When I think about AI stocks<\/a> I want to hold for the next decade, I look for companies that are key players in different phases of the AI pipeline. The following three companies fit that description and appear to be good long-term investments.<\/p>\n Where to invest $1,000 right now?<\/strong> Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks <\/strong>to buy right now. Continue \u00bb<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Image source: Getty Images.<\/p>\n 1. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company<\/p>\n Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company<\/strong> (NYSE: TSM)<\/a> isn’t an AI stock in the traditional sense, but it’s one of the more important companies in the space. As the world’s leading third-party semiconductor<\/a> foundry, TSMC manufactures chips designed by “fabless” companies that don’t own the facilities to produce them themselves.<\/p>\n When it comes to manufacturing the types of advanced AI chips used in data centers, TSMC essentially has a monopoly<\/a>. With its superior technology and efficiency, it’s the go-to company, and there’s not a close second.<\/p>\n Companies like Intel<\/strong> and Samsung<\/strong> also operate foundries that can deliver chips using some of the most cutting-edge process nodes, but they have issues — such as production delays and low yields — that make them far less reliable. Not only has this made AI chips a large part of TSMC’s business, but it has also given it more pricing power<\/a>.<\/p>\n Both TSMC’s revenue and operating income<\/a> (profit from core operations) have grown impressively over the past couple of years; however, its dominance in advanced AI chips has enabled it to grow its profits at a significantly faster pace.<\/p>\n TSM Revenue (Quarterly)<\/a> data by YCharts.<\/a><\/p>\n 2. Nvidia<\/p>\n Whereas TSMC is the manufacturer that brings chips to life, Nvidia<\/strong> (NASDAQ: NVDA)<\/a> is the designer behind critical parts of the AI ecosystem. Its lead in the parallel processor market, in particular, is why the stock skyrocketed over the past few years<\/a>, turning it into the world’s most valuable public company, with a market cap of nearly $4.2 trillion.<\/p>\n For a time, Nvidia was known for making graphics processing units (GPUs) that were primarily used to improve the performance of video games. However, the company and other clients realized that its parallel processors were useful for other types of computing workloads, and it began to pivot its focus toward those markets. Its latest pivot came as the AI trend picked up steam, and demand soared for hardware capable of handling the massive data sets involved in that technology. Many of the data center chips used for training and operating AI systems come from Nvidia.<\/p>\n Of the $57 billion in revenue Nvidia made in the third quarter (up 62% year over year<\/a>), $51.2 billion (up 66%) came from its data center segment.<\/p>\n NVDA Revenue (Quarterly)<\/a> data by YCharts<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Nvidia’s GPUs and other hardware have gotten a lot of attention, CUDA — its parallel computing platform and application programming interface — has flown under the radar a bit. CUDA allows Nvidia’s chips to be programmed for specific tasks, and the developers who work in AI are widely familiar with it, which adds to the company’s moat. Moreover, CUDA programs only run on Nvidia chips, which further increases the switching costs<\/a> associated with purchasing AI accelerator chips from competitors.<\/p>\n Other major tech companies, including Alphabet<\/strong> and Amazon<\/strong>, have begun designing their own AI chips, often with the assistance of Broadcom;<\/strong> however, Nvidia has a significant head start. It will inevitably lose some market share over the next decade, but as the size of the overall AI chip market continues to grow, it should remain relatively stable.<\/p>\n 3. Microsoft<\/p>\n Microsoft<\/strong> (NASDAQ: MSFT)<\/a> has two major things working in its favor regarding AI. First, Microsoft Azure is the second-largest cloud infrastructure platform<\/a> in the world, and a go-to choice for many companies to build and host their own AI apps. Azure’s AI capabilities have helped it close the gap a bit with segment leader Amazon Web Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n The second major factor is that Microsoft’s software portfolio comprises numerous titles and services that hundreds of millions of people use regularly, including Microsoft 365 (Excel, Word, Teams, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.), LinkedIn, GitHub, and the Windows operating system, among others.<\/p>\n This allows Microsoft to act as a seamless AI distributor because it can easily add this new technology to software that people are already using, and then monetize it. For many corporations and individuals, paying a relatively small additional fee for Microsoft 365 Copilot is a straightforward decision. It has become another reliable revenue source for Microsoft, and it should only get better as adopting these tools becomes the norm for corporations.<\/p>\n While pure-play AI companies, by definition, rely solely on this new tech for their revenues, for Microsoft, AI is more of a bonus. The company’s business is well-diversified, spanning software, tech hardware, gaming, cloud computing, and professional networking. Even if the AI hype cools over the next decade, Microsoft’s business will remain strong and highly profitable.<\/p>\n Should you buy stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing right now?<\/p>\n Before you buy stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, consider this:<\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks<\/a><\/strong> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing wasn\u2019t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n Consider when Netflix<\/strong> made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you\u2019d have $509,955<\/strong>!* Or when Nvidia<\/strong> made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you\u2019d have $1,089,460<\/strong>!*<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s worth noting Stock Advisor\u2019s total average return is 968% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 193% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.<\/strong><\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of December 17, 2025. <\/p>\n Stefon Walters<\/a> has positions in Microsoft and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Points While artificial intelligence (AI) is solidifying its mark in the world, it would be naive not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,18,19,17,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-238866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115739463280835481","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n