Normal view

Received before yesterday

Why Marvell Stock Popped Today

Key Points

Shares of Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL), the system-on-a-chip semiconductor manufacturer, jumped 7.6% through 12:05 p.m. ET Wednesday after Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore raised his price target to $80 a share.

And that's not the only reason.

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 »

Green arrow going up.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why Morgan Stanley likes Marvell stock

Moore (not the same guy who wrote Moore's Law) forecasts Marvell to earn $2.28 per share in 2026, and values the stock at 35 times forward earnings. "Marvell is firmly in the AI winners camp," writes Moore in a note covered on StreetInsider.com today, but "sentiment has swung aggressively negative" -- and now Marvell stock is down about 33% from its peak back in late January.

Speaking of artificial intelligence, though, the other big Marvell news today is that Fubon Research is reporting interest in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) in upgrading from 3nm to a more advanced 2nm for its upcoming Maia300 AI chip -- which Marvell will produce. Fubon notes that the change is pushing back production (and revenue) for Marvell from Q1 2026 into Q4 2026 -- but the analyst thinks the chance to sell Microsoft a more advanced chip costing as much as $8,000 per unit "represents a substantial opportunity for Marvell."

Is Marvell stock a buy?

Fubon is guessing the new chip could add $2.4 billion to Marvell's revenue in 2026 and as much as $12 billion in 2027 -- a substantial sum when you consider that Marvell did only $5.8 billion in business in 2024!

Does this make Marvell stock a buy? It depends. The stock costs a steep 47 times this year's estimated free cash flow. But analysts expect Marvell's FCF to double over the next two years, alongside the doubling in revenue. If the growth materializes as planned, Marvell stock actually could be cheap enough to buy.

Should you invest $1,000 in Marvell Technology right now?

Before you buy stock in Marvell Technology, 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 Marvell Technology 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

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends Marvell Technology 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.

If I Could Buy Only 1 Nvidia-Backed Data Center Stock, This Would Be It (Hint: It's Not Nebius)

Key Points

  • Nvidia has ownership stakes in "neocloud" companies Nebius Group and CoreWeave.

  • While each company is positioned to benefit from investments in AI infrastructure, CoreWeave's growth prospects appear more robust over the long term.

  • Wall Street is forecasting CoreWeave's revenue to triple over the next couple of years, which should help pave a path to profitability.

Following the end of each quarter, financial services firms that manage over $100 million in stocks are required to file a form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These filings represent an itemized breakdown of all the stocks that the fund bought and sold during the most recent quarter.

While investors may not realize it, corporations can also invest their cash into equity positions of other businesses. According to Nvidia's recent 13F filing, the semiconductor darling currently holds positions across six stocks. Two of its holdings are spread between artificial intelligence (AI) data center stocks, Nebius Group and CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV).

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 »

Fresh off a hot initial public offering (IPO) earlier this year, CoreWeave has emerged as an integral player in the AI infrastructure market. Let's dive into CoreWeave's business and explore how the company is transforming the AI landscape.

What does CoreWeave do?

For the last few years, investors have learned about the important role that advanced chipsets known as graphics processing units (GPUs) play in the development of generative AI. The GPU market is largely dominated by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, both of which are able to command hefty price tags for their coveted data center hardware.

While AI has served as an unprecedented tailwind for the chip market, one of the subtle nuances is that this demand has brought a series of complications to supply and demand dynamics.

This is where CoreWeave comes into play. CoreWeave operates as a "neocloud," which is a specialized type of business that allows companies to access GPU architecture through cloud-based infrastructure. This flexible model appeals to businesses that may not be able to purchase GPUs directly from Nvidia or its cohorts due to rising price dynamics.

A layout of words and chart boxes describing CoreWeave's business model.

Image source: CoreWeave.

By offering an agile and potentially more affordable model than cloud hyperscalers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform, CoreWeave has been able to attract a number of high-profile customers and ink a series of multiyear, billion-dollar deals.

What does CoreWeave's growth look like?

For the quarter ended March 31, CoreWeave generated $982 million in revenue -- up 420% year over year. While the company's net loss widened more than twofold compared to the year-ago quarter, CoreWeave has some catalysts that should quickly turn around the dynamics of its profitability profile. See estimates in the chart below.

CRWV Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year Chart

CRWV Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts

During the earnings call, management raised guidance for both revenue and capital expenditures (capex). While more spending may stifle profitability in the short term, these investments are necessary foundations for the longer-term opportunity in AI infrastructure.

As Wall Street's estimates pictured in the chart above showcase, CoreWeave's investments today should help secure more access to Nvidia's Blackwell GPU architecture and should ultimately serve as a tailwind for more accelerated growth down the road.

Artist's rendering of an AI chip inside of a GPU cluster.

Image source: Getty Images.

Is CoreWeave stock a buy right now?

In the chart below, I compare CoreWeave to Oracle on a price-to-sales (P/S) basis. Oracle is also a leading player in infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), having just signed a $30 billion cloud deal of its own, so it's comparable to CoreWeave. That single deal is expected to bring in nearly twice the amount of CoreWeave's total 2027 revenue. And yet, investors are placing a twofold premium on CoreWeave's P/S multiple when compared to Oracle.

CRWV PS Ratio Chart

CRWV PS Ratio data by YCharts

I think there are a couple of nuances to point out when it comes to CoreWeave's valuation relative to a peer such as Oracle.

First, Oracle is experiencing a transition period -- effectively replacing slow-growth (or no-growth) segments of the business with its new, budding data center infrastructure operation. For this reason, investors are likely applying a discount to Oracle relative to a high-growth AI stock such as CoreWeave.

Moreover, CoreWeave completed an IPO earlier this year. Since then, the company has inked an $11.2 billion deal with OpenAI, announced the planned acquisition of Core Scientific to bolster its platform, and earned a spot in some of Wall Street's most respected institutional portfolios.

This confluence of factors is more than enough to garner outsize excitement and enthusiasm from investors. For these reasons, I'm not surprised to see CoreWeave trading at such a premium.

I think the most prudent course of action for investors is to buy CoreWeave stock at different price points over a long-term time horizon. If you invest the same amount of money at set time intervals, that is known as dollar-cost averaging, and can help mitigate risk by removing specific timing and price points from the equation.

Overall, I see CoreWeave as a compelling opportunity that is well positioned to dominate the infrastructure chapter of the AI narrative. If I could buy only one Nvidia-backed data center stock, CoreWeave would be it.

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

Before you buy stock in CoreWeave, 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 CoreWeave 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

Adam Spatacco has positions in Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Nebius Group 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.

Prediction: Nvidia Will Soar Over the Next 5 Years. Here's 1 Reason Why.

Key Points

  • Nvidia has the most powerful computer chips, and the major AI developers rely on them to drive their businesses.

  • The total AI opportunity is expected to increase at a high rate over the next five years.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been that rare stock that has catapulted investors to millionaire status on its own. But up more than 1,500% over the past five years, and with a $4 trillion market cap, can it really still offer growth for investors?

It can. Here's why.

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 »

Nvidia campus.

Image source: Nvidia.

The age of AI

All signs are that artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to drive innovation over the next few years as more businesses see how it can help them succeed and grow. As there's greater development in AI, it becomes cheaper and more abundant, and companies that aren't using it to become more efficient and user-friendly are losing out.

Nvidia is the leader in the graphics processing units (GPU) that power these trends, with an overwhelming amount of market share. The AI market is growing at a fast pace, and the major players, like Amazon and Microsoft, need Nvidia's powerful chips to drive their efforts. Even companies like Amazon that are creating their own chips to offer more budget-conscious options still partner with Nvidia for their larger clients' needs.

