The growth of artificial intelligence (AI) is the biggest opportunity in technology since the internet and PC adoption in the 1990s. Top tech companies continue to report surging demand across cloud services, software, and semiconductors.
Investors who choose wisely among the top companies benefiting from AI adoption could make a fortune over the next decade. Here are two top AI stocks to help you profit from this opportunity.
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1. Applied Digital
There is massive spending pouring into data center infrastructure for AI. But as AI advances, it creates potential bottlenecks in power requirements and data center capacity. This is a huge opportunity for Applied Digital (APLD 1.62%) -- a small but fast-growing data center builder with a market cap of $3.7 billion.
The Dallas-based data center operator has delivered tremendous growth over the past few years. While quarterly revenue can be lumpy due to the timing of revenue recognition from new projects, revenue has grown from $55 million in fiscal 2023 to $215 million in fiscal 2025 (which ended in June), and it grew 41% year over year in the most recent quarter.
The stock is volatile, which is evident in the company's large operating losses. This results from high upfront costs to build new data centers. In the most recent quarter, Applied Digital reported a loss of $26 million. But this is not concerning because demand is robust for more data center power, and Applied Digital stands ready to supply it.
Goldman Sachs has found that data centers currently have about 55 gigawatts of power capacity, with 14% being used for AI. By 2027, the global power used by data centers will increase to 84 gigawatts, with AI's percentage increasing to 27%.
Applied Digital recently signed a 15-year lease agreement with AI hyperscaler CoreWeave to deliver 250 megawatts of power for CoreWeave's Ellendale, North Dakota, data center campus. CoreWeave just recently extended this agreement to 400 megawatts. For Applied Digital, this will help generate approximately $7 billion in contracted revenue over the lease term, which is a big deal for the company's value.
AI chip leader Nvidia held a $77 million stake in Applied Digital stock in the second quarter. This is a huge vote of confidence by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in Applied Digital's strategy to capitalize on this opportunity. It's still early in this market. Investors will have to endure volatility in the share price, but patiently holding over the next 10 years could have a big payoff.
2. Microsoft
Microsoft (MSFT 0.56%) is a highly profitable business that makes it a great complement to a volatile stock like Applied Digital. The software giant is on pace to eventually take the No. 1 market-share position in the cloud-computing market. It has a large offering of software products to capitalize on the growing demand for AI.
A big advantage of Microsoft is that many businesses and individuals are familiar with its software. Windows, Office, and Teams are software products widely used by millions, if not hundreds of millions of people. This puts Microsoft in a lucrative position to benefit from growing adoption of AI, as it rolls out advanced features in the form of subscriptions through Copilot.
On the enterprise side, Microsoft Azure is experiencing strong demand. Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 39% year over year in the June-ending quarter. This is double the growth that competitor Amazon Web Services is reporting, positioning Microsoft Azure to take the lead in the not-too-distant future.
Azure's recent growth is an acceleration from the 33% growth rate reported in the previous quarter, signaling that demand for AI remains red hot. But this growth shouldn't come as a surprise, since most of the world's data is still stuck in on-premise servers. The arrival of AI is clearly incentivizing more businesses to migrate to the cloud to take advantage of cutting-edge tools that can improve their efficiency, and this will continue to benefit Microsoft.
But Microsoft isn't stopping there. Quantum computing is the next growth opportunity for cloud computing. Microsoft is partnering with Atom Computing on a quantum computer built on Azure Elements, which will be shipping to customers by the end of 2025. Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled its Majorana 1 quantum chip to solve the most complex computing problems, positioning it to be a top player in this burgeoning market.
The ability for Microsoft to benefit from AI demand while generating growing free cash flow makes it a solid investment. It generated $71 billion in free cash flow on $281 billion of revenue over the last year, which is driving the stock higher.
