ended March 31, 2025), Reddit reported 108 million daily average users (DAUs), up 31% from a year earlier. While those figures are impressive, Reddit still has plenty of room to grow. Meta Platforms, for example, boasts over 3.4 billion DAUs.

As Reddit scales its user base, revenue -- specifically advertising revenue -- should scale along with it. The company reported $392 million in revenue for the first quarter, up 61% year over year.

Yet, there is a second factor that has analysts and investors excited about Reddit. It is an under-the-radar AI stock. Here's why.

One of Reddit's most valuable assets is the endless stream of content that its user base produces minute by minute. That content is pure gold to AI developers, who are eager to feed it to their AI models, whether the content is scholarly articles on particle physics, silly cat memes, or anything in between. In short, the more data an AI model has access to, the better its output will be.

In turn, Reddit could strike deals to license its content to AI companies. It already has one such deal in place with Alphabet, but additional -- and more lucrative -- deals could follow.

In summary, Reddit's stock is once again surging. Growth-oriented investors would be wise to consider owning shares of Reddit now and for years to come.

Netflix has matured, but the stock still has more to give investors

Justin Pope (Netflix): One stock that continually catches my eye is Netflix, the world's leading streaming service.

The company's journey to the top of the streaming mountain has yielded impressive investment returns; the stock has risen by over 104,000% since 2022. And yet it continues to deliver for shareholders, including roughly 36% returns since Trump's "Liberation Day" announcement three months ago.

Netflix is a different business than it once was. Not only did it transition from disc rentals to a digital platform, but it also invested billions of dollars in developing a catalog of original content, thereby eliminating the need to license shows and movies from its competitors. Today, that strategy is paying massive dividends. Netflix's profit margins have soared over the past decade, since its revenue growth began overtaking the company's content budget:

NFLX Profit Margin Chart

NFLX Profit Margin data by YCharts

Netflix is a massive company today, worth a whopping $548 billion. Such a large stock won't replicate those prolific past returns. Nevertheless, the company still has room to grow. Its paid subscriber count increased by over 15% year over year in Q4 2024, ending the year with more than 301 million paid subscribers.

Analysts estimate that Netflix will grow its earnings by an average of almost 22% annually over the next three to five years. The stock isn't a bargain, now trading at 51 times 2025 earnings estimates, but it's a reasonable entry point for investors looking to buy, hold, and let Netflix continue to do its thing.

Should you invest $1,000 in Palantir Technologies right now?

Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $671,477!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,010,880!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jake Lerch has positions in Alphabet and Reddit. Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Will Healy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Netflix, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The Smartest Growth Stock to Buy With $1,000 Right Now

Key Points

Most of us would love to have portfolios featuring some great growth stocks, right? Why have your portfolio growing at an average pace when it might grow at an above-average rate? That may seem obviously true, but there are some downsides to growth stocks, too.

Here's a look at some very promising growth stocks, including one that's exceptionally tempting, along with a few caveats to consider.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

A person surfing and smiling.

Image source: Getty Images.

Nvidia

The semiconductor titan Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) recently became the first company to reach a market capitalization of $4 trillion. It got there by averaging annual gains of 78% over the past decade -- and by becoming a key producer of data center chips that are increasingly necessary in this age of artificial intelligence (AI) everything.

Better still, Nvidia's shares seem to have plenty of room for further growth, with a recent forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 37.3, below its five-year average of 39.5.

Microsoft

Meanwhile, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is another compelling giant, with its recent forward P/E of 33 not far above its five-year average of 30, suggesting it's still reasonably valued. The company has multiple growing businesses, such as its dominant Office 365 suite of applications, its Azure cloud computing platform, its Xbox gaming platform, and its major Windows operating system, among many other things.

Microsoft pays a dividend that may seem small, with a recent yield of 0.67%, but that payout has been growing briskly. The recent total annual payout was $3.24 per share, up from $2.09 in 2020 and $1.59 in 2017. In Microsoft's third quarter, revenue grew by 13% year over year, with net income up 18%.

Alphabet

Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is also tempting to choose as the smartest growth stock. My colleague Keithen Drury recently called it a "once-in-a-decade opportunity." It encompasses not only the Google search engine, but YouTube, the Chrome browser, the Google Cloud Platform, and more. Alphabet's recent forward P/E of 18.8 is well below its five-year average of 22.1.

Meta Platforms

See how many terrific growth stocks are out there that aren't insanely overvalued? Here's another: Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and more. On average, 3.4 billion people use at least one of Meta's services daily (up 6% year over year as of March). Meta Platforms' forward P/E, recently 28.5, was well above the five-year average of 21.1, but its PEG ratio (comparing its price to its growth rate) was a very reasonable 0.99, below the five-year average of 1.12.

Here's my smartest growth stock to buy

So which stock am I choosing? Well, I'm going to suggest you check out the iShares US Technology ETF (NYSEMKT: IYW). An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a fund that trades like a stock, and this one tracks the Russell 1000 Technology RIC 22.5/45 Capped Index, investing at least 80% of its assets in stocks from that index.

If you're thinking that a growth-stock ETF doesn't sound as exciting as an actual growth stock, know that this ETF has averaged annual returns of 19.6% over the past 15 years and 27.9% over the past three years. It's not a sleeper.

The fund recently encompassed 142 stocks, and its top 10 holdings made up 64% of its total value. Those top 10 stocks include all of the ones I mentioned earlier, and nearly 90% of the ETF's value is invested in technology stocks.