According to Statista, the AI market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.6% over the next five years. That's slower than Nvidia's current revenue growth. If you can imagine Nvidia keeping up such a CAGR for its own sales, keeping its price-to-sales ratio constant, that would lead to its stock price nearly tripling.

Even if the price-to-sales ratio decreases, there could be some serious gains ahead for Nvidia investors over the next five years and beyond.

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

Jennifer Saibil has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, 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.

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

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) just hit $500 -- but that might be just the beginning. Backed by artificial intelligence (AI) growth, a powerful OpenAI partnership, and explosive Azure momentum, this stock could soon hit $600. But risks remain. In this video, I'll reveal the key signal I'm watching before loading up on more Microsoft shares.

Stock prices used were the market prices of July 15, 2025. The video was published on July 24, 2025.

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 »

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 1,037%* — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% 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.

See the stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025

Rick Orford has positions in Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends 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. Rick Orford is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through their link, they will earn some extra money that supports their channel. Their opinions remain their own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.

Are We in a Quantum Computing Bubble?

Key Points

  • Quantum computing stocks have been on a tear this year, despite the technology's nascent scale and still speculative nature.

  • Unlike the broader artificial intelligence (AI) theme, many popular quantum computing stocks are small companies with limited traction.

  • While it can be tempting to follow the momentum, several quantum computing stocks boast valuation multiples that echo those seen during prior stock market bubbles.

This year has been tough for investors, particularly those who flock toward growth stocks. Just about every major industry has been impacted in some form or fashion by President Donald Trump's new tariff policies.

While the broader implications of these import taxes are still unfolding, one sector that has faced abnormally large headwinds is technology. For the first time in nearly three years, investing in the artificial intelligence (AI) market hasn't necessarily resulted in outsized gains.

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 »

Nevertheless, one pocket of the AI realm that has managed to circumvent the panic-selling this year is quantum computing. As of this writing (July 17), the Defiance Quantum ETF has gained 17% so far this year -- roughly double the returns seen in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.

With quantum computing stocks trouncing the broader market, now may be an appropriate time to assess valuations in the sector and compare them to prior periods of heightened enthusiasm.

A person snapping bubble wrap.

Image source: Getty Images.

What is a stock market bubble, and what are some examples?

One of the most basic mistakes investors make is assessing a company's valuation based on its stock price. In other words, if the stock price is low, an investor might mistakenly view the company as "cheap" (and vice versa).

Smart investors understand that there are far more parameters than the share price that help determine a company's valuation. Underlying financial metrics, such as revenue, gross margins, profitability, free cash flow, cash, and debt, should all play a factor in assessing the health of a business.

From there, more sophisticated analysis requires investors to benchmark these figures and their growth rates against a set of peers to get a better sense of how the business in question compares to the broader competitive landscape.

Many investors do not take the time to perform the due diligence exercise above and instead choose to follow broader momentum. Unfortunately, this can lead to abnormally inflated stock prices -- those that are incongruent with the underlying fundamentals of the business.

Generally speaking, reality begins to set in and these companies are unable to sustain their overstretched valuations, eventually leading to harsh, dramatic sell-offs. This phenomenon is known as a stock market bubble.

In the charts below, I've illustrated some valuation trends across two notable stock market bubbles.

AMZN PS Ratio Chart

AMZN PS Ratio data by YCharts. PS Ratio = price-to-sales ratio.

The chart above illustrates the price-to-sales (P/S) ratios for a number of high-flying internet stocks during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. As the trends above make clear, each of the companies in the peer set above trades at much more normalized valuation multiples today when compared to their peaks during the internet boom.

ZM PS Ratio Chart

ZM PS Ratio data by YCharts. PS Ratio = price-to-sales ratio.

Investors witnessed a similar theme in overstretched valuations during the peak days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies such as Zoom Communications, Wayfair, and Peloton witnessed abnormal demand for their respective product offerings as remote work became the norm.

As the trends seen above demonstrate, however, these growth tailwinds were not permanent. Today, none of these COVID stocks are seen as compelling growth opportunities, and their cratering valuations are a sobering reminder of the aftermath of bubbles bursting.

How do quantum computing stocks compare to the valuations above?

Over the last year, IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI), D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS), and Quantum Computing (NASDAQ: QUBT) have emerged as popular names fueling the quantum computing movement.

IONQ PS Ratio Chart

IONQ PS Ratio data by YCharts. PS Ratio = price-to-sales ratio.

With a P/S multiple of over 5,700, the tiny Quantum Computing business is the clear outlier in the quantum computing cohort illustrated above. Even so, Rigetti, IonQ, and D-Wave each boast P/S ratios that are either considerably higher or in line with the darlings of the dot-com and COVID bubbles.

Are we in a quantum computing stock bubble?

The quantum computing stocks referenced above are highly speculative -- arguably even more so than the highfliers during the internet era. Unlike then, today's technology behemoths, such as Amazon, Microsoft, eBay, and Cisco, have evolved into sophisticated platform businesses with diversified ecosystems.

This provides them with the scale and financial flexibility to explore emerging fields such as quantum computing. Smaller players, such as IonQ, Rigetti, D-Wave, and Quantum Computing, currently face intense competition from big tech -- something the dot-com businesses did not.

Given the valuation analyses explored above, many popular quantum computing stocks are clearly trading at abnormally high and historically unsustainable valuation levels. For these reasons, I think companies such as IonQ, Rigetti, D-Wave, and Quantum Computing have entered bubble territory.

With that said, many big tech companies in the "Magnificent Seven" are exploring quantum applications as well. Many of these companies trade for much more reasonable valuations. While I am not convinced the broader quantum computing opportunity is necessarily in a bubble, I believe investors need to be cautious and thoughtful when selecting which quantum computing stocks to invest in.

And the best choices will rarely be high-flying specialists with big dreams and small revenue streams.

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

Before you buy stock in IonQ, 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 IonQ 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

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Adam Spatacco has positions in Amazon and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Peloton Interactive, VeriSign, Zoom Communications, and eBay. The Motley Fool recommends Wayfair 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.

These Stocks Are Skyrocketing and Are Still Solid Long-Term Buys

Key Points

  • Nvidia stock is surging following news that it can resume chip sales to China.

  • Microsoft can benefit tremendously from artificial intelligence (AI) integration across its products.

Great businesses pursuing massive growth opportunities will see their share prices continuously hit new highs over the long term. This is why investors shouldn't be afraid to buy quality growth stocks at a new high. What matters is understanding the momentum in the business itself, and how long that growth can last.

Some analysts have questioned whether the best days of the "Magnificent Seven" are over, yet Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) continue to hit new highs following strong earnings results this year. Here's why these high-flying tech stocks are still solid buys for at least the next five years.

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 piggy bank shooting into the sky like a rocket.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Nvidia

Shares of Nvidia are sitting close to new highs after the company just received welcome news. Following a meeting between CEO Jensen Huang and President Donald Trump, the U.S. government will allow Nvidia to resume sales of its H20 chip in China, unlocking billions in quarterly revenue.

That said, Nvidia would have been just fine without revenue from China. Even including the China restrictions, analysts were expecting Nvidia to report $200 billion in revenue this year, for an increase of 53% over fiscal 2025 (ending in January). But resuming sales of the H20 should cause analysts to raise their near-term revenue and earnings estimates, likely sending the stock higher.

The H20 is basically a watered-down version of the company's more capable H200 data center chip. Sales to China totaled $17 billion last year, or 13% of Nvidia's revenue. The H20 generated $4.6 billion in revenue in fiscal Q1 before it had to cancel shipments due to new licensing requirements for sales to China. The $2.5 billion of revenue that Nvidia left on the table in fiscal Q1 will likely be realized in fiscal Q3, adding more upside to analysts' current $45 billion revenue estimate for fiscal Q2.

