Breakfast News: The 20-Year Stock Challenge

OCTOBER 3, 2026

Warren Buffett once sat down with Coca-Cola’s (NYSE: KO) annual report from 1896, which is a level of homework most investors will never attempt. He observed how the company sold 116,492 gallons of syrup that year. A century later, it sold 3.2 billion.

For Buffett, the report was proof of a rule he already lived by: Buy businesses “virtually certain to possess enormous competitive strength” 10 or 20 years from now. He also admitted that even after a lifetime of looking, he and Charlie Munger found only a few. He called them “The Inevitables.”

We asked analysts on Team Hidden Gems and Team Rule Breakers what their favorite Inevitable is: A stock they’d buy for 20 years. Here’s what they picked.

1. AerCap Holdings

By Lou Whiteman
Team Hidden Gems

AerCap Holdings (NYSE: AER) was built to profit from aviation’s chronic dysfunction.

The company is the world’s largest aircraft lessor, having twice bought its largest rival. Plane manufacturers seek permission from AerCap before launching new models. This is a business built on scale. Size buys cheaper financing, better terms from manufacturers, and a clearer view of which aircraft will hold their value.

Global demand has never been stronger. Millions across Asia, Africa, and Latin America will board their first flight in the coming decades. The carriers serving them will favor leasing over tying up scarce capital. And by keeping only the newest models in its fleet, AerCap can easily re-home any aircraft returned to it as part of a bankruptcy.

This is a cash-generation machine that has reduced its share count by 25% over the past three years while also paying a dividend. Few companies are set up better for continued success over the next 20 years.

2. Microsoft

By Toby Bordelon
Team Rule Breakers

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) brings a large portfolio of services that businesses around the world depend on: 365, Windows, Azure, and more. Customers use these tools every day, which gives the company a wide moat, and Microsoft keeps widening it with additional services and upgrades.

Microsoft also sits at the cutting edge of new technology. It’s a major player in the artificial intelligence revolution, but it uses a smart approach: build AI into the suite customers already use, so they get new tools and new ways to work without having to shift to a new platform. Looking ahead, Microsoft continues to research the next frontier of tech, such as quantum computing.

The company’s fantastic balance sheet and financial resources give it room to invest in the future and protect it from current risks. Microsoft has the cash flow and liquidity to fund a major investment push today and still keep a strong safety net against potential market and economic shocks.

I believe this company will still rank among the biggest tech companies two decades from now, and will continue to lead in innovation, no matter what twists and turns the future brings.

3. Alphabet

By Michael McCoy
Team Hidden Gems

Plenty of companies will profit from AI over the next 20 years, but my money is on Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) to be one of the biggest winners. It has posted 12 straight quarters of double-digit revenue growth, and it still owns search. Gemini now answers questions at the top of Google’s search results, and Search revenue grew 17% last quarter, suggesting AI is strengthening Google’s core business.

Google’s products are easy to use and hard to leave. More than 3 billion people use its productivity apps, and when Google raised prices for business customers in 2025, the number of paying organizations still grew past 11 million. Businesses building their own AI pushed Google Cloud revenue up 82% last quarter, giving the tech giant a second major revenue stream that doesn’t depend on ad budgets.

As long as people keep working inside its products, and Alphabet keeps getting paid for the AI built into them, I’m happy to own it for 20 years.

4. Palantir

By Sanmeet Deo
Team Rule Breakers

Palantir’s (NASDAQ: PLTR) biggest growth engine today isn’t Washington, it’s corporate America. When a vinyl window manufacturer integrated Palantir’s platform, its on-time complete deliveries shot up from 40% to 90%. Wall Street missed what that meant. Last quarter, Palantir’s U.S. commercial sales soared nearly 150% year over year.

Palantir builds a living, real-time blueprint of an enterprise. Every customer order, delivery truck, factory floor line, and inventory count is mapped into a single operational brain. Third-party AI models plug in as simple, interchangeable tools; the models are replaceable, but the underlying operational map is not. Rip out Palantir, and you dismantle a corporation’s entire digital nervous system. That extreme switching cost is the moat.

As AI models become cheaper and more commoditized, the data structure holding everything together becomes even more valuable. Palantir holds a two-decade head start operating inside battlefield units, hospital networks, and manufacturing plants.

CEO Alex Karp and co-founders control nearly half of the voting power through Class F shares, so a cash-rich rival can’t just buy Palantir and hijack its technology. Mark Zuckerberg’s similar control at Meta (NASDAQ: META) has rewarded patient shareholders handsomely.

As long as Palantir remains the irreplaceable central nervous system for complex organizations, the long-term thesis remains firmly intact.

5. Today’s Question!

Four stocks down, more to go! Stay tuned for Part 2 of the 20-Year Stock Challenge later this month, with more analysts and their favorite picks.

Until then, it’s your turn to make a call for 2046.

If you could buy one stock today and hold for 20 years, which would it be and why?

Debate with friends and family, or become a member to hear what your fellow Fools are saying!

Lou Whiteman has positions in AerCap. Michael McCoy has positions in Alphabet, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft. Sanmeet Deo, CFA has positions in Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Palantir Technologies. Toby Bordelon has positions in Alphabet and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AerCap, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2027 $60 calls on AerCap. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.