So take a closer look at this ETF if you're now intrigued. Buying into it will quickly make you a part owner of 142-some companies, with much of your invested dollars in the stocks mentioned above.

A few caveats to consider

As you think things through, though, remember that growth stocks are exciting, but they can also be volatile. If for any reason you fear our economy may be in for some bumps soon, perhaps due to tariff wars, know that growth stocks tend to fall harder during market downturns.

Think, too, about your holding period. No money that you'll need within around five years (if not 10, to be more conservative) should be in stocks, because market corrections do happen now and then. If you're interested in investing in any of these growth stocks or this ETF for just, say, a year, think twice. If you're a long-term investor, aiming to hold for many years and even a decade or more, you'll likely be able to ride out a market downturn or a slow period for any particular growth stock.

Should you invest $1,000 in iShares Trust - iShares U.s. Technology ETF right now?

Before you buy stock in iShares Trust - iShares U.s. Technology ETF, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and iShares Trust - iShares U.s. Technology ETF wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $671,477!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,010,880!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Selena Maranjian has positions in Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

5 Top Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Ready for a Bull Run

Key Points

  • Nvidia and AMD should continue to be AI infrastructure winners.

  • Alphabet and Pinterest are using AI to drive advertising revenue growth.

  • Salesforce is looking to create an AI agent workforce.

While there is still uncertainty surrounding the implementation of tariffs by the Trump administration, at least one sector -- artificial intelligence (AI) -- is starting to regain its momentum and could be set up for another bull run. The technology is being hailed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and the early signs are that this could indeed be the case.

With AI still in its early innings, it's not too late to invest in the sector. Let's look at five AI stocks to consider buying right now.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Nvidia

Nvidia's (NASDAQ: NVDA) stock has already seen massive gains the past few years, but the bull case is far from over. The company's graphics processing units (GPUs) are the main chips used for training large language models (LLMs), and it's also seen strong traction in inference. These AI workloads both require a lot of processing power, which its GPUs provide.

The company captured an over 90% market share in the GPU space last quarter, in large thanks to its CUDA software platform, which makes it easy for developers to program its chips for various AI workloads. In the years following its launch, a collection of tools and libraries have also been built on top of CUDA that helps optimize Nvidia's GPUs for AI tasks.

With the AI infrastructure buildout still appearing to be in its early stages, Nvidia continues to look well-positioned for the future. Meanwhile, it has also potential big markets emerging, such as the automobile space and autonomous driving.

AMD

While Nvidia dominates AI training, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) is carving out a space in AI inference. Inference is the process in which an AI model applies what it has learned during training to make real-time decisions. Over time, the inference market is expected to become much larger than the training market due to increased AI usage.

AMD's ROCm software, meanwhile, is largely considered "good enough" for inference workloads, and cost-sensitive buyers are increasingly giving its MI300 chips a closer look. That's already showing up in the numbers, with AMD's data center revenue surging 57% last quarter to $3.7 billion.

Even modest market share gains from a smaller base could translate into meaningful top-line growth for AMD. Importantly, one of the largest AI model companies is now using AMD's chips to handle a significant share of its inference traffic. Cloud giants are also using AMD's GPUs for tasks like search and generative AI. Beyond GPUs, AMD remains a strong player in data center central processing units (CPUs), which is another area benefiting from rising AI infrastructure spend.

Taken altogether, AMD has a big AI opportunity in front of it.

The letters AI on a concept illustration of a computer chip.

Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet

If you only listened to the naysayers, you would think Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) is an AI loser, whose main search business is about to disappear. However, that would ignore the huge distribution and ad network advantages the company took decades to build.

Meanwhile, it has quietly positioned itself as an AI leader. Its Gemini model is widely considered one of the best and getting better. It's now helping power its search business, and it's added innovative elements that can help monetize AI, such as "Shop with AI," which allows users to find products simply by describing them; and a new virtual try-on feature.

Google Cloud, meanwhile, has been a strong growth driver, and is now profitable after years of heavy investment. That segment grew revenue by 28% last quarter and continues to win share in the cloud computing market. The company also has developed its own custom AI chips, which OpenAI recently began testing as an alternative to Nvidia.

Alphabet also has exposure to autonomous driving through Waymo, which now operates a paid robotaxi service in multiple cities, and quantum computing with its Willow chip.

Alphabet is one of the world's most innovative companies and has a long runway of continued growth still in front of it.

Pinterest

Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) has leaned heavily into AI to go from simply an online vision board to a more engaging platform that is shoppable. A key part of its transformation is its multimodal AI model that is trained on both images and text. This helps power its visual search feature, as well as generate more personalized recommendations. Meanwhile, on the backend, its Performance+ platform combines AI and automation to help advertisers run better campaigns.

The strategy is working, as the platform is both gaining more users and monetizing them better. Last quarter, it grew its monthly active users by 10% to 570 million. Much of that user growth is coming from emerging markets. Through the help of Google's strong global ad network, with whom it's partnered, Pinterest is also much better at monetizing these users. In the first quarter, its "rest of world" segment's average revenue per user (ARPU) jumped 29%, while overall segment revenue soared 49%.

With a large but still undermonetized user base, Pinterest has a lot of growth ahead.

Salesforce

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) is no stranger to innovation, being one of the first large companies to embrace the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. A leader in customer relationship management (CRM) software, the company is now looking to become a leader in agentic AI and digital labor.

Salesforce's CRM platform was built to give its users a unified view of their siloed data all in one place. This helped create efficiencies and reduce costs by giving real-time insights and allowing for improved forecasting.