Nvidia's China business could grow significantly as a percentage of its total revenue over the next year. During the last earnings call with analysts, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said the company had planned for $8 billion of H20 orders in fiscal Q2 before the restrictions took effect.

This just adds more fuel to the fire for Nvidia's near-term momentum. Strong demand for its Blackwell chip should benefit Nvidia's margins and earnings in the second half of the year. Current analyst estimates call for quarterly adjusted non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings growth to accelerate to 47% year over year in fiscal Q2, before growing 44% in fiscal Q3, and 50% in fiscal Q4. However, these estimates likely exclude additional H20 sales, since this news just broke in the last week.

While there is a lot of noise around competition with custom chipmakers, Nvidia can grow at high rates for several years. The investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure is a gigantic opportunity, large enough for multiple suppliers to do well. Nvidia is already preparing to launch the next-generation Vera Rubin chip next year, which should keep its momentum going.

Looking out to fiscal 2030, analysts expect Nvidia's revenue to grow at an annualized rate of 21%, reaching $342 billion. Earnings are expected to grow slightly faster, at 23%. This lines up with Huang's expectation that Nvidia will capture a large portion of the $1 trillion in annual data center spending projected in the next four years.

The stock could climb at similar rates as earnings, which makes Nvidia an excellent growth stock to buy and hold for the long term, even at its current price around $170 a share.

Microsoft logo.

Image source: Getty Images.

2. Microsoft

Microsoft reported better-than-expected demand for AI services in its enterprise cloud business last quarter. As a leader in productivity software, Microsoft can benefit tremendously over the long term from AI integration across its products. It's for these reasons that the stock has skyrocketed to new highs since its fiscal Q3 earnings report in late April.

Microsoft Azure is the second-leading enterprise cloud provider that continues to gain share of a growing $348 billion market, according to Synergy Research. Azure revenue grew 33% year over year last quarter, but what got investors' attention was that 16 percentage points of Azure's growth was driven by AI services.

It seems every industry is embracing this revolutionary technology and doubling down on it. Microsoft sent a strong signal that the ramp in AI investment is just getting started. CEO Satya Nadella noted that the company is expanding its data center capacity, opening 10 new data centers across 10 countries.

The company's AI-powered assistant, Microsoft Copilot, has attracted hundreds of thousands of corporate customers, up three times year over year in the last quarter. It is winning bigger deals for Copilot in the enterprise market, and existing customers are returning to buy more seats for their employees.

Microsoft is even prepared for the next major advancement in cloud services with its range of software and development tools for quantum computing. The Azure Quantum platform has multiple leaders providing simulators and other tools for customers, including IonQ and Rigetti.

Microsoft's AI investments and leadership in software put it in a great position, which is reflected in analysts' growth estimates. Current estimates call for Microsoft to report $279 billion for fiscal 2025 ending in June, and that is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 13% over the next four years. Earnings should grow marginally faster, at a 15% annualized rate. This is enough growth to double the stock by 2029.

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 $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

John Ballard has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends 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 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Infrastructure Stocks Powering the Next Wave of Innovation

Key Points

  • Nvidia's AI data center chips remain the gold standard.

  • Amazon and Microsoft have been significant winners in AI due to their massive cloud infrastructure operations.

  • Arista Networks and Broadcom have tremendous growth ahead in AI networking.

It will be a massive undertaking to build out the hardware and support necessary to power increasingly advanced artificial intelligence and provide it at a global level where billions of people can access it.

According to research by McKinsey & Company, the world's technology needs will require $6.7 trillion in data center spending by 2030. Of that, $5 trillion will be due to the rising processing power demands of artificial intelligence (AI). These investments, though, will lay the groundwork for the next era of global innovation, which will revolutionize existing industries and create new ones.

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 »

Some key companies have already been experiencing significant growth due to the AI trend, and there is still likely a long runway ahead for players in key AI infrastructure spaces, including semiconductors, cloud computing, and networking.

Here are five top stocks to buy and hold for the next wave of AI innovation.

Room of data center servers for AI.

Image source: GETTY IMAGES

Nvidia: The data center AI chip leader

Inside these colossal AI data centers are many thousands of AI accelerator chips, usually from Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). The company's graphics processing units (GPUs) are the only ones that can make use of its proprietary CUDA platform, which contains an array of tools and libraries to help developers build and deploy applications that use the hardware efficiently. CUDA's effectiveness -- and its popularity with developers -- has helped Nvidia win an estimated 92% share of the data center GPU market.

The company has maintained its winning position as it progressed from its previous Hopper architecture to its current Blackwell chips, and it expects to launch its next-generation architecture, with a CPU called Vera and a GPU called Rubin, next year. Analysts expect Nvidia's revenue to grow to $200 billion this year and $251 billion in 2026.

Amazon and Microsoft: Winning in AI through the cloud

AI software is primarily trained and powered through large cloud data centers, making the leading cloud infrastructure companies vital pieces of the equation. They're also Nvidia's largest customers. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Web Services (AWS) has long been the world's leading cloud platform, with about 30% of the cloud infrastructure market today.Through the cloud, companies can access and deploy AI agents, models, and other software throughout their businesses.

AWS's sales grew by 17% year over year in Q1, and it should maintain a similar pace. Goldman Sachs estimates that AI demand will drive cloud computing sales industrywide to $2 trillion by 2030. Amazon will capture a significant portion of that, and since AWS is Amazon's primary profit center, the company's bottom line should also thrive.

It's a similar theme for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Its Azure is the world's second-largest cloud platform, with a market share of approximately 21%. Microsoft stands out from the pack for its deep ties with millions of corporate clients. Businesses rely on Microsoft's range of hardware and software products, including its enterprise software, the Windows operating system, and productivity applications such as Outlook and Excel.

Microsoft's vast ecosystem creates sticky revenue streams and provides it with an enormous customer base to cross-sell its AI products and services to. Microsoft has also invested in OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, and works with it extensively, although that relationship has become somewhat strained as OpenAI has grown increasingly successful.

Regardless, Microsoft's massive footprint across the AI and broader tech space makes it a no-brainer.

Arista Networks and Broadcom: The networking tech that underpins AI

Within data centers, huge clusters of AI chips must communicate and work together, which requires them to transfer massive amounts of data at extremely high speeds. Arista Networks (NYSE: ANET) sells high-end networking switches and software that help accomplish this. The company has already thrived in this golden age of data centers, with top clients including Microsoft and Meta Platforms, which happen to also be among the highest spenders on AI infrastructure.

Arista Networks will likely continue benefiting from growth in AI investments, as these increasingly powerful AI models consume ever-increasing amounts of data. Analysts expect Arista Networks to generate $8.4 billion in sales this year (versus $7 billion last year), then $9.9 billion next year, with nearly 19% annualized long-term earnings growth.

Tightly woven into this same theme is Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO), which specializes in designing semiconductors used for networking applications.

For example, Arista Networks utilizes Broadcom's Tomahawk and Jericho silicon in the networking switches it builds for data centers. Broadcom's AI-related semiconductor sales increased by 46% year-over-year in the second quarter.

Looking further out, Broadcom is becoming a more prominent role player in AI infrastructure. It has designed custom accelerator chips (XPUs) for AI model training and inference. It has struck partnerships with at least three AI customers that management believes will each deploy clusters of 1 million accelerator chips by 2027. Broadcom's red-hot AI momentum has analysts estimating the company will grow earnings by an average of 23% annually over the next three to five years.

