The stock market has been bubbly in 2025, especially in the tech sector. Tech-heavy exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like the Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT +1.31%) or the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS +0.77%) are up more than 50% in the last 6 months and their volatility metrics are sky-high.
That won't keep me out of the tech sector, though. When I'm scanning the tech landscape for the next decade, two names keep bubbling up to the top of my list, and for totally different reasons.
NASDAQ: ADBE
Key Data Points
Adobe's boring brilliance
Adobe (ADBE +0.01%) is basically the ultimate "boring but beautiful" play on Silicon Valley right now.
Everyone's chasing the shiny artificial intelligence (AI) rockets trading at 100x your favorite financial metric, but Adobe still manages to sit there at a modest 22 times trailing earnings. If that's not enough of a discount, Adobe shares also trade at an even lower 15 times forward earnings, suggesting even better times ahead.
To be fair, forward projections are based on analyst estimates, which may or may not be on target. As a result, the forward-looking valuation ratio could be off target, too. At the same time, Adobe has enough Wall Street interest to set up a reasonable statistical consensus -- 38 different analyst firms provided full-year earnings targets for this creative software wrangler, for example.
At the very least, it's safe to say that many market watchers expect Adobe to report stronger financials over the next year -- and the business is already humming.
Meanwhile, every creative professional on the planet seems locked into Adobe's ecosystem. Try telling a graphic designer to switch from Photoshop to something else -- you'll get the same look you'd get if you suggested using a typewriter. The likes of Apple (AAPL +0.38%) and Sony (SONY 0.14%) have solid alternatives in certain areas, but none can match the wide-ranging power of Adobe's Creative Cloud -- the one-stop shop for digital creativity tools.
The subscription model is printing money, and now Adobe is weaving AI into everything with Firefly. It's like buying a toll road that every creative has to drive on, except now the toll road is getting smarter.
And with share prices this low, Adobe's digital toll road looks like a great buy for the long haul.
NASDAQ: GOOGL
Key Data Points
Google's money printer funds its AI moonshots
Then there's Alphabet (GOOG +0.47%) (GOOGL +0.54%), the company formerly known as Google. Alphabet is an unstoppable online force that everyone seems to have forgotten about while they're mesmerized by the pure-play AI darlings.
Sure, thrilling AI systems like ChatGPT and DeepSeek get all the headlines, but Google actually has something most AI specialists can only dream of -- billions of people already using their products and services every single day. This is a cash machine with $371 billion of annual revenues and $67 billion of free cash flows. Hamstrung by massive computing costs and a trickle of top-line revenues, ChatGPT maker OpenAI is burning cash at an alarming rate.
Alphabet is not trying to convince people to adopt some new AI tool; they're just adding heaps of AI brains to the online tools people already love. You're already getting Gemini-powered AI features in GMail and Google Docs, not to mention how Gemini is replacing the old set of Google Assistant and smart home systems.
Plus, that search-based cash cow keeps funding Alphabet's AI arms race while competitors burn through venture capital. It's like having a money printer in the basement while you're building AI rockets upstairs and quantum computers in the attic. The stock isn't quite as cheap as Adobe's trading at 27 times trailing earnings and 23 times forward projections, but that's still a pretty reasonable buy-in level.
The beauty is that Alphabet and Adobe aren't some speculative moonshots -- they're profitable giants getting stronger over time. Their stocks are also trading at prices that actually make sense. Sometimes the best long-term opportunities hide in plain sight.
