You probably exercise significantly more caution before investing a lot of money than you do when investing a small amount. The more money at risk, the more risk-averse most of us become.
Investing $50,000, for example, could be at least somewhat nerve-wracking for some. The key to lowering your anxiety with a large investment is to select stocks that give you a high degree of confidence. With this in mind, here are my picks for three of the best stocks to invest $50,000 in right now.
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1. AbbVie
The fact that AbbVie (ABBV -0.50%) is a Dividend King could help reassure many investors. When a company increases its dividend for 53 consecutive years, like AbbVie has, you can feel good about its ability to survive and thrive.
AbbVie has proven its resilience in another way, too. For years, its fortunes depended largely on one drug, Humira. However, Humira lost U.S. patent exclusivity in 2023. With biosimilars rapidly taking away its market share, sales of AbbVie's former top-selling drug plunged. But the company was prepared thanks to its investments in developing new products and making strategic acquisitions.
Today, AbbVie is growing despite Humira's continued decline. It has several rising stars in its lineup, notably including blockbuster drugs Rinvoq and Skyrizi. AbbVie's pipeline features around 90 programs, with 13 candidates either awaiting regulatory approval or in late-stage clinical development.
What about the potential risk from President Trump's threatened tariffs on pharmaceutical imports? AbbVie's management doesn't think the drugmaker is at significantly greater risk than its peers. I agree with that assessment and think AbbVie should deliver solid, reliable returns through the rest of the decade and beyond.
2. Amazon
Few stocks offer as strong a competitive position as Amazon (AMZN 1.56%). The company dominates the e-commerce market. Its Amazon Web Services (AWS) unit is the top player among cloud service providers. Amazon's brand, scale of operations, and cost advantages make it difficult for rivals to knock the company off its perch in these markets.
Even better, the markets that Amazon leads have significant growth potential. E-commerce accounted for only 16.3% of total U.S. retail sales in the second quarter of 2025. Rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, continues to fuel strong demand for cloud services.
AI is also helping Amazon improve its profitability. For example, the company's AI-powered DeepFleet system coordinates robots' movements to improve travel efficiency by 10%. With Amazon's massive operations, this makes a difference in its bottom line.
Amazon has newer growth opportunities as well. Advertising was the company's fastest-growing business in Q2. Amazon has moved into healthcare. Its Zoox unit could be a contender in the promising robotaxi market. The company plans to soon launch its Project Kuiper satellite internet service.
3. Nvidia
Nvidia (NVDA -1.56%) is another stock poised to continue benefiting tremendously from the AI boom. It has certainly been a big winner so far: The chipmaker's shares have skyrocketed roughly 1,300% over the last five years.
The main reason for Nvidia's recent success is that its GPUs are the gold standard for powering AI models. I fully expect Nvidia to retain its market leadership over the next few years, thanks to its significant investments in research and development and its fast-paced innovation cadence.
While AI data centers will continue to be Nvidia's biggest market, the company has other major growth opportunities. Robotics and robotaxis are two of the biggest emerging markets that are ideal targets for Nvidia.
The stock's valuation could be worrisome to some investors. However, I think Nvidia's growth prospects justify the premium pricing. Investing $50,000 in this AI leader should pay off nicely over the long term.