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 $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

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. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Arista Networks, Goldman Sachs Group, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom 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.

This Solana Segment Just Tripled in 3 Weeks. Here's What It Means For the Coin

Key Points

  • It's now possible to trade certain stocks on Solana's blockchain.

  • That capability is attracting a lot of capital, and very quickly.

  • You don't necessarily want to be investing in these tokenized assets just yet.

Wall Street's market closes at 4 p.m. eastern time, but blockchains are open all night long. Thanks in part due to that after‑hours void, a tiny slice of the stock market has quietly migrated onto Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), turning a small but growing selection of stocks into tokens that trade 24/7.

Between mid‑June and July 4, Solana's on‑chain value of those tokenized stocks more than tripled, from about $13 million to $48 million, a jump powered almost entirely by a new platform called xStocks. By July 16, the chain featured more than $100 million worth of stocks, indicating that the pace of growth is still incredible.

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 »

The quantity of dollars involved here might look trivial, but the growth rate is anything but. Let's dig into why this is happening, and what it could mean for long‑term investors in Solana and other cryptocurrencies.

Stock tokenization just went white-hot

The xStocks platform went live on June 30 with more than 60 U.S. tickers set up. This included companies you might own, like Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and more, all minted as a Solana token and tradable on major crypto exchanges like Kraken, Bybit, and several decentralized exchanges (DEXes) too.

Those tokens are said to be backed 1‑for‑1 by shares of the underlying stocks. Transactions settle in seconds, and they can move peer‑to‑peer at sub‑penny network fees. They can also be traded at any hour of the day or night, which is an experience most brokerage apps simply cannot match.

Speed and novelty explain part of the surge, but the quality of the technology enabling the move matters too.

Two people in an office examining a tablet and a computer on a desk.

Image source: Getty Images.

Solana's cheap and fast transactions make sending fractional shares around the network highly economical, which in turn invites small investors, and also the development of relatively small-time decentralized finance (DeFi) applications that cater to that same group. The launch also coincided with the launch of so‑called "tax coins," an emerging segment of tokens that skim a trading levy and automatically funnel the proceeds into xStocks to distribute to holders as on‑chain dividends. Further DeFi innovation involving tokenized assets like stocks is all but guaranteed, and at the moment, Solana is where it all happens.

But before you rush in and buy tokenized stocks on Solana, be aware that there is a substantial amount of fine print here.

Liquidity is razor‑thin on tokenized stocks in a way that most investors never need to think about normally. Many xStocks trade only a few thousand dollars a day, so the risk of your purchases or sales failing due to insufficient liquidity is significant in some cases.

Furthermore, most tokenized stocks still fall under securities laws, no matter what wrapper they wear. If there are issues with regulators, platforms could be forced to delist assets or exclude U.S. users overnight, and that might make the tokenized stocks worthless or untradeable.

What this means for holders

Tokenized stocks are only one strand of Solana's real‑world asset (RWA) push, but they arrive as the chain is already outpacing rivals.

Total RWA value on Solana, which includes everything from U.S. Treasuries to funds, has surged 140% this year to reach roughly $564 million as of mid-July. If that trend holds, Solana could capture a meaningful share of the trillions in assets that consultants expect to go on‑chain by 2030. For reference, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) pegs the total addressable market for tokenized illiquid assets at about $16 trillion within five years.

For holders, the mechanics of how to benefit from this trend are very straightforward. Every stock transfer or dividend a smart contract triggers in turn burns a smidge of the coin in fees, tightening supply. It also implies that users and investors had to hold some of the coin to pay the fees. In theory, a booming stock token venue could replicate what meme coins did for Solana's fee revenue last winter, but with Wall Street credibility attached.

Investors intrigued by this development should consider two things.

First, as far as the tokenized stocks themselves go, you don't need to rush to buy them. If you're the average investor, you probably shouldn't be buying them at all for at least a few more quarters to let the open issues get settled. Just buy the stocks on the traditional equity market as you usually do, assuming you want to hold them at all.

Second, if you believe public stocks will migrate on‑chain in size and that Solana's speed will keep it competitive, buying and holding the coin for the long haul will give you exposure to the upside from that trend.

In short, the explosion of stock tokenization on the chain is quite bullish, and it's ensuring that Solana's long-term picture keeps looking better and better.

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

Before you buy stock in Solana, 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 Solana 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

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. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Alex Carchidi has positions in Amazon, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, Solana, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Solana, and Tesla. 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.

Should You Buy Microsoft's Stock Before July 30?

Key Points

  • Microsoft is much more than just its productivity software like Word and Excel.

  • The greatest excitement now centers around its fast-growing Azure cloud segment.

  • But investors may want to be a tad cautious given the stock' premium valuation.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been a steady yet quiet outperformer this year. While the market is up around 6%, Microsoft shares have risen an outstanding 20%. Most of Microsoft's strength is derived from its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

We'll receive more information regarding the AI arms race on July 30 when Microsoft reports its results for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2025. These events can bring significant stock price swings.

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 »

If you're a firm believer that Microsoft will post guidance-beating results, then picking up shares right now seems like the smart move.

Two engineers walking down a data center aisle.

Image source: Getty Images.

Microsoft Azure is a huge driving factor for the stock

Microsoft is far more than the company that makes Word or Excel. It's also the owner of LinkedIn, Xbox, and Activision Blizzard, the game creator. It divides its business into three units: productivity and business processes (the products most people think of when they hear Microsoft), more personal computing (Microsoft-branded hardware and its gaming platforms), and intelligent cloud.

Intelligent Cloud is the primary reason investors are bullish on Microsoft's stock, as it drives significant growth for the company. In its fiscal third quarter (ending March 31), productivity and business processes grew revenue 10% and more personal computing increased sales at a 6% pace. Those two growth rates are common for a mature company like Microsoft, but its Intelligent Cloud is anything but old and boring. It grew revenue at a 21% pace, led by Azure's 33% growth.

Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing division, which is the primary beneficiary of all of the AI spending that's going on. Microsoft isn't directly competing in the AI arms race with a generative AI model. Its investment and partnership with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is a key part of Azure's growth, as OpenAI was the first mover in this space and is generally seen as the leader. However, Azure also offers other leading AI models such as Llama from Meta Platforms; China-based DeepSeek, a much cheaper generative AI model; and Grok from xAI, Elon Musk's generative AI company.

This library of generative AI models is a key reason why Microsoft is winning on the cloud computing front, as it aims to be an AI facilitator, rather than just promoting a single model.

The future is also bright for Azure, as the global cloud computing market is expected to expand from a $750 billion base in 2024 to $2.4 trillion by 2030, according to Grand View Research. This growth stems from both AI and non-AI workloads, serving as a massive tailwind that pushes Azure higher, alongside Microsoft's stock.

When Microsoft reports on July 30, I'll be watching management's language regarding Azure, as there is no room for weakness in this critical division.

Microsoft's stock has a premium valuation and looks a tad expensive

With Microsoft's impressive run and leadership position in the industry, it should come as no surprise that the stock has garnered a premium valuation. At more than 33 times forward earnings, it trades at the top end of its valuation range.

MSFT PE Ratio (Forward) Chart

MSFT PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

This premium valuation has some merit, as Microsoft has consistently grown its earnings per share (EPS) at a market-beating pace.

MSFT EPS Basic (Quarterly YoY Growth) Chart

MSFT EPS Basic (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts

Still, if you look at other companies in Microsoft's valuation range, most are growing their EPS at a much quicker pace.

AMZN PE Ratio (Forward) Chart

AMZN PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

As a result, I think investors should be patient with Microsoft's stock. Microsoft has been and will continue to be an excellent AI stock to own, but there's no denying it has gotten expensive. Investors should wait to see what Microsoft has to say on July 30 before rushing to buy the stock today.

