3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Make Millions for Millennial and Gen Z Investors

Source The Motley Fool

The artificial intelligence (AI) era is only beginning, so younger generations, such as millennials and Gen Z, will see technology profoundly impact the world around them over the coming decades. These younger investors' real-world experiences could position them for remarkable long-term investment opportunities.

According to a study by The Motley Fool, Gen Z and millennial investors already favor technology stocks. This is undoubtedly a result of their growing up with the rise of the digital age, smartphones, social media, and other technologies.

Start Your Mornings Smarter! Wake up with Breakfast news in your inbox every market day. Sign Up For Free »

Because of these investors' tech-savviness and long time horizons, these three AI stocks are no-brainers to buy and hold for the next few decades. Their early leadership in AI could translate to substantial investment returns, perhaps even millions of dollars, by the time they retire.

1. This AI chip leader is innovating at lightning speed

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) grew into one of the world's largest companies on its artificial intelligence (AI) chip dominance. It started with the company's Hopper AI accelerator architecture and seems poised to continue with Blackwell. That makes Nvidia arguably the most important AI company today. Its chips are crucial to generating the immense computing power AI models need to process vast amounts of data quickly.

While its competitors strive to compete on data center AI chips, Nvidia's long-term appeal goes beyond its current offerings and focuses on innovation within the company. CEO Jensen Huang recently spoke at CES 2025 and announced developments in products and services, including Blackwell-powered graphics processing chips (GPUs) for gaming, open-source AI models for robotics and self-driving vehicle technology, and a desktop supercomputer capable of running small-scale AI models.

AI is primarily a complement to cloud computing today. However, AI may someday exist at the household level among consumers, and Nvidia's vision for the future could pay off. The company's deep pockets, market leadership, and pace of innovation arguably make it the favorite to create or lead these new markets as they eventually arise.

2. AI software is coming, and this company is leading the way

Over the past 18 months, Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) has become a leader in AI software. The company's roots are in data analytics software, going back years to its government ties (which still exist today). However, Palantir leaped forward when it launched its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) in April 2023. The platform enables enterprises to develop and deploy AI applications, a tremendous value because most companies lack the resources and expertise to build their own AI software from scratch.

Palantir's growth accelerated over the past year, and a massive addressable market is ahead of it. Palantir still has only 498 commercial customers. In the United States alone, there are 20,000 large businesses (companies with over 500 employees). Its technology is flexible and usable for any data-heavy application, with use cases ranging from military operations to optimizing supply chains and running hospitals.

The enterprise opportunity is enormous, and Palantir could someday even move down the market, making AI applications for increasingly smaller organizations as costs come down. The biggest knock on Palantir stock has been its egregiously expensive valuation, but long-term investors can look for an entry point on pullbacks.

3. A blue-chip technology conglomerate with multiple growth catalysts

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) built an empire on its Google search engine business. While that's still the company's golden goose today, there's far more to Alphabet. The company has operations in quantum computing, video streaming, autonomous vehicles, smartphones, and more. That's important for young investors because some of these segments, especially quantum computing and vehicle autonomy, could mature into massive assets in the future.

AI could be the key to that, and Alphabet is one of the only companies already equipped to be an AI powerhouse. It has a cloud computing platform (Google Cloud), AI models (Gemini), and years of first-party data across the Google ecosystem. Alphabet has already begun integrating AI throughout its existing businesses, but again, the real opportunity is in the businesses Alphabet could develop over the next decade or two.

Alphabet has the deep pockets and culture to continue pushing innovation, which means it has a good shot at factoring into future breakthrough technologies and the resulting market opportunities. Owning Alphabet is like a bet on AI innovation as a whole, like betting on the house. It could reward you in multiple ways, from continued growth to eventually spinning off emerging businesses to create additional value for shareholders over the long haul.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $832,928!*

Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of January 13, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Disclaimer: For information purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
placeholder
Fed October Rate Decision Preview: Rate Hike Pause Has Become Consensus, How Will US Stocks, Dollar, and Gold React?The Federal Reserve will announce its October interest rate decision at 14:00 Eastern Time on October 28, and Fed Chair Warsh will hold a press conference at 14:30. Markets currently wide
Author  TradingKey
9 hours ago
The Federal Reserve will announce its October interest rate decision at 14:00 Eastern Time on October 28, and Fed Chair Warsh will hold a press conference at 14:30. Markets currently wide
placeholder
Anthropic files for a $2 trillion IPO — the $80.7 billion loss is the decoy, the $450 billion compute bill is the riskAnthropic publicly filed its S-1 on October 26, revealing $16.29 billion of first-half revenue (+1,304% year over year) and a $80.7 billion net loss — of which $72.4 billion is a non-cash convertible-note charge. The real number is the $450 billion of signed, mostly non-cancelable compute commitments. Here is what the filing says, why NVDA, ARM and MU are the tradeable read-through, and the conditions that decide whether the AI trade passes its first public valuation test.
Author  Irene Q.
14 hours ago
Anthropic publicly filed its S-1 on October 26, revealing $16.29 billion of first-half revenue (+1,304% year over year) and a $80.7 billion net loss — of which $72.4 billion is a non-cash convertible-note charge. The real number is the $450 billion of signed, mostly non-cancelable compute commitments. Here is what the filing says, why NVDA, ARM and MU are the tradeable read-through, and the conditions that decide whether the AI trade passes its first public valuation test.
placeholder
Tesla jumps 5% as Barclays puts a $450 target on the SpaceX merger — the chart was already pointing to 431Tesla closed at $391.62 on October 26, up 5.21%, after Barclays upgraded the stock to Overweight and lifted its target to $450 from $370, citing a sharp inflection in Robotaxi miles and a potential SpaceX merger. The move also completed a double bottom at $345.88 and $349.33, with a neckline at $388.56 and a measured target of $431.24. Here is what the upgrade actually says, why the chart and the analyst now point the same way, and what would break the target.
Author  Irene Q.
14 hours ago
Tesla closed at $391.62 on October 26, up 5.21%, after Barclays upgraded the stock to Overweight and lifted its target to $450 from $370, citing a sharp inflection in Robotaxi miles and a potential SpaceX merger. The move also completed a double bottom at $345.88 and $349.33, with a neckline at $388.56 and a measured target of $431.24. Here is what the upgrade actually says, why the chart and the analyst now point the same way, and what would break the target.
placeholder
Euro weakens below 1.1200 as traders brace for Fed, ECB rate decisionsThe EUR/USD pair extends the decline near 1.1170 during the early Asian trading hours on Tuesday, pressured by risk-off sentiment. Markets might turn cautious later in the day ahead of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and European Central Bank (ECB) interest rate decisions later this week.
Author  FXStreet
18 hours ago
The EUR/USD pair extends the decline near 1.1170 during the early Asian trading hours on Tuesday, pressured by risk-off sentiment. Markets might turn cautious later in the day ahead of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and European Central Bank (ECB) interest rate decisions later this week.
placeholder
Bitcoin Price Forecast: Drops Below $80,000 in Fifth Straight Loss, May Test $75,000 as FOMC Meeting Approaches Bitcoin falls below the $80,000 mark as the October FOMC decision approaches, threatening a further dip toward $75,000.On October 26, Bitcoin (BTC) again lost the key psychological mark o
Author  TradingKey
Yesterday 10: 10
Bitcoin falls below the $80,000 mark as the October FOMC decision approaches, threatening a further dip toward $75,000.On October 26, Bitcoin (BTC) again lost the key psychological mark o
goTop
quote