What are the big three cloud providers?

The big three cloud providers are Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

Is it better to invest in individual cloud stocks or cloud ETFs?

For investors who want more concentrated exposure to a single business and who are comfortable with exposing themselves to more risk, investing in an individual cloud stock is a smart idea. For those looking to mitigate risk, a cloud computing ETF may be a better option.

What are the key financial metrics to evaluate a cloud stock?

There are a variety of financial metrics that cloud stock investors should use, but dollar-based net retention, gross margin, and customer acquisition costs are at the top of the list.

Can small-cap cloud companies offer high growth?

Small-cap cloud companies absolutely have the potential to offer significant growth. But investors considering these stocks should also recognize that, in addition to offering high growth, they're also likely to experience greater volatility.

How can investors stay updated on cloud computing trends?

In addition to monitoring the quarterly financial reports of cloud computing stocks, investors can keep tabs on the progress of the cloud computing industry by following The Motley Fool's coverage of these companies.

Best Cloud Computing Stocks of 2026 and How to Invest in Them

By Scott Levine – Updated Jan 27, 2026 at 10:08 AM EST | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

Cloud computing investment continues to grow, with a projected 21.2% CAGR till 2030.
Top cloud stocks include Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, among others.
Generative AI is driving the next expansion phase in cloud computing.

Cloud computing stocks give investors exposure to the companies that power how data, software, and digital services run today. These businesses provide the infrastructure and platforms that let organizations store information, run applications, and scale operations over the internet -- a foundation that’s becoming more critical every year.

After gaining traction in the 2010s, cloud adoption accelerated during the shift to remote work and is now entering a new growth phase driven by generative AI, 5G, and connected devices. Global cloud spending is projected to grow from about $752 billion in 2024 to $2.4 trillion by 2030, according to Grand View Research, reflecting how deeply cloud technology is embedded in modern business.

For investors, cloud computing stocks offer exposure to long-term digital transformation, access to leading tech innovators, and participation in some of the fastest-growing areas of the technology sector, making cloud a compelling investment theme for 2026 and beyond.

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Ticker Information Table
Name and ticker	Market cap	Current price	Industry
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)	$182.5 billion	$193.15	Software
Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE)	$107.7 billion	$261.19	Software
Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW)	$57.6 billion	$170.12	IT Services
Zoom Communications (NASDAQ:ZM)	$21.9 billion	$72.64	Software
ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW)	$113.0 billion	$109.60	Software
The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD)	$11.5 billion	$24.27	Media
DigitalOcean (NYSE:DOCN)	$5.2 billion	$58.45	IT Services

Data as of Mar 2, 2026. Showing 7 of 7 tickers.

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NYSE: CRM

Salesforce

Today's Change

(-0.84%) $-1.64

Current Price

$193.15

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$183B

Day's Range

$190.63 - $195.79

52wk Range

$174.57 - $303.07

Volume

497K

Avg Vol

11M

Gross Margin

75.28%

Dividend Yield

0.85%

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Salesforce's takeover of remote work and collaboration tool Slack put it on a collision course with Microsoft's Teams collaboration suite. Today, Salesforce offers a complete suite of software aimed at helping business teams manage data and get work done efficiently.

Due to its success in becoming a full-blown tech platform for businesses of all types and sizes, Salesforce is also a top way to play smaller cloud upstarts. It regularly invests in or acquires stakes in smaller cloud peers.

For instance, it invested in Snowflake (SNOW +1.01%) before its initial public offering (IPO) in 2020 (and sold it for a profit in 2021). It also acquired a stake in hot IPO Monday.com (MNDY -2.09%).

Salesforce fell on hard times in 2022 and faced activist investor pressure to boost profit margins. Founder and CEO Marc Benioff and the top team have made progress, though, and hope to become the world's largest and most profitable enterprise software company within the next few years.

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It seems to be on the right track. Salesforce reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.21 for fiscal 2023 but booked diluted EPS of $6.36 in fiscal 2025. In the company's third-quarter fiscal 2026 financial results presentation, management projected strong fiscal 2026 profitability growth with EPS of $7.22 to $7.24.

2. Adobe

Software company Adobe (ADBE -0.47%) got its start in an IT era that predates both the cloud and the internet. But it has transformed itself into a leader in cloud services by adapting its large and expanding platform to the cloud era. Adobe's core competencies in providing creativity software and document editing have made it a staple of digital transformation.

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NASDAQ: ADBE

Adobe

Today's Change

(-0.47%) $-1.22

Current Price

$261.19

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$108B

Day's Range

$257.10 - $264.17

52wk Range

$244.28 - $453.26

Volume

144K

Avg Vol

5.1M

Gross Margin

88.60%

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NYSE: SNOW

Snowflake

Today's Change

(1.01%) $1.71

Current Price

$170.12

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$58B

Day's Range

$162.72 - $171.81

52wk Range

$120.10 - $280.67

Volume

234K

Avg Vol

6.4M

Gross Margin

66.30%

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It hit the public markets in 2020 with incredible fanfare due to its triple-digit-percentage revenue growth. The stock has fallen since then, and revenue growth has moderated a bit, but Snowflake is now much more reasonably valued.

Snowflake is an important business that has pioneered new ways for businesses to store, migrate, and process massive amounts of digital information. It continued to expand at a rapid pace, even during the bear market of 2022 and despite fears of a recession in 2023.

It also began turning a healthy profit, as measured by free cash flow. In fiscal 2024 and 2025, for example, Snowflake reported free cash flow of $778.9 million and $884.1 million, respectively. Through the first three quarters of fiscal 2026, Snowflake reported free cash flow of $410.5 million.

Snowflake is a young company, though, and the stock will likely be highly volatile for some time. It's all about growth for this business right now, and even small changes in management's expectations can cause some wild fluctuations in share price. Snowflake could, nevertheless, be a very promising investment for the long term.