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 $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

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, 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 Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, 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.

Nvidia Just Topped a $4 Trillion Market Cap, but a Different Artificial Intelligence (AI) Giant Is Headed to $4.5 Trillion, According to a Certain Wall Street Analyst

Key Points

  • Nvidia has seen its stock soar thanks to incredible demand for its high-end GPUs.

  • Nvidia faces challenges from other GPU makers and custom silicon projects from its biggest customers.

  • This company is an AI leader on two fronts and trades at a reasonable valuation.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has skyrocketed in value over the last three years to become the world's first $4 trillion company. The 10x-plus increase in value from three years ago was fueled by the massive spending on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, of which Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) are a key component.

Nvidia's dominance of the AI chip market faces some challenges, though. Competing GPU makers are catching up in price performance, and Nvidia's biggest hyperscale customers are leaning more on their custom silicon designs for generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. That could weigh on its continued growth.

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 »

Meanwhile, another AI giant could quickly follow Nvidia into the $4 trillion club and climb to $4.5 trillion within a year, according to analysts at Oppenheimer. And right now, the stock looks even more attractive than Nvidia.

Two people walking through a data center pointing at server racks.

Image source: Getty Images.

Can Nvidia remain the most valuable company in the world?

Nvidia has established itself as the clear leader in developing chips for AI training. Its competitive position is bolstered not just by maintaining more advanced technological capabilities than its next-closest competitor, though. It also leans on its proprietary software, CUDA, making it unlikely another chipmaker can supplant its position.

That said, some of Nvidia's biggest customers, like Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), are wary of becoming overly reliant on Nvidia for their AI training hardware needs. Meta, for example, is taking its Meta Training and Inference Accelerator platform and applying it to more and more generative AI applications. The next version of its chip is designed to replace Nvidia chips in AI training for its Llama foundation model. It's already using its own chips in some AI inference cases.

Microsoft has similar aspirations for its Maia chips, but recently pushed back the timeline for its next-generation AI training chip to 2026 instead of this year. These types of setbacks have hit other hyperscalers in the past, including Meta, resulting in them putting in massive orders with Nvidia. However, as the big tech companies improve their design processes, they could displace a large portion of their demand for Nvidia's chips over time.

For now, Nvidia's position looks well protected. That's especially true after news that the U.S. will reverse its ban on the sale of the throttled-down H20 chips in China. Nvidia wrote down $4.5 billion in inventory last quarter after the policy went in place. As a result, the company should produce strong earnings growth through the rest of the year, fueled by China and the hyperscalers.

Still, the stock trades for a premium, approaching 40 times forward earnings estimates. At its current price and long-term hurdles, it might not be able to keep climbing as fast as some of the other big AI companies.

The one company that could soon take Nvidia's crown

Few companies even come close to the size of Nvidia at this point. There are just 10 companies with a market cap exceeding $1 trillion as of this writing, and just three of them are worth $3 trillion or more, including Nvidia itself.

But Microsoft is the next-closest to Nvidia at about $3.8 trillion as of this writing, and it could join the $4 trillion in the near future, according to analysts at Oppenheimer. They put a $600 price target on the stock, implying a market cap of about $4.5 trillion and 19% upside from its price as of July 15.

There are a couple of reasons Oppenheimer's analysts are bullish. First, they see acceleration in Microsoft's Azure cloud computing revenue. Azure has become the growth engine at Microsoft, fueled by demand for compute power needed for AI development. Microsoft's stake in OpenAI not only gives it a huge customer for Azure, but it also brings key tools for other AI developers.

That's fueled significant growth in demand. And despite spending $80 billion on capital expenditures, mostly going toward building and outfitting new data centers, Microsoft's management says demand continues to outstrip supply. Even so, Azure is growing faster than any of the three big public cloud platforms.

The other reason the analysts are bullish on Microsoft is the potential of its Copilot Studio. While they note demand for Microsoft's native AI assistant Copilot for Microsoft 365 is relatively tepid, the demand for its custom AI assistant platform Copilot Studio could produce much better results. That enables Microsoft to increase prices for its enterprise software suite while increasing retention rates. That should produce even more cash for the company to plow back into Azure and its massive capital return program, fueling earnings-per-share growth through higher earnings spread across fewer shares.

Shares of Microsoft have grown relatively expensive in their own right, with the stock trading for about 33 times forward earnings. But that's a reasonable multiple to pay for the stock of a company that's leading the AI industry on two fronts with its cloud computing and enterprise software businesses.

It's worth noting that Oppenheimer analysts updated their price target for Nvidia following the news that Nvidia expects the U.S. to reverse its ban on exporting chips to China. They now expect it to reach $200 per share, implying a market cap of $4.9 trillion. But for my money, I think Microsoft is the more attractive investment at the current price.

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 $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

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. Adam Levy has positions in Meta Platforms and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends 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.

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.

Community Trust Dumps 13,000 Microsoft Shares in Q2

Key Points

  • Community Trust sold 13,371 Microsoft shares worth $5.79 million.

  • This trade represented 0.34% of Community Trust's 13F reportable AUM as of Q2.

  • The investment firm now holds 224,197 shares, valued at $111.52 million.

  • Microsoft remains the fund’s largest position after the trade.

On July 10, 2025, Community Trust & Investment Co reported selling shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), reducing its position by $5.79 million in the latest SEC filing.

What happened

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated July 10, 2025, The firm sold 13,371 shares of Microsoft during Q2 2025. The reported transaction totaled $5.79 million. After the trade, the fund held 224,197 shares as of June 30, 2025, with a position value of $111.52 million as of June 30, 2025.

What else to know

The sale reduced Microsoft’s portfolio weight to 6.45% of 13F reportable AUM as of June 30, 2025

Top holdings after the filing:

MSFT: $223,035,672 (12.90% of AUM)

GOOGL: $216,864,286 (12.54% of AUM)

NVDA: $214,820,910 (12.42% of AUM)

CTBI: $209,470,000 (12.10% of AUM) as of Q2 2025

AAPL: $157,356,788 (9.10% of AUM)

Microsoft shares closed at $501.48 on July 10, 2025, up 9.13% over the year ending July 10, 2025

One-year alpha versus the S&P 500: (3.49) percentage points as of July 10, 2025

Dividend yield 0.65%; forward P/E ratio of 37.44 as of July 10, 2025

Company overview

MetricValue
Revenue (TTM)$270.01 billion
Net income (TTM)$96.6 billion
Dividend yield0.65%
Current price$501.48

Company snapshot

Offers a diversified portfolio including software (Windows, Office, Azure), cloud services, business solutions, gaming (Xbox), and hardware devices.

Generates revenue through software licensing, cloud subscriptions, enterprise services, device sales, and advertising.

Serves organizations, enterprises, and individual consumers globally.

Microsoft Corporation is a global leader in technology, operating at scale across cloud infrastructure, productivity software, and digital platforms. The company leverages a broad product suite and recurring revenue streams to maintain a strong competitive position. A strategic focus on cloud computing and enterprise solutions underpins its sustained growth.

Foolish take

Microsoft is a giant in tech and with its early backing of OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence. The company has seen double-digit growth in both revenue and net income for the past five quarters (with Q2 2024 as the sole exception at 9.7% net income growth), largely driven by its cloud computing segment, which grew 22% last quarter.

With a strong financial standing, Microsoft is heavily investing in AI-related cloud infrastructure, projecting approximately $80 billion in spending for 2025.