With the advent of AI, it is now looking to use its platform to create a digital workforce of AI agents that can complete tasks with little human supervision. It believes that the combination of apps, data, automation, and metadata into a single framework it calls ADAM will give it a leg up in this new agentic AI race.

The company has a huge installed user base, and its new Agentforce platform is off to a good start with over 4,000 paying customers since its October launch. With its consumption-based product, the company has a huge opportunity ahead with AI agents.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet, Pinterest, and Salesforce. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Nvidia, Pinterest, and Salesforce. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Dinosaurs Roar for Comcast; CoreWeave Goes Shopping

In this podcast, Motley Fool Chief Investment Officer Andy Cross and senior analyst Jason Moser discuss:

  • Jurassic World Rebirth delivers for Comcast.
  • CoreWeave finally gets it done for Core Scientific.
  • Oracle makes a deal with the federal government.
  • Two stocks to look at if the market pulls back: Samsara and Howmet Aerospace.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

A full transcript is below.

Should you invest $1,000 in Comcast right now?

Before you buy stock in Comcast, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Comcast wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

This podcast was recorded on July 07, 2025.

Andy Cross: Dinosaurs roar for Comcast while CoreWeave makes an acquisition. Motley Fool Money starts now. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I'm Andy Cross, joined by Motley Fool's Senior Analyst and advisor Jason Moser. Jason, happy Monday.

Jason Moser: Happy Monday, AC. Good to see you.

Andy Cross: Good to see you. Thanks for being here. We got confirmation today that CoreWeave is buying another AI Data Center company, and Oracle is cutting cloud prices for Uncle Sam. We'll also talk about two companies we're keeping an eye on if the price is right. But, Jason, let's start with the summer movies, Universal's Jurassic World Rebirth reportedly brought in more than 300 million globally this weekend, giving a nice wind to Comcast, the parent owner of Universal. This continues that strong summer at the box office that included how to train your dragon also from Universal and Apple's F1. Jason, is this good news for long suffering Comcast shareholders like me?

Jason Moser: [laughs] It's not bad news. Most certainly it's not bad news. Now, Comcast content and experiences studio segment brought in $11 billion in revenue in 2024, along with about $1.4 billion in operating profits. This isn't something from the revenue side that is a tremendous needle mover, but maybe it's a needle mover to the extent that we would say the same thing for Disney. This is the content space that can be very lumpy some years are better than others. If you look at the same segment, the content and experience, the studio segment, we talked about $11 billion in revenue in 2024. That was $12.3 billion in 2022. It ebbs and flows. But this is terrific news. I'm amazed. The original Jurassic Park came out back in 1993. They have pulled a Disney to an extent and have really expanded and stretched out this IP library. I think that is a good sign for Comcast shareholders.

Andy Cross: Jason, 100%. I see this again, this Comcast stock has not done that well over the past couple of years. It now yields about 3.7%. Of course, we have the spin off, the spin out of the media properties called Versant later this year, where they're going to spin off CNBC and USA, MSNBC, the Golf Channel, and a few other properties. I think that's got a lot of investors interested in Comcast, at least for me, those of us who own it. But this is the seventh film franchise of the Jurassic franchise, and that franchise is worth about $6 billion. It is a Disney play, Jason, because they're using that in their IP. They're using the theme parks. I saw promotions all around the world, all around the cable properties for the Jurassic rebirth movie. They were showing older Jurassic movies on some of those cable properties this weekend. I think from that perspective, it does help build that franchise out, and it's going to be a very competitive summer. Disney itself has its fantastic four coming out this summer. We have the much anticipated Superman movie from Warner Brothers coming out this year, but I think it does help build out that franchise that has become more and more valuable to those universal theme parks, including the one that just opened up this year.

Jason Moser: No question. This also plays into that summer blockbuster. We always look to see what the summer blockbusters are going to be. I just think it's noteworthy these results, particularly given the tepid reviews that the movie's gotten. I haven't seen it, and I take criticisms with a grain of salt, but 51% on rotten tomatoes and a cinema score of B from the opening weekend audience. That's not lighting the world on fire from a critics perspective, but clearly the audience loved it.

Andy Cross: Also, Jason, interesting notes over the weekend that Netflix, with its 300 million subscribers, they said at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles this weekend that more than half its subscribers now watch Japanese anime. I found that interesting just because it continues to show the power of the Netflix globally as a brand, and one reason why they're along with YouTube, one of the most valuable media properties out there.

Jason Moser: We've always said they do such a good job with that data. Personally, I'm not an anime consumer, but I think this is a great example for investors, where it's not necessarily wise to extrapolate one personal taste into a potential idea, just because it's not something that you like or eat or watch, it doesn't mean there isn't an opportunity there, and that 50% number globally, really does tell us something impressive about Netflix's market position.

Andy Cross: 100%. When Motley Fool Money returns, CoreWeave goes shopping.

AI infrastructure company CoreWeave announced that it will buy Core Scientific for around $9 billion in an all stock deal. That's about $20 per share based on CoreWeave stock. Now, shares of Core Scientific Jason are down around 20% today to about 15, so the market's sensing something here.

