2 Unstoppable Stocks to Buy With $500 Right Now

Anyone can build wealth in the stock market by picking their own stocks. The most important thing is consistently buying shares of growing companies and holding those shares over many years. As long as the underlying business continues to grow, the stock will take care of itself.

These two companies have millions of people who use their services every day, making them truly unstoppable for the long-term investor. If you have $500 in available cash you don't need for paying bills, eliminating short-term debt, or bolstering an emergency fund, you might want to consider putting it towards buying at least one share of stock in these companies right now.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

1. Amazon

The first stock represents the leading e-commerce retailer, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), with its $2.3 trillion market cap. While it is the dominant market share holder in the U.S., it still has a relatively small share of the global e-commerce market that should support its growth efforts for many years.

Companies that generate consistent revenue from a large base of customers can be rewarding investments. Amazon's Prime service has over 200 million subscribers worldwide. The Prime membership program has almost become a must-have for anyone who shops for everyday essentials online. This subscription service provides Amazon with a small amount of recurring revenue and encourages repeat sales throughout the year.

The company's online store raked in $247 billion of revenue last year, but that's a small percentage of the growing $6 trillion global e-commerce market. Investors can expect many years of growth from Amazon's e-commerce business as it continues to invest in better service, especially expanding same-day delivery to more customers.

Most importantly, operating income nearly doubled last year, as management improved inventory efficiency and lowered costs. Further margin improvement and growth from its non-retail services like cloud computing and digital advertising should lead to substantial growth in profits in the years to come.

Amazon generated $116 billion in cash from operations last year. On a per-share basis, the stock is trading at 20 times this figure, which is at the low end of its past trading range and suggests that investors are getting solid value for the shares right now.

2. Alphabet (Google)

Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google and YouTube are two of the most valuable internet properties. Seven of its platforms, including Google Search, Gmail, and Maps, each have over 2 billion regular users.

Growing revenue from advertising makes Alphabet one of the most valuable companies in the world, with a market cap of $2.2 trillion, and there are good reasons it will continue to grow in value over time.

The company uses artificial intelligence (AI) to make its products more useful. It had $52 billion in capital expenditures last year, which is going toward data centers and AI infrastructure. Those expenditures are translating to growing profits, with the return on capital employed reaching 35%.

The company's Gemini AI model is powering new features rolling out across the company's offerings, including AI Overviews, Google Lens, and personalized deals in Google Shopping. This can drive higher user engagement and consequently drive higher ad spending. Over the last year, revenue from all Google services, including advertising and subscriptions, grew 12% to $305 billion.

But Alphabet is not completely dependent on advertising, which tends to follow the highly cyclical economy. Google Cloud is one of the leading cloud services for enterprises, right behind Amazon and Microsoft. The demand for AI services helped drive 31% year-over-year growth in cloud revenue last year.

It is also starting to become a greater profit contributor for the company, with operating income more than tripling year over year to $6.1 billion in 2024.

The value that all these business segments bring to consumers and businesses is driving solid growth and fueling its share price to new highs. Its free cash flow, which soared to $72 billion last year, provides tremendous resources to remain a technology leader for potentially decades to come.

The stock trades at 31 times trailing free cash flow, or 20 times expected earnings for 2025. These valuation multiples are within Google's past trading history and should lead to great returns over the next five years and beyond.

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

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.