However, investors should be aware of risks, primarily the strain in Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI and its reliance on it for the lion's share of its cloud revenue growth. There's a possibility OpenAI could switch cloud providers and leave Microsoft hanging out to dry.

Microsoft stock currently trades at a P/E ratio of 38, higher than its 20-year average. While it's a solid addition to a diversified portfolio, I think there are better opportunities within big tech.

Glossary

13F reportable assets under management (AUM): The value of securities an institutional investment manager must report quarterly to the SEC on Form 13F.
Portfolio weight: The percentage of a fund’s total assets allocated to a specific investment or holding.
Alpha: A measure of an investment’s performance compared to a benchmark, showing value added or subtracted by active management.
Dividend yield: Annual dividends paid by a company divided by its share price, expressed as a percentage.
Forward P/E ratio: Price-to-earnings ratio using forecasted earnings over the next 12 months, indicating expected valuation.
Transaction value: The total dollar amount generated from buying or selling a security in a single trade.
Cloud services: On-demand computing resources and software delivered over the internet, often by subscription.
Filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission: Submission of required financial or ownership documents to the SEC for regulatory compliance.
Top holdings: The largest investments in a fund’s portfolio, ranked by value or percentage of assets.
TTM (Trailing Twelve Months): Financial data covering the most recent 12 consecutive months, used for analysis.

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 1,058%* — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 179% 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.

See the stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 14, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Johnny Rice has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Apple, 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.

See the stocks »

*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.

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.

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 »

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.

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.

10 Stock Splits Investors Could See Happen in 2026

Key Points

Stock splits are less common than they used to be, as fractional shares have negated their effect. However, fractional shares aren't available to every investor, especially outside the U.S. Still, stock splits have their uses, namely for employee compensation.

Stock splits can still be exciting for investors and may sometimes cause a stock to surge. With a few potential splits expected next year, now may be a great time to acquire these stocks that are ripe for a split.

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 »

Person celebrating in their office.

Image source: Getty Images.

Microsoft

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) may not appear to be a top stock-split candidate, but it might be compelled to split its stock. Although its share price is roughly $500, which isn't at a level you'd expect from a stock split, it is a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a price-weighted index.

This means that the index is weighted by a stock's price rather than by the company's size. Currently, Microsoft is the second most expensive stock in the index, and it may be forced to split its stock to stay in the index. Otherwise, it could throw the index out of balance.

As a result, investors shouldn't be surprised if Microsoft splits its stock next year.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is also a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, but it holds the title of the most expensive stock in the index, trading for more than $700. Like Microsoft, it may split its stock next year, making it a smaller component of the widely used index.

Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) could be vying for a position within the Dow as the index transitions from older manufacturing companies to newer AI-focused ones. This represents the broader shift in the American economy, so the inclusion of a company like Meta makes sense.

With the stock currently trading at around $725 per share, it's a stock that could potentially undergo a split next year.

Berkshire Hathaway

It's unlikely that you'll see a Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) Class A share split, given that the stock price is currently more than $700,000 per share. However, Warren Buffett is retiring at the end of the year, and with a new CEO at the helm, you never know what might happen.

The B-class shares, which are significantly more affordable at $477 per share, could be a candidate for a stock split next year. Berkshire Hathaway is a world-renowned company, and maintaining affordable access to its shares is likely a key point for management.

Costco

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) experienced an impressive stock run over the past decade, with its stock price exceeding $1,000 per share, although it's currently slightly below that mark. Once a company reaches $1,000 per share, it lands on investors' radar as a stock-split candidate, so don't be surprised if you see Costco announce a stock split sometime in 2026.

Netflix

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is in a similar boat to Costco but at an even more expensive level. Its shares trade for around $1,250, which is quite expensive for a tech stock. Many tech companies use stock options to compensate employees, which would be a very expensive bonus to hand out from Netflix, given the high price of their stock.

As a result, I think it could split its stock in 2026.

ASML

ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) currently trades for approximately $800, but its 52-week high was over $1,100. This critical semiconductor manufacturing equipment supplier is poised for strong growth over the next few years as chip production capacity increases, and the company may consider splitting its stock in anticipation of further market run-up.

ServiceNow

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) trades for around $1,000 and is benefiting from the integration of AI into business. The stock has been on a remarkable run over the past few years, and it could see its shares rise even further, making it a potential candidate for a stock split.

Fair Isaac Corporation

Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE: FICO), better known as FICO, is the company behind credit card scores. Its stock has been a stellar performer, crushing the market on its way up to more than $1,600 per share. However, it decreased significantly from its 52-week high of $2,400.

Still, given the stock's high price, don't be surprised if it announces a split next year.

MercadoLibre

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) is a Latin American e-commerce and fintech giant. It has built a massive empire in Latin America and continues to expand rapidly. Its run has taken it to a $2,400 per share stock price, and it could be a company that's ripe for a stock split in 2026.

Even if none of the companies on this list fail to split their stock, some of them appear to be strong investment candidates. Although an impending stock split could be a part of the investment thesis, there should be a compelling investment case for each company beyond a stock split.

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

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 ASML, MercadoLibre, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends ASML, Berkshire Hathaway, Costco Wholesale, Goldman Sachs Group, MercadoLibre, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Netflix, and ServiceNow. The Motley Fool recommends Fair Isaac 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.

Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence (AI) and "Magnificent Seven" Stock Will Be the Next Company to Surpass a $3 Trillion Market Cap by the End of 2025

Key Points

  • The artificial intelligence trend will be a huge growth engine for Amazon's cloud computing division.

  • Efficiency improvements should help expand profit margins for its e-commerce business.

  • Anticipation of the company's earnings growth could help drive the shares higher in 2025's second half.

Only three stocks so far have ever achieved a market capitalization of $3 trillion: Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple. Tremendous wealth has been created for some long-term investors in these companies -- only two countries (China and the United States) have gross domestic products greater than their combined worth today.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology tailwinds have driven these stocks to previously inconceivable heights, and it looks like the party is just getting started. So, which stock will be next to reach $3 trillion?

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 »

I think it will be Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and it will happen before the year is done. Here's why.

The next wave of cloud growth

Amazon was positioned perfectly to take advantage of the AI revolution. Over the last two decades, it has built the leading cloud computing infrastructure company, Amazon Web Services (AWS), which as of its last reported quarter had booked more than $110 billion in trailing-12-month revenue. New AI workloads require immense amounts of computing power, which only some of the large cloud providers have the capacity to provide.

AWS's revenue growth has accelerated in recent quarters, hitting 17% growth year-over-year in Q1 of this year. With spending on AI just getting started, the unit's revenue growth could stay in the double-digit percentages for many years. Its profit margins are also expanding, and hit 37.5% over the last 12 months.

Assuming that its double-digit percentage revenue growth continues over the next several years, Amazon Web Services will reach $200 billion in annual revenue within the decade. At its current 37.5% operating margin, that would equate to a cool $75 billion in operating income just from AWS. Investors can anticipate this growth and should start pricing those expected profits into the stock as the second half of 2025 progresses.

A driver of an e-commerce truck sitting and pressing a button on the dashboard.

Image source: Getty Images.

Automation and margin expansion

For years, Amazon's e-commerce platform operated at razor-thin margins. Over the past 12 months, the company's North America division generated close to $400 billion in revenue but produced just $25.8 billion in operating income, or a 6.3% profit margin.

However, in the last few quarters, the fruits of Amazon's long-term investments have begun to ripen in the form of profit margin expansion. The company spent billions of dollars to build out a vertically integrated delivery network that will give it operating leverage at increasing scale. It now has an advertising division generating tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue. It's beginning to roll out more advanced robotics systems at its warehouses, so they will require fewer workers to operate. All of this should lead to long-term profit margin expansion.