Jason Moser: This is an arms race like we haven't seen in some time. Companies are just rushing to build out their AI capabilities, and this is just another sign of that. But I think it's really noteworthy that Core Scientific shares being down so much today. There can be a number of reasons why something like that might happen. Investors don't think that it will go through, perhaps another bidder comes in. But, AC, I wonder if this doesn't have something to do with the deal structure itself and what it's saying about the market's perspective on CoreWeave, because that nine billion number that's being bandied about, let's make sure we understand. That's just based on the July 3rd share price. Core Scientific shareholders are going to receive 0.1235 shares of CoreWeave for each share of Core Scientific that they hold. But as noted in the release, and this is important. The final value will be determined at the time of the transaction closed. That's not until later in Q4, so I don't know. Do you think this is like a glass half empty view on CoreWeave and whether they can hold their valuation? Because the stock has been on fire since it went public.

Andy Cross: It went public just this year, and the stock's done just fantastically well, and Core Scientific has done very well, although it has a little spotted history. It's one of those sparks back in 2021 that when it came public out there was about $4 billion, and it basically lost almost 100% of its value, had to declare bankruptcy, defile from the markets, came back to the public markets in January 2024. Actually, CoreWeave tried to buy them last year for about $6 per share. Now they're paying far more for that. It does give CoreWeave the vertical integration, Jason, that I think that they need to build out. They're going to add 9 or 10 AI data centers of Core Scientifics give them massive gigawatts of capacity. As CoreWeave is trying to build out its own AI data centers, it does need to continue to build out that capacity. CoreWeave is Core Scientific's largest tenet, so it makes sense from a vertical integration perspective. But I think the market is just saying with a share issuance, so soon after CoreWeave became public, there are some doubts about at what price they're going to have to get Core Scientific into the CoreWeave family.

Jason Moser: Exactly. I certainly understand the market's enthusiasm around CoreWeave. When you're selling yourself as the AI hyperscaler. There is something to that, and this is clearly a company that's playing a big role in the space. They just reported revenue growth, 420% in this most recently reported quarter. But again, and you're right, vertical integration, this is going to be something that really gives CoreWeave more power over its platform and to that power. This is a power play. Through this acquisition, CoreWeave is going to own approximately 1.3 gigawatts of gross power, along with the opportunity of one plus gigawatts of potential gross power available for expansion. A gigawatt is a lot of power, AC. That power is a medium sized city, and you think about the Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam, one of our biggest hydroelectric generators here in the country. That's responsible for about two gigawatts of capacity. You can see how this could really impact CoreWeave if it goes through.

Andy Cross: Prediction time, do you think it's going to go through? Do they have to lower the price, readjust the deal terms? You think, Jason?

Jason Moser: I think it's going to go through. I think that probably the market's enthusiasm is going to remain for Core. You think the stock will ebb and flow here a little bit. My suspicion is it'll go through. Probably not going to end up at that $9 billion valuation at the end of the day because that is pretty extreme for a company like Core Scientific. That's like 18 times full year revenue in 2024. We might see some change in the price there, but my suspicion is it'll go through.

Andy Cross: There's definitely some synergies there and some cost savings, but I think it'll go through, too, but I do think they'll have to readjust the terms.

Jason Moser: [laughs] Exactly.

Andy Cross: Next up on Motley Fool Money, Oracle gives Uncle Sam a deal. Let's move over to news that Oracle is cutting cloud service prices for the US government by as much as 75% as reported this weekend by the Wall Street Journal. Jason, who's a winner here? Is this an Oracle beneficiary, a US federal government beneficiary or a little bit of A, a little bit of B?

Jason Moser: I'm going to walk the fence here and say a little bit of A, a little bit of B. It does feel like both win somewhat here. This feels a bit like taking a page out of the book of Bezos. He was always known for driving down those prices in so many cases. He's got that quote, "Your margin is my opportunity." He's taking that Uber long-term view. AC, I think for federal agencies, they're under this mandate to modernize while also managing tighter budgets at the same time. So the old saying cash is king, I think, in this case, it seems maybe cost is king, and we're seeing other cloud providers follow the same lead, Salesforce has done the same thing in regard to Slack, Google, Adobe. This isn't anything necessarily new. But then I think for Oracle, these discounts can help lock in really multi year contracts. That offers more stability for their business model and revenue prediction. If they can extend those relationships, then you can start talking a bit about maybe exercising a little bit more pricing power down the road if they do a good job. I can see both parties benefiting from that.

Andy Cross: I thought this was a little bit more beneficiary for Oracle when I first started studying it. But then I think the GSA, the General Services Administration is starting to shake their big stick here to try to get some pricing out of some of these big players. It is interesting to me that this is for the licensees, not really for the subscription, and it goes through November. The pricing option goes through November of this year. It does give Oracle a foot in. It's really the first deal the GSA cut for government wide solutions, including lots of areas where Oracle and other cloud titans provide some of those services and compete very heavily. I think it's just more evidence of CFO Safra Catz, becoming more and more competitive, trying to push Oracle into markets. Clearly Oracle has had some nice beneficiaries here in the markets and in their business as the stock is gone really well. It's up 60% the past year or 40% year to date, Jason. It's north of a $600 billion company. Thirty five times earnings. That's almost two times its five year average. What do you think about Oracle, the stock going forward?

Jason Moser: I'm glad you brought that up. It does seem like a little bit of a richer valuation, but going back to Safra Catz, he's looking at fiscal 2026 targets here, cloud revenue growth projected to grow from 24% to over 40%. Then that IAAS, that infrastructure as a service. That growth there is projected to hit about 70%. Anytime you see valuations like that, you have to just step back and say, why is the market doing that? Where's the growth? I think that's where they're seeing some of that growth. Now they just have to deliver.

