If you plan to invest a large amount of money into the market, like $50,000, you want to invest in market-leading companies with solid moats and strong growth prospects. You're looking for market leaders, not speculative companies.
Let's look at four stocks to consider.
Nvidia
NASDAQ: NVDA
Key Data Points
Nvidia (NVDA 0.36%) is the undisputed market leader in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The company has been growing rapidly, with its revenue soaring 62% last quarter to $57 billion, and up threefold from just two years ago.
While the company's graphics processing units (GPUs) are the main product powering its growth, it's the ecosystem it's built around these chips that has created such a wide moat. Its CUDA software platform is where most foundational AI code was written, while its NVLink system lets its chips act as one powerful unit. That has helped it attain around a 90% market share in the GPU market.
With AI infrastructure growth continuing to heat up, Nvidia is a stock to own.
Alphabet
NASDAQ: GOOGL
Key Data Points
The dominant player in search, Alphabet's (GOOGL +0.15%) (GOOG +0.05%) moat comes from its huge distribution advantage, where it owns both the world's market-leading browser in Chrome and smartphone operating system with Android. Meanwhile, it has a search revenue-sharing deal with Apple to cover most of the rest of the world that its own ecosystem doesn't reach.
The company has a huge opportunity with AI, as it has embedded its Gemini large language model (LLM) through its solutions. Features such as AI Mode and AI Overviews are helping drive search queries and revenue growth. AI is also helping power its cloud computing revenue growth, as well.
Alphabet's biggest edge, though, is that it has the best AI tech stack in the business, with its world-class Gemini model and battle-tested custom AI chips that it developed more than a decade ago. This gives the company a big cost advantage against competitors that should just continue to grow with time, making it a top stock to own.
Amazon
NASDAQ: AMZN
Key Data Points
Amazon (AMZN +0.20%) owns both the biggest e-commerce and cloud computing businesses in the world. Its e-commerce moat comes from building out the largest logistics and fulfillment network on the planet. Meanwhile, the company has been widening its moat through the use of robotics and AI, which are helping it speed up delivery and save costs. It now operates over 1 million robots at its fulfillment centers, all orchestrated by its DeepFleet AI model.
At the same time, its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), is starting to see its revenue growth accelerate. The company has boosted its capital expenditures (capex) to increase capacity, while it recently signed a large deal with OpenAI for compute services using Nvidia GPUs. It is also ramping up a big project with Anthropic that features its own custom AI chips.
With cloud revenue growth starting to accelerate and the company seeing strong operating leverage in its e-commerce operations, Amazon is a stock to own for the long haul.
Image source: Getty Images.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM 0.45%) has established itself as a vital cog in the semiconductor supply chain and the go-to manufacturer of GPUs and other advanced chips. The company has established a wide moat by being the only semiconductor contract manufacturer that has proven it can make smaller node chips at scale with few defects. Meanwhile, its technological expertise in the area is unmatched.
As the need for AI and other advanced chips continues to increase, TSMC is in an enviable spot. With little competition for the foundry space for making advanced logic chips, the company is a close partner to chip designers, helping them both with their chip roadmaps and increasing capacity to meet their needs. Its position has also given it strong pricing power. Media outlets have reported that the company will once again raise prices for its services in 2026 and beyond, and that prices for its newest 2-nanometer processing technology could be 50% more than its current leading-edge 3-nanometer technology.
With a near monopoly on advanced chip manufacturing, TSMC is a strong stock to buy and hold for the long term.