Indeed, its North American segment's operating margin has begun to expand already, but it still has plenty of room to grow. With growing contributions to the top line from high-margin revenue sources like subscriptions, advertising, and third-party seller services combined with a highly efficient and automated logistics network, Amazon could easily expand its North American operating margin to 15% within the next few years. On $500 billion in annual revenue, that would equate to $75 billion in annual operating income from the retail-focused segment.

AMZN Operating Income (TTM) Chart

AMZN Operating Income (TTM) data by YCharts.

The path to $3 trillion

Currently, Amazon's market cap is in the neighborhood of $2.3 trillion. But over the course of the rest of this year, investors should get a clearer picture of its profit margin expansion story and the earnings growth it can expect due to the AI trend and its ever more efficient e-commerce network.

Today, the AWS and North American (retail) segments combine to produce annual operating income of $72 billion. But based on these projections, within a decade, we can expect that figure to hit $150 billion. And that is assuming that the international segment -- which still operates at quite narrow margins -- provides zero operating income.

It won't happen this year, but investors habitually price the future of companies into their stocks, and it will become increasingly clear that Amazon still has huge potential to grow its earnings over the next decade.

For a company with $150 billion in annual earnings, a $3 trillion market cap would give it an earnings ratio of 20. That's an entirely reasonable valuation for a business such as Amazon. It's not guaranteed to reach that market cap in 2025, but I believe investors will grow increasingly optimistic about Amazon's future earnings potential as we progress through the second half of this year, driving its share price to new heights and keeping its shareholders fat and happy.

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 $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

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Brett Schafer has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, 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.

2 High-Powered Growth Stocks to Buy Now

Key Points

  • Anticipated deregulation and advancements in artificial intelligence have pushed valuations sky-high, but select opportunities remain.

  • Nebius Group's 385% year-over-year revenue growth and path to $1 billion in annual recurring revenue make today's premium valuation tomorrow's bargain.

  • Rocket Lab's evolution from launch provider to full-stack space company justifies its premium valuation.

Growth stocks have made a strong comeback after a rocky start to the year, driven by anticipated deregulation and significant breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI). Valuations have surged, and at first glance, bargains seem extinct.

Look closer. Two high-powered growth stocks buck this trend, offering compelling opportunities despite price tags that would terrify traditional investors.

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 pink rocket taking off over a series of pink columns arranged in a growth pattern.

Image source: Getty Images.

When 70 times sales is cheap

Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS) trades at over 70 times trailing sales, an astronomical valuation by any measure. Why is this valuation deceptive in light of its AI tailwinds? Because the company is growing so fast that backward-looking metrics become meaningless.

The company posted 385% year-over-year revenue growth in Q1 2025. Annual recurring revenue hit $310 million in April, and management guides to $750 million to $1 billion by year's end. When revenue triples in 12 months, that multiple of 70 times trailing sales effectively collapses to under 25 times on forward estimates -- before factoring in the next wave of AI infrastructure demand. The window to act closes fast.

Nebius builds physical clusters of graphics processing units (GPUs) for enterprises desperate for AI compute power. Its Kansas City facility will house 35,000 Nvidia GPUs when complete, one of the largest deployments outside Amazon or Microsoft.

Nebius's enterprise customers span from autonomous vehicle developers to large language model startups, all battling for scarce GPU access as AI adoption accelerates. Nebius's compute clusters power everything from next-generation autonomous driving algorithms to cutting-edge generative AI platforms, making it indispensable to industries chasing exponential AI growth. With $1.44 billion in cash and manageable debt from recent convertible notes, the company can fund this massive expansion.

Nvidia's direct investment speaks volumes. When the world's dominant AI chip maker backs your infrastructure buildout, it validates the technology and strategy. Early access to Blackwell chips gives Nebius pricing advantages that competitors can't match. Jeff Bezos doubled down through Bezos Expeditions' investment in Nebius's Toloka AI subsidiary.

With first-mover scale, privileged access to Blackwell chips, and $2.4 billion in total funding, including recent convertible notes, Nebius has carved out a widening moat in the AI compute arms race, one that's hard for new entrants to replicate without billions in upfront capital.

A space race winner

Humanity is going to the stars. That much is certain. Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) trades at 41 times trailing sales, but this valuation misses the transformation under way.

Q1 2025 revenue hit $123 million, up 32% year over year, with more coming from spacecraft components than launches. Today, over 50% of Rocket Lab's revenue comes from spacecraft systems, not launches, a diversification that boosts margins and stabilizes growth.

This shift to higher-margin, recurring revenue from spacecraft components fundamentally changes the investment thesis from a pure-play launch company to a diversified space infrastructure provider.

At the start of the year, Rocket Lab was selected as one of five providers for the U.S. Space Force's $5.6 billion National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 program, positioning the company to compete for high-priority defense missions. The company also participates in multiple billion-dollar defense frameworks, including the Department of Defense's MACH-TB hypersonic testing program.

These selections validate Rocket Lab's technology while providing multiyear revenue opportunities. With satellite demand far outstripping global launch capacity, Rocket Lab's position as a trusted provider -- and one of the few with access to major defense frameworks -- gives it pricing power, resilience, and a clear runway for growth.

Why premium prices make sense here

These valuations look expensive because the market applies traditional metrics to revolutionary businesses. AI infrastructure and space commercialization represent generational shifts with economics that break conventional models.

Nebius benefits from AI compute demand doubling every six months. Rocket Lab rides satellite launches projected to increase fivefold by 2030. Both companies execute against opportunities larger than their current valuations suggest.

The real risk isn't paying premium prices for companies growing at triple-digit rates. It's watching from the sidelines as others capture the upside of tomorrow's giants. For investors willing to think beyond outdated valuation fears, Nebius Group and Rocket Lab offer rare asymmetric opportunities in industries poised for exponential growth.

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 1,048%* — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 179% 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.

See the 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. George Budwell has positions in Microsoft, Nvidia, and Rocket Lab. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Rocket Lab. The Motley Fool recommends Nebius Group 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.

Fantastic News for CoreWeave Shareholders

Key Points

  • CoreWeave scored significant wins in the first half, with revenue and stock performance soaring.

  • The company is a key partner of Nvidia and depends greatly on demand for the AI leader’s chips.

CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) delivered an exciting first half to investors. The company, known for its close relationship with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), made its market debut, reported triple-digit quarterly revenue growth, and went on to gain 300%.

Investors are excited about CoreWeave as the company has seen soaring demand for its AI cloud services, and with the AI market potentially heading for $2 trillion in a few years, this momentum could continue. And just last week, this up-and-coming AI giant delivered even more fantastic news to shareholders. Let's check it out.

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 »

The letters AI are written on a chip.

Image source: Getty Images.

More than 250,000 Nvidia GPUs

First, though, let's catch up on the CoreWeave story so far. As mentioned, the company is linked to Nvidia, and this is in two ways: CoreWeave's main business is the leasing out of compute power in the form of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs), or the main chips fueling key AI tasks such as the training and inferencing of models. The company has a fleet of more than 250,000 GPUs operating in about 32 data centers, and customers can rent access to them by the hour or for a much longer period. So CoreWeave offers them a great deal of flexibility.

The second link to Nvidia is the fact that this AI powerhouse holds a 7% stake in CoreWeave. This support is a positive sign for CoreWeave and its investors because Nvidia, with its dominant position in AI, knows how to recognize potential winners. So, if Nvidia is investing in an AI company, other investors may want to give that particular company a closer look.