Andy Cross: I think so, too. I do, again, like this licensing play because as they continue to push more subscription, this does get into the core part of what Oracle has done for so long and done so well for so many years. I think it is a nice foothold for Oracle. I guarantee that GSA is going to be issuing lots of different pricing asks of lots more providers as they continue to manage their own footprint as they push toward to be a little bit more technological savvy at the federal government. Finally, today, Jason, stocks are down a little bit, but passed through all time highs last week. Let's end things with two stocks that we're keeping fresh on our watch list if the prices are right. What are you looking at?

Jason Moser: Everybody loves stock ideas, AC?

Andy Cross: Of course.

Jason Moser: One that I just continue to keep my eye on is a company called Samsara. Ticker is IOT. It's now a $22 billion company, and Samsara operates its Connected Operations Cloud, which is a software platform that connects all of the devices that a company has and its buildings, its equipment, its cards, and other facilities. The platform then establishes this massive network of data and information specific to that company. Now the company's still working its way to profitability. Technically, it's cash flow positive, but stock-based compensation more than eats that up, which isn't uncommon for a company at this stage of its life cycle. It's around 14 times forward sales projections today. Now, when I wrecked this company in the trend service back in the beginning of 2023, it was at 13 times. It's been a bit of a bumpy ride, and the stock has pulled back a little. But when you look at the fundamentals of this business, they just reported first quarter results that exceeded all targets that leadership set a quarter ago, revenue up 32% annualized recurring revenue up 31%. They have 2,638 customers with ARR over $100,000. That's up 35% from a year ago. It is a company that continues to grow and establish a fairly dominant position in its market is what it seems. It really does seem like this is becoming the top dog at its space. I think it's also a company that possesses a lot of those hidden gems traits.

Those principles that our CEO Tom Gardner loves, he's so fond of. You get reasonable, remarkable growth into expanding markets, check. Led and owned by true long-term believers in the company, check. This is a company that is led by co-founders Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket. They own almost 70% of the voting power in a relentless curiosity toward bold technical exploration. That is a double check for a company like this. If we ever see any material pullback in this one, I certainly would be very tempted to add it to my portfolio.

Andy Cross: Jason, do you have any thoughts on these cute ticker names, IOT? [laughs] Does that tend to scare you away from a company?

Jason Moser: Not really. I never would recommend a company on the ticker alone, but you just made me think of core scientific and its ticker cores. It's like the smoky and the bandit ticker. It's funny to see those sometimes.

Andy Cross: Jason, I'm looking at Howmet symbol HWM. It's formerly part of Alcoa. Its history is steeped into high precision metalworking, 90%. It provides 90% of all structural and rotating aero engine components for the aerospace, transportation, and energy markets. These are really super high end precision airfoils and forging, forge wheels and chassis for the commercial trucking and auto space. The stock has doubled over the past year, and it's up almost 50% since the Rule Breakers team over in Stock Advisor, we recommended it just this year. It has these really serious competitive advantages that we love to see. Its patents, manufacturing, the history behind it, its core clients. You don't really want to mess around with replacement parts for these kinds of really high precision manufactured items. It does have some opportunities in the energy space because it provides the blades for the engine turbines that power a lot of the energy that goes into supporting data centers. I do love this business.

It's just the stock has done so well, and while the Stock Advisor team, as well as our Rule Breakers team love buying into strength, I just want to see, I'm not going to criticize anybody for adding this great business to their portfolio. But for me, I'm just looking for a little bit of maybe a market breather before I start looking at Howmet symbol HWM just a wonderful business, $73 billion. It's not small, and it has a lot of room to grow in the aerospace market.

Jason Moser: Plenty of examples in my investing life where patience tends to pay off.

Andy Cross: 100%. [laughs] There you have those two high quality companies in Samsara and Howmet that we're watching. If the markets go on a little bit of a tailspin here in the dog days of summer, maybe they go added to our portfolio. That's a rap for us today here at Motley Fool Money. Jason Moser, thanks for joining me here.

Jason Moser: Thanks for having me.

Andy Cross: Here at the Motley Fool we love hearing your feedback, to be part of that feedback or to ask a question, email us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. Don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool Editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. For all of us here at Motley Fool Money, thanks for listening, and we'll see you tomorrow.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Andy Cross has positions in Adobe, Alphabet, Apple, Comcast, Netflix, Salesforce, and Warner Bros. Discovery. Jason Moser has positions in Adobe and Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Adobe, Alphabet, Apple, Netflix, Oracle, Salesforce, and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast, Howmet Aerospace, and Samsara. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Battle of the Billionaires: Bill Ackman Has 14% of Pershing Square's Portfolio Invested in This Dirt Cheap "Magnificent Seven" Stock, Which Coatue Management's Philippe Laffont Thinks Is Headed for Further Pressure

Key Points

  • Ackman holds Alphabet stock and cites the AI trend as a major catalyst for its search and cloud businesses.

  • Laffont questions how dominant Google Search will still be in the face of competition from generative AI.

  • Alphabet is leveraging OpenAI as a strategic partner, potentially mitigating the risks that concern Laffont.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman's approach to portfolio management is rather simple. The founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management keeps its portfolio concentrated in a small number of large-cap stocks that he buys when they are arguably trading below their intrinsic values.

Coatue Management founder Philippe Laffont has a different philosophy. Coatue's portfolio boasts a number of high-growth stocks that appear poised to dominate emerging trends.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

One company that Ackman and Laffont seem to have different views on is "Magnificent Seven" member Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Let's start by exploring what drives Ackman's conviction in the megacap artificial intelligence (AI) stock. From there, I'll detail a major risk factor that Laffont recently called out for the stock. Lastly, I'll provide my own breakdown of Alphabet and whether or not the stock could be worth a look right now.

