While 2026 is shaping up to be another great year for the market, especially for artificial intelligence investors, we must keep our eyes on the horizon. Some stocks may look good in 2026, but have a worse outlook beyond that. Individual investors are at their best when they maintain a three- to five-year time horizon, and I think I have two stocks that should deliver monster gains over the next two years.
The two I'm betting on are Nvidia (NVDA +1.25%) and Broadcom (AVGO 0.70%). Each of these companies is heavily involved in the AI race, and if spending projections pan out, they could deliver portfolio-changing returns.
Image source: Getty Images.
Their chips are different from each other
Nvidia is the world's largest company by market cap and has risen to this level because of how dominant its graphics processing units (GPUs) are. They can process multiple calculations in parallel, making them strong choices for complex computing tasks like AI training.
Its GPU ecosystem is by far the best available, and this has allowed it to establish a dominant market share in one of the biggest technological shifts yet. But the chips' capabilities are often wasted.
Because Nvidia doesn't know what kind of workloads these semiconductors will see, it must account for a wide variety of possibilities. As a result, some of their technology goes unused based on which client deploys them and how they are used. This unnecessarily drives up the price for clients who are only going to use them for one task. That's where Broadcom's product comes in.
NASDAQ: NVDA
Key Data Points
Imagine a semiconductor designed specifically to handle one workload in an optimized manner. That chip is known as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Most companies don't have the expertise to design these custom chips, so they go with a broader-purpose GPU. However, Broadcom is partnering with various companies in the AI realm to design an ASIC for them.
Because these devices cut out a middle supplier and don't have extra capabilities, they are cheaper than GPUs. For customers needing more computing power while having limited capital available, Broadcom's devices are starting to become a very popular option. In the first quarter, the company expects its AI semiconductor revenue to double year over year, which is far faster than Nvidia expects to grow.
Broadcom's custom AI chips won't ever fully replace GPUs, which can still handle a wide variety of workloads that custom AI chips cannot. But don't be surprised to see the company grow faster than Nvidia over the next few years as more clients choose a balanced offering of purpose-built ASICs and broad-use GPUs.
Together, these two make up a potent investment combination, since both are expected to soar over the next few years.
AI spending isn't going to slow down anytime soon
Nvidia made a bold call that global data center capital expenditures (capex) will rise from $600 billion in 2025 to $3 trillion to $4 trillion by 2030. That's huge, but it won't all go to computing hardware. There are other construction costs associated with data centers, and these can take up around half of the cost. That still leaves a gigantic computing market to capture, and Nvidia and Broadcom will be two of the top choices to capture this huge opportunity.
NASDAQ: AVGO
Key Data Points
If data center capex reaches the middle range of Nvidia's projection, that would be a 42% compound annual growth rate. That would trickle down directly to both Nvidia's and Broadcom's growth, making them no-brainer buys if they can increase revenue at more than a 40% pace.
Even if it's substantially smaller than that, at 20%, that's still a huge market beater, and investors would be smart to add both stocks to capture a huge chunk of AI spending.