4. Zoom Video Communications

Few companies have skyrocketed out of obscurity and into household-name status as quickly as Zoom (ZM -1.76%). The videoconferencing service became a staple during the COVID-19 pandemic by helping family members and business teams stay in touch from afar. (As it turns out, many pre-pandemic in-person meetings weren't all that necessary after all.)

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NASDAQ: ZM

Zoom Communications

Today's Change

(-1.76%) $-1.30

Current Price

$72.64

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$22B

Day's Range

$71.75 - $74.22

52wk Range

$64.41 - $97.58

Volume

348K

Avg Vol

3.5M

Gross Margin

77.02%

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NYSE: NOW

ServiceNow

Today's Change

(1.47%) $1.59

Current Price

$109.60

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$113B

Day's Range

$105.20 - $111.07

52wk Range

$98.00 - $211.48

Volume

688K

Avg Vol

16M

Gross Margin

77.53%

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ServiceNow helps about 8,400 companies around the world find chokepoints in their digital customer experiences, employee workflow management, or software development operations. Once these pain points are found, ServiceNow can help suggest and automate fixes.

In a new era of AI, ServiceNow could be a big winner, building on its recent success. After growing subscription revenue by 23% from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2024, ServiceNow forecasted a year-over-year increase in subscription revenue of about 20% for fiscal 2025 when the company reported its third-quarter 2025 financial results.

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The company is using Nvidia hardware to make automation even better and has even landed Nvidia as a bigger customer using automation software that Nvidia is helping ServiceNow to create. And in the second quarter of 2025, the company launched a new solution with Amazon Web Services to help provide real‑time insights for AI‑driven decision-making.

In addition to steady growth, ServiceNow recently turned profitable across all metrics. This could be a great stock holding for the next decade and beyond as the cloud continues to infiltrate more of the world's corporate operations.

6. The Trade Desk

Netflix (NFLX +0.93%) made streaming TV from the cloud an everyday staple. Lots of new internet-based services have come to market in the past couple of years. This has been a boon for digital advertising technologists such as The Trade Desk (TTD +1.89%), a cloud-based offering that helps marketers automate the purchase of digital advertising (known as programmatic advertising).

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NASDAQ: TTD

The Trade Desk

Today's Change

(1.89%) $0.45

Current Price

$24.27

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$12B

Day's Range

$22.93 - $24.34

52wk Range

$21.08 - $91.45

Volume

657K

Avg Vol

15M

Gross Margin

78.63%

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Digital ads are dominated by the likes of Google and Meta Platforms (META +0.83%) (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), but The Trade Desk's cloud-based marketing management tools have won over lots of users. It now ranks as the largest independent digital ad management software company.

And its rapidly escalating top-line growth further reflects the massive success it has achieved. If the company achieves the lower end of its fiscal 2025 revenue guidance -- $2.89 billion -- it will mean the company has increased revenue at a massive 38% CAGR since 2015.

Despite massive internet growth in the past decade, just over half of marketing spending takes place in a digital format. Digital ads will continue to be a fast-growing industry in the next decade -- especially in at-home entertainment as TV and movies move to an on-demand internet streaming format.

In the coming years, streaming services will pick up millions of new household subscribers and account for billions of additional hours spent viewing content. That creates a huge opportunity for The Trade Desk as it manages connected TV advertising activity. Still a small company in a global marketing industry approaching $1 trillion annually and growing, the sky's the limit for The Trade Desk.

7. DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean (DOCN +4.26%) is a fresh face in the cloud computing space, having completed its public offering of stock in early 2021. It's a public cloud infrastructure and software provider similar to AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. While the big three focus their attention on large enterprises, DigitalOcean aims at the massive but underserved community of small businesses and start-ups.

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NYSE: DOCN

DigitalOcean

Today's Change

(4.26%) $2.39

Current Price

$58.45

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$5.2B

Day's Range

$54.64 - $58.62

52wk Range

$25.45 - $70.43

Volume

79K

Avg Vol

2.7M

Gross Margin

59.86%

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This is a lucrative niche. Most IT innovations are developed for and funded by large organizations. Yet, small businesses still make up about half of the global economy's production. Most are far behind the curve in making the necessary digital transformation. That's where DigitalOcean comes in, providing a full range of affordable services to help small companies find their way in the new cloud era.

Besides offering cloud infrastructure for small businesses to test and host web-based services and apps, it also offers services for the non-tech-savvy outfit. It acquired a company called Cloudways that offers website building and hosting.

Despite its tiny size, DigitalOcean is an efficient operation. It generates healthy, growing free cash flow, and while it has generated gross profits for years, it booked positive net income for the first time in 2023, reporting diluted EPS of $0.20.

Achieving significant bottom-line growth, DigitalOcean reported 2024 adjusted diluted net income per share of $1.92, and it projects this will grow to $2.00 to $2.05 in 2025. This could be a quality small- to mid-cap stock worth investing in for the long haul

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Investing in Cloud Computing Stocks FAQ

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About the Author

Scott Levine is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering energy, industrials, technology, and materials. He is also a high school English teacher and a small business owner. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing from Binghamton University, a master’s degree in secondary education from Adelphi University, and an advanced certificate in school building leadership from CUNY Queens College. A crossword puzzle enthusiast, he has solved more than 3,100 New York Times puzzles with a 97% solve rate.

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Scott Levine has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Adobe, Alphabet, Amazon, DigitalOcean, International Business Machines, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Monday.com, Netflix, Nvidia, Oracle, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Snowflake, The Trade Desk, and Zoom Communications. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2028 $330 calls on Adobe and short January 2028 $340 calls on Adobe. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.