Why does Bill Ackman like Alphabet?

Pershing Square's position in Google parent Alphabet makes up about 14% of the value of its portfolio, based on the fund's most recent 13F filing. In its latest annual investor presentation, the firm identified Alphabet as an "underappreciated" opportunity in the AI landscape.

It went on to highlight new opportunities in digital advertising and cloud computing as catalysts for Alphabet that could drive accelerated revenue growth and profit margin expansion.

For example, Google's search responses now highlight AI-crafted summaries. So far, this feature has shown some encouraging metrics such as higher user engagement trends among those who use the summaries. This puts Google in an advantageous position when it comes to enticing advertisers to its platform.

In addition, Alphabet's cloud computing business has made meaningful investments in cybersecurity tools over the last few years. The integration of AI-powered cybersecurity services into the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a major differentiator from peers such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Moreover, it also opens the door to another enormous addressable market and provides Alphabet with more direct ways to compete with the likes of CrowdStrike and other leading cybersecurity players.

GOOGL Net Income (TTM) Chart

GOOGL Net Income (TTM) data by YCharts.

Over the past year, Alphabet generated more net income than its closest cloud infrastructure peers. Yet it's trading at a forward-price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of just 18.4 -- roughly half the ratios of Amazon and Microsoft. Given Alphabet's discounted valuation and the potential value to be gained from integrating AI and cybersecurity across its vast ecosystem, I can see why the company earned a position in Pershing Square's portfolio.

Laffont just called out a major risk factor for Alphabet investors

During a recent panel discussion on CNBC's Squawk Box, Laffont detailed his thoughts on Alphabet. The billionaire was bullish on some of its businesses, such as video platform YouTube and autonomous driving company Waymo. However, Laffont expressed concern over the outlook for Google Search. He believes that the rise of OpenAI could pose a threat to Google's search business.

Google logo.

Image Source: Getty Images.

Is Alphabet stock a buy right now?

I completely understand Laffont's stance, and I would go as far as to say that his opinion is rooted in reality. Some search trends have already been indicating that Google is losing some of its momentum, likely due to the rise of OpenAI and competing large language models (LLMs).

With that said, I'd like to call out an interesting development between Alphabet and OpenAI. The two companies recently formed a strategic partnership under which OpenAI will leverage Google Cloud's network.

As Ackman's thesis shows, Alphabet has some creative ways to grow its budding cloud infrastructure business relative to the competition. Considering OpenAI's closest ally throughout the AI revolution has been Microsoft, I see the expansion of its relationship with Google Cloud as an incredibly savvy deal and potentially lucrative opportunity for Alphabet.

Furthermore, if OpenAI does begin to meaningfully take business from Google Search, then Alphabet appears to have identified a new way to offset that headwind while monetizing the very company that potentially threatens it.

Although I understand Laffont's view, I think the bearish sentiment surrounding Alphabet is more academic than reality. Moreover, I think the potential downside is baked into Alphabet's stock at this point, considering the steep discount and wide disparity in valuation multiples it trades at relative to its near peers (despite being the most profitable of the three).

I see Alphabet stock as a dirt-cheap, no-brainer opportunity right now.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, CrowdStrike, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The Best Stocks to Invest $50,000 in Right Now

Key Points

While $50,000 may seem like a huge chunk of money to invest in the stock market, fractional shares have made any amount enough to get started. So, whether you have $50 or $50,000, you can get started investing.

Furthermore, fractional shares make it easier not to worry about how expensive a stock may look based on a dollar figure. What matters is how much of the company you get to own based on the price you pay. Understanding a stock's valuation is a crucial part of being an investor, and if you can grasp it, you'll have a significant advantage over many other market participants.

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Regardless of how much money you have, I think these three stocks look like excellent bargains right now and make for great picks regardless of your investing experience.

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All three stocks are affected by the AI race

Three of my best stocks to buy now are Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM). They are all major participants in the AI race and are benefiting in multiple ways.

Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) power many of the AI models used today, and the company has continuously launched new products to ensure it stays at the top. Although AI has become more prevalent, the industry is still a long way from achieving the computing capacity needed to run an AI-first business world, and its GPUs will be a crucial part of realizing that reality.

Taiwan Semiconductor (also known as TSMC) is the world's leading semiconductor foundry, producing chips for companies like Nvidia that lack the capabilities to manufacture their own chips. It has established its market leadership through excellent yields and continual innovation. And it has invested $165 billion into the U.S. to expand its production footprint away from Taiwan, which helps reduce fears of a single point of failure.

Alphabet is better known for some of the companies under its umbrella, such as Google, YouTube, Waymo, and the Android operating system. Despite its wide product lineup, the company's finances are heavily tied to advertising, specifically from the Google search engine.

Many investors are concerned that generative AI could displace Google Search, and the stock is undervalued as a result. While some defectors are to be expected, Google has integrated AI search overviews, which helps bridge the gap between generative AI and a traditional search experience. This will likely be all that's needed to maintain the vast majority of its user base, indicating that the market's concerns are overblown.

All three of these companies have fairly straightforward investment theses, but why are they the best buys now?

The valuations of these three vary widely

As mentioned above, knowing that Nvidia trades for around $160, TSMC for $230, and Alphabet for $180 is one thing, but understanding their valuation is a much more important part of investing. Valuation focuses on how much of a company's earnings (or other financial metric) the stock price represents.

If you just looked at the dollar figures, you would assume that Nvidia is the "cheapest" stock. But when you assess its forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E), it's the most expensive.

NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) Chart

NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

Nvidia's stock is quite expensive at 37 times forward earnings, but it's expected to undergo huge growth over the next few years as the AI race goes on. This will make today's stock price look less expensive, so I'm not concerned about it appearing significantly more expensive than the other two.

TSMC's stock is nearly in line with the market average. The S&P 500 is a suitable comparison since it provides investors with the valuation of the total stock market.

The S&P 500 trades for 23.2 times forward earnings, which is slightly cheaper than TSMC. If the company can grow its earnings at a quicker pace than the market average (around 10% annually), then the stock could actually be considered cheap because it's slated to deliver greater growth.

Management expects revenue to have a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20% over the next five years, which far exceeds the broader market's long-term rate. As a result, I believe TSMC is an excellent stock to consider here.

Lastly, there is Alphabet, which is drastically undervalued compared to the market. Apprehension about its future is largely driving this because its most recent results were impressive, with revenue rising 12% and diluted earnings per share increasing 49% year over year.

I think the fears surrounding Alphabet's stock are overblown, and I wouldn't be surprised if it rises back to at least a market-average multiple. Because of that, it's an excellent buy today.

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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

4 Top Stocks to Buy for the Second Half of 2025

Key Points

This has been an interesting year so far for stocks. At the time of writing, the broad market is up around 7%, which would normally be considered a stellar performance for the first half of the year. A lot has happened between the start of 2025 and now, and there are some questions about how much further the market can rise.

Still, I think there are a few excellent investment options out there that are poised to deliver strong multi-year growth, making them great buys now, even if they appear a little expensive. By shifting your focus from the next few months to the next few years, you can pick up shares of stocks now at prices that will look cheap down the road.

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Here are four excellent stocks to consider now.

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Image source: Getty Images.

1. Nvidia

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) remains one of my top stock picks to buy despite its incredibly strong multi-year run. Demand related to artificial intelligence (AI) is still growing and expected to continue increasing for some time. The company's graphics processing units (GPUs) remain the industry standard for AI computing, positioning it well to capitalize on future growth.

Nvidia cited a third-party projection in its latest conference for developers, stating that global data center capital expenditures were $400 billion in 2024, but are expected to rise to $1 trillion by 2028. Should that projection come true, Nvidia's sales are expected to continue increasing rapidly over the next few years, making it a great long-term investment to consider now.

2. Taiwan Semiconductor

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) is also riding the wave of AI demand, and management has made several bold predictions for the next five years. TSMC's management team is well-positioned to make these predictions, as it is the primary chip supplier for many of the top tech companies, including Nvidia. Over the next five years, they anticipate their AI-related revenue will grow at a 45% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

That's a huge rise, but there are still other parts of TSMC's business that aren't AI-related. As for overall company growth, management believes its CAGR can approach 20%, which is still impressive, considering Taiwan Semiconductor's size.

TSMC is poised to deliver substantial growth over the next five years, making it a savvy move to scoop up shares now.

3. Alphabet

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is easily one of the most disliked tech stocks on the market these days. In the past quarter, it delivered excellent revenue growth of 12% alongside a 49% rise in diluted earnings per share. That's significantly better performance than most other big tech companies, and yet the market has priced Alphabet's stock at a dirt cheap level.

GOOGL PE Ratio (Forward) Chart

GOOGL PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

At less than 19 times forward earnings, Alphabet trades at a significant discount to the S&P 500, which sits at 23.2 times forward earnings. Alphabet's stock trades at a discount because the market assumes that its primary business, the Google Search engine, will be disrupted by generative AI.

While generative AI has certainly challenged Alphabet, it's an error to say that it has been defeated. Google has integrated AI search overviews, which millions have used as an alternative to a full generative AI experience. Additionally, Google Search's revenue rose by 10% in the last quarter, which showcases its strength in the current environment.

Alphabet's stock may take some time to recover and trade at normal big tech valuations, but if it does, the gains will be substantial, making Alphabet a compelling stock to consider now.

4. Meta Platforms

Social media giant Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) has made significant investments in AI. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has laid out a roadmap for where he thinks generative AI will take Meta, and it will undoubtedly be a significant boost to results.

Meta Platforms derives most of its revenue from sites like Facebook and Instagram, and integrating AI into those platforms is key to maintaining its status as a must-advertise area. The company offers several generative AI products that make ads more tailored to viewers and can be easily created for advertising clients.

Additionally, Meta is focusing on leveraging the power of AI to make the company more efficient, which could significantly reduce operating costs by deploying a team of AI agents that can perform the work of a mid-level engineer.

These two catalysts should drive top-line growth and make the company more efficient, supercharging Meta's earnings growth over the next few years. This makes the stock an excellent choice to consider buying now, as its earnings growth is expected to drive significant stock price appreciation.

Where to invest $1,000 right now

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They just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now, available when you join Stock Advisor.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

A Once-in-a-Decade Opportunity: Alphabet's Stock Looks Like a Brilliant Buy Right Now

Key Points

  • Investors are worried about Google's falling market share.

  • The Google Search engine saw its revenue rise 10% in Q1.

  • The stock sits at a historically cheap valuation today.

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is one of the biggest bargains on Wall Street right now. Its valuation has seldom reached this level over the past decade, which should prompt investors to start asking questions about why it has become so cheap.

I think this valuation drop is largely due to overblown fears regarding generative AI, and investors need to understand the true impacts of generative AI on the broader population, rather than just a few niche cases. If you can do that, then it's clear that Alphabet's stock has substantial value right now.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

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Image source: Getty Images.