Now, let's consider the fantastic news CoreWeave just delivered to shareholders. The company said it became the first to make Nvidia's latest chip update -- Blackwell Ultra -- commercially available. This is in the form of the Nvidia GB300 NVL72 system built by Dell, a platform that CoreWeave says represents a "major leap" for AI reasoning and AI agent projects.

The GB300 NVL72 brings 1.5 times greater AI performance than the initial Blackwell chip -- GB200 -- that was launched in the fourth quarter of last year. And CoreWeave then was the first to make the Blackwell system available to customers too.

CoreWeave competes with other cloud providers such as Amazon's Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and those companies have both hefty resources and a broad customer base -- and they, too, offer Nvidia products and services. But, what could help CoreWeave stand out over time is this first access to Nvidia products and the fact that CoreWeave specializes in AI workloads. So, CoreWeave being first to launch Blackwell and Blackwell Ultra is key because it's establishing itself as the place for customers to go if they aim to gain immediate access to Nvidia's latest innovations.

CoreWeave revenue climbs 400%

This could help boost CoreWeave's already soaring demand. In the most recent quarter, revenue climbed more than 400% as customers rushed to the company for compute power. Considering CoreWeave now is launching Blackwell Ultra, it's reasonable to expect strong growth in the upcoming quarter too amid demand for this high-performance platform.

All of this is great news for early investors in this young AI stock. But what if you haven't yet invested in CoreWeave? Is it too late to get in on this soaring stock? This depends on your appetite for risk and your investment horizon.

Stocks never rise in a straight line without any sort of pause. So, it's possible that in the near- or mid-term, CoreWeave will see its shares stagnate or dip. And, though demand is high, it's important to remember that risk is present too: CoreWeave must invest heavily in GPUs in order to keep up with demand, and this may make it difficult to reach and secure profitability. This will be a point to watch in the upcoming quarters.

All of this means CoreWeave isn't the best fit for cautious investors or those who are uncomfortable with some ups and downs. But, aggressive investors with a long investing horizon may pick up a few shares of this highflyer and hold on -- if AI momentum continues at this pace and demand for Nvidia's GPUs remains strong, CoreWeave and its shareholders may be among the first to benefit.

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

Before you buy stock in CoreWeave, 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 CoreWeave 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

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, 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 Amazon, 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.

Nvidia vs. Microsoft Stock: Which Will Be the First $4 Trillion Company?

Key Points

  • Nvidia and Microsoft are knocking on the door of $4 trillion market caps.

  • Nvidia deserves a lot of credit for being the backbone behind AI development.

  • AI has added to Microsoft’s investment thesis rather than redefining it.

On Dec. 26, 2024, Apple crossed $3.9 trillion in market capitalization, putting it just 2% away from becoming the world's first $4 trillion company. But it didn't get there. Apple has recovered in recent weeks but remains down big year to date, whereas Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) just made new all-time highs.

Here's why Nvidia will likely become the first company to surpass $4 trillion in market value, what Nvidia and Microsoft must do to continue rising in price, and whether either growth stock is a buy 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 »

A sign that reads “Record Highs Just ahead” on the side of a road next to an open plain with mountains in the background.

Image source: Getty Images.

A new frontrunner

In less than three years, Nvidia has gone from billions to trillions in market cap. And now, it is the closest company to $4 trillion -- a little over 3% away as of market close on July 3.

NVDA Market Cap Chart

NVDA Market Cap data by YCharts.

Nvidia will likely reach $4 trillion before Microsoft simply because it is closer to the threshold, and its stock is more volatile. Nvidia is now up over 18% year to date (YTD), but it was down around 30% YTD in early April during the worst of the tariff-induced sell-off. So it's not unreasonable that the stock could move a few percentage points higher to pole-vault its market cap above $4 trillion.

The better question isn't whether Nvidia or Microsoft will hit $4 trillion in market cap but rather what each company must do to justify that valuation.

An earnings-driven rally

The two biggest drivers of stock-price appreciation are earnings growth and investor sentiment. If earnings are increasing, investors will likely pay a higher price for the company's shares. But if investors expect the pace of earnings growth to accelerate, then they may be willing to give a stock a premium valuation.

Nvidia and Microsoft have been such strong performers in recent years because they are growing earnings and investors are willing to pay a premium price for these companies relative to their earnings. Nvidia went from making under $10 billion in annual net income to a staggering $76.8 billion in just a few years. Microsoft has doubled its net income over the past five years, and its stock price has more than doubled as well.

NVDA Chart

NVDA data by YCharts.

For Nvidia and Microsoft to continue being good investments going forward, both companies must demonstrate that their earnings growth is sustainable and not temporary.

Nvidia's valuation is still reasonable

Nvidia has greatly benefited from the rapid rise of big tech spending on artificial intelligence (AI). Nvidia has a dominant market share in providing high-powered graphics processing units (GPUs) for data centers and associated AI solutions for enterprises.

Due to limited supply and high demand, Nvidia can charge top dollar for its AI offerings, which allows it to convert over half of its sales into pure profit. And because Nvidia's customers are some of the most financially secure, big-budget companies in the world (like Microsoft), then Nvidia knows its customers can afford to spend a ton on AI.

However, that wouldn't be the case if challenges arise for key Nvidia customers if there is an industrywide slowdown or if competition comes along and erodes Nvidia's margins. Buying Nvidia now is a bet that the company can continue growing its earnings even if its margins gradually decline over time.

The good news is that Nvidia doesn't have to double its earnings every year to be a great buy. Even if it grows earnings at, let's say, 25% per year, it could still reduce its valuation over time and be a market-beating stock. Here's a look at how Nvidia's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio would go from over 50 to under 35 in five years if it grew earnings at 25% per year, and the stock price gained an average of 15% per year.

Metric

Current

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Stock Price (15% Annual Growth)

$159.20

$183.08

$210.54

$242.12

$278.44

$320.21

Earnings Per Share (25% Annual Growth)

$3.10

$3.88

$4.84

$6.05

$7.57

$9.46

P/E Ratio

51.4

47.2

43.5

40

36.2

33.8

Under these assumptions, Nvidia's stock price roughly doubles in five years, but its earnings triple, so the P/E ratio falls considerably.

The key takeaway is that Nvidia doesn't have to sustain its parabolic growth to be a good investment. However, the stock could sell off dramatically if investors believe an unforeseen risk will interrupt its growth trajectory. We got a taste of that in April when Nvidia estimated it would incur multibillion-dollar charges due to tariffs, and the stock price nose-dived in a short period.

In sum, investors should only consider Nvidia if they are confident in sustained AI spending and the company's ability to pivot as the market matures.

Far from a one-trick pony

Microsoft may be a better choice for investors seeking a more balanced tech stock to purchase. Microsoft has a lower P/E than Nvidia, and for good reason, because it isn't growing as quickly. However, Microsoft also doesn't need a lot to go right for it to continue growing steadily over time.

The vast majority of Nvidia's earnings are directly tied to AI. Microsoft has a diverse earnings profile, encompassing cloud computing, software, hardware, platforms such as GitHub, LinkedIn, and Xbox, as well as other areas. AI is accelerating Microsoft's earnings growth and expanding its earnings, but the company can still do extremely well even if AI investment slows and the industry matures.

It's also worth mentioning that Microsoft routinely buys back its stock and has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. So it has a more balanced capital-return program than Nvidia, which rewards shareholders by growing the core business rather than directly returning capital.

Two solid buys for long-term investors

Nvidia and Microsoft are exceptional companies. It wouldn't be surprising to see them both surpass $4 trillion market caps and continue building from there. However, investors should be mindful that both companies are seeing their stock prices rise faster than their earnings are growing, which puts pressure on them to bridge the gap between expectations and reality.

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 $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. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Daniel Foelber has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, 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.

❌