Top edge computing stocks to consider
The best edge computing companies are sorted and described below.
Public cloud computing giants
It's important to remember that, in many ways, edge computing is an extension of the cloud. As such, some familiar names are playing key roles in the expansion of edge networks. For investors who want broad exposure to this emerging trend with less risk than with a small-cap, pure-play edge computing company, these stocks are a good starting point.
- Amazon (AMZN -0.41%)
- Microsoft (MSFT +1.01%)
- Alphabet (GOOGL -0.55%) (GOOG -0.20%)
All three of these tech giants' cloud offerings -- Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud -- support edge computing in both hardware and software. This is significant because tech researcher Gartner (IT +1.98%) thinks edge computing will grow 75% over the next few years, and 15 billion devices will be connected to enterprises via an edge network by the end of the 2020s. As organizations increasingly start to pull data out of the cloud and adopt edge computing, these three public cloud leaders will already be positioned to provide solutions.
Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet are not pure plays in the cloud computing industry. Nevertheless, cloud computing -- and edge computing, by extension -- is a top-performing segment for each that is generating meaningful profits. When looking to invest in edge computing, buying the stocks of any of these three companies is a good place to start.