The market's current bearishness makes it difficult to think about the next bull market. It also makes it a fool's errand to even try to predict. As the old adage goes, expect it when you least expect it. Most bull markets start without any warning; they often do so with a decisive pivot.

We're now fourteen months removed from the beginning of the bear market, which is roughly their average length. Translation: It's not too soon to start positioning for new long-term bullishness, even as unlikely as that seems right now.

The rising tide of a bull market will, of course, lift most stocks. A couple of names, however, are apt to lead the way, setting the bullish pace for the next bull market's move to new record highs.

1. Amazon

There's no denying e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN -2.56%) isn't quite the growth juggernaut it used to be. While its revenue growth between the late 1990s and 2020 could only be described as explosive, it's now facing more and better online competition than it ever has. Sales growth is slowing, and we're seeing more and more failure from the company. For instance, Amazon grocery store plans have been put on ice, and it's also closing warehouses and distribution centers it no longer needs as much as it once thought it needed. Besides, the stock's quintuple-digit percentage gain through 2020 is a tough act to follow.

Don't be too quick to dismiss this aging outfit as a has-been, though. It's still got a few growth tricks left up its sleeve. Case in point: The evolution of its shopping website from a mere place to buy or sell goods to an advertising medium. Amazon did nearly $38 billion worth of ad business last year, up more than 20% from 2021's tally of $31 billion. Yet, the company's just getting started with this high-margin business. Insider Intelligence estimates the digital retail media-ad market in the U.S. alone will grow by another 50% between 2022 and 2024. It's a great way to monetize Amazon.com's traffic in an increasingly competitive, margin-pinching e-commerce environment.

The other underestimated reason Amazon shares could bounce back from their recent pullback and lead the next bull market stems from its cloud-computing presence known as Amazon Web Services, or AWS.

From a revenue perspective, AWS isn't a heavy hitter. It only accounts for around 15% of Amazon's total top line. From a profit perspective, though, AWS is Amazon's breadwinner. It's the only operation currently producing an operating profit. But even before the company's logistics costs started soaring last year, cloud computing accounted for more than half of Amazon's operating income. That contribution is only set to keep growing. Investment research outfit GlobalData believes the global cloud-computing market will expand at an average annual pace of more than 15% through 2026.

Assuming the next bull market is driven by (and coincides with) rekindled economic growth, there's no reason to think Amazon won't cash in big-time on just the two opportunities described here.

2. Nvidia

The other high-growth stock that could -- and should -- help power the market's next bull market is tech name Nvidia (NVDA -10.01%). You may know the company as a maker of computer graphics cards loved by video gamers. Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) account for roughly three-fourths of the stand-alone GPU market, according to numbers from John Peddie Research.

Video gaming isn't Nvidia's biggest business anymore, however. As it turns out, the same technology that makes for great graphics cards is also perfectly suited for data-intense artificial intelligence applications. Of last year's $27 billion in revenue, $15 billion of it came from sales of technology to data-center operators. Most of those purchases were for use in the development of AI solutions.

It's a growth industry, too. In spite of last year's economic and supply-chain headwinds, Nvidia's data-center sales grew 41% year over year. Precedence Research is forecasting the AI hardware market -- which Nvidia leads -- will grow by nearly 27% per year through 2030. Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore sees the potential growth as well, recently upgrading Nvidia to an overweight rating. He explained that "We are seeing a significant shift in cloud spending toward AI (and in our view toward Nvidia), even as budgets are under pressure."

To this end, a new bull market and economic rebound will make it easier for enterprises to spend more money on what Moore describes as "one of the most significant developments in technology since the development of mobile internet."

The kicker: While artificial intelligence may be Nvidia's current breadwinner, the same economic strength that fuels more corporate purchases of artificial intelligence tech will also fuel more video gamers' purchases of graphics cards. It's been a couple of years since the last major refresh of GPU hardware, with numbers from John Peddie Research indicating sales of graphics cards during the third quarter of last year slumped to a level not seen since 2005.

With this sliver of the GPU market ripe for a rebound at the same time the AI hardware market is humming, Nvidia stock could prove to be an outright monster during the next bull market.