Google Search engine is still putting up excellent growth

Alphabet is the parent company of Google, and its most valuable property is the Google Search engine. More than half of Alphabet's revenue comes from this division, so ensuring its success is critical to the long-term success of the overall company.

However, many investors are convinced that the rise of generative AI technologies could render Google Search obsolete. Many investors point toward Google's search engine market share dropping below 90% for the first time since 2015 as a warning sign, but they are ignoring some blatant facts.

First, its market share remains quite strong, still holding at 87% as of June. If you surveyed any company in America about whether they'd be satisfied with an 87% market share, you'd be hard pressed to find a respondent who said "no." Google Search remains the dominant search engine, and it has become practically synonymous with using the internet.

Second, Google has rolled out its AI search overviews, which seamlessly integrate generative AI technology alongside the familiar search interface. While this feature has had some hiccups, it's overall a great addition. For now, it will likely be all the improvement needed for the vast majority of the user base to stick with Google versus another search engine or a generative AI tool. There will be some defectors, but given how long generative AI tools have been around, many of the people who will replace their internet search habits may have already made the switch.

Lastly, this drop in market share hasn't shown up in Alphabet's results yet. In the first quarter, Google Search's revenue rose 10% year over year. This doesn't sound like a company that's suffering from a shrinking audience, and it leads me to believe that the fears of Alphabet's demise are way overblown. As a result, I believe it's time to view the stock as a potential buying opportunity.

Alphabet's valuation is historically cheap

Alphabet's stock trades for 19.9 times trailing earnings, a level that it has only traded at once over the past decade.

GOOGL PE Ratio Chart

GOOGL PE Ratio data by YCharts

The last time it reached this point, at the end of 2022 and the start of 2023, the market was convinced that the economy was heading into a recession, and every single stock had sold off to a pretty cheap valuation. However, the market is currently at a high valuation point and has left Alphabet behind.

As a result, this is the only time in the past decade that Alphabet has been this inexpensive compared to the broader market. The S&P 500 index trades at 24.1 times trailing earnings, indicating Alphabet is trading at a hefty discount to the broader market.

Since Alphabet has not traded at such a deep discount to the market for so long, I believe that now is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to pick up Alphabet shares at an extremely attractive price.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $699,558!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $976,677!*

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See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of June 30, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

2 Dirt Cheap Stocks to Buy With $1,000 Right Now

Key Points

  • Alphabet's valuation is significantly lower than its peers.

  • Taiwan Semiconductor's management expects monster growth over the next few years.

With the market at or near all-time highs, finding so-called dirt cheap stocks isn't always easy; however, there are plenty of examples out there. Two stocks that I'd consider dirt cheap are Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM). Each has a different reason for being labeled as cheap, but I think both qualify.

Both of these stocks look like great bargains and can be bought confidently today without fear of losing a ton of money.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

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Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet

Alphabet is the parent company of Google, alongside other notable brands such as YouTube, Android, and Waymo. However, Alphabet's stock is unloved by the market due to its core business, Google Search. Investors are convinced that the Google Search engine will be a loser in the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race. But that hasn't come to fruition yet.

In Q1, Google Search, the largest part of Alphabet's business, saw revenue increase 10% year over year. That doesn't sound like a failing business to me.

While some may argue that this is still in the early innings of generative AI rollout, these technologies have been available for use for many years. Google has already introduced AI search overviews, and this feature is likely enough AI for the vast majority of users. As a result, I think the fear of Google being replaced is overblown.

Additionally, the rest of Alphabet's businesses are performing well, helping to propel the entire company to 12% revenue growth in Q1, along with 49% diluted earnings-per-share growth. Those are impressive figures, but the market doesn't value Alphabet's stock very highly. The stock trades for a mere 18.6 times forward earnings.

GOOGL PE Ratio (Forward) Chart

GOOGL PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

Compared to the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), which trades for 23.2 times forward earnings, Alphabet's stock looks far cheaper. I expect Alphabet's stock to at least revert to a market-average valuation, if not more, if it can continue its excellent earnings growth throughout 2025 and beyond. As a result, I believe Alphabet can be considered a relatively inexpensive stock that is worth buying now.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, also known as TSMC, is the leading chip foundry, having achieved this position by offering leading technology alongside best-in-class production yields. This has caused nearly every major tech company that relies on chips to partner with the company, exposing it to the largest growth trends, such as autonomous vehicles and AI computing power.

This has led to strong growth for TSMC over the past few years, but it's not done yet.

Due to Taiwan Semiconductor's market position, its management has an excellent understanding of what chip demand looks like for the years ahead, as chip orders are placed years in advance. This prompted TSMC's management to issue bold guidance at the start of 2025, predicting that AI-related revenue would increase at a 45% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years. That means that AI-related revenue will increase by 541% over the next five years.

However, that isn't the companywide growth rate. For that, management estimated it would approach a 20% CAGR. That still indicates 148% growth over the next five years. Considering the long-term average growth rate for the market is 10%, that would provide massive outperformance.

Still, TSMC's stock recently traded for 24.7 times forward earnings, which is only slightly more expensive than the broader market. However, if a stock is valued at nearly the same level as the market yet is projected to vastly outgrow it, then that indicates a potentially undervalued stock.

I believe Taiwan Semiconductor is one of the top stocks to own moving forward, and its market-average stock price, combined with market-crushing growth, makes it a great stock to buy right now.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $699,558!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $976,677!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,060% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of June 30, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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