Nvidia (NVDA 0.75%) has been a no-brainer buy for investors over the past couple of years. The stock has delivered both earnings and stock price performance as demand heated up for its full range of artificial intelligence (AI) products and services — with the star being Nvidia’s AI chips. The company has built its position as AI chip leader by entering the market early and focusing on innovation.
And though Nvidia stock has climbed 1,400% over the past five years, it still has plenty of room to run as the AI boom enters its next phases of growth. But Nvidia isn’t the only attractive AI stock around, and that means other stocks also may help you to score an AI victory. And some might even make more compelling buys than this AI star right now. Should you forget Nvidia and buy the following two AI stocks right now? Let’s find out.
Image source: Getty Images.
The case for Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms (META -0.69%) has made AI its investment priority over the past few years as it developed its own large language model (LLM), Llama, to drive its AI platform. You probably know Meta best for its social media leadership as it owns apps many of us use daily, such as Facebook and WhatsApp — and these apps drive revenue for Meta as advertisers promote their offerings there to reach us.
Llama already has helped Meta advance in AI, powering Meta AI, the world’s most popular AI assistant. The idea is this — and potentially other AI tools — will prompt us to spend more time on Meta’s apps, and advertisers then may aim to spend even more on advertising here. On top of this, Meta aims to lead in the overall development of AI, and success here could be big for the company down the road. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently formed Meta Superintelligence Labs to focus on AI development and has aggressively hired the industry’s top talent.
It’s clear that Meta is well-positioned to lead in this high-growth field, and the company also has the strong financial position — with the ability to allocate as much as $72 billion to capital spending this year — to support its goals. This is thanks to Meta’s social media moat, or competitive advantage — people don’t easily switch as they know most of their contacts probably won’t follow them to a lesser-known platform. And all of this helps Meta’s revenue to continue climbing.
The case for Alphabet
Alphabet (GOOG 0.49%) (GOOGL 0.49%), like Meta, has a strong revenue-driving business, and it’s also based on something most of us use daily. In this case, it’s Google Search, the world’s No. 1 search engine. Alphabet generates revenue by selling advertising opportunities across its Google platform, and it also is bringing in billions of dollars in revenue through Google Cloud, its cloud computing business.
This company has developed its own LLM, Gemini, and this model powers Alphabet’s virtual assistant and is part of a broad range of offerings customers find at Google Cloud — including access to top-performing chips such as those designed by Nvidia. Thanks to AI, Google Cloud is seeing tremendous growth, with sales rising 28% in the latest quarter to more than $12 billion. And this is a profitable business, with operating income surpassing $2 billion in that period.
Alphabet should benefit from AI in two ways: The company has applied AI to its own business — for example, improving search results and even the advertising experience for those customers. And Alphabet is offering AI tools and services through Google Cloud. All of this means AI could represent a huge and long-lasting growth opportunity for Alphabet.
Are these stocks better buys than Nvidia?
It’s clear that all three of these stocks make interesting AI buys, but to decide where to put our money right now, it’s a good idea to take a look at valuation. Here, Nvidia trades at a very reasonable level but still is the priciest of the bunch.
NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
Meta is cheaper, but its valuation actually has climbed since the beginning of the year. Alphabet has the best valuation profile of the three: It’s the cheapest in relation to forward earnings estimates and has seen its valuation decline since the start of 2025. All of this means that though you shouldn’t completely forget about Nvidia — or Meta — right now may be the moment to focus on Alphabet and add a few shares of this cheap but promising AI stock to your portfolio.
Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Adria Cimino has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.