The Best Stocks to Invest $1,000 in Right Now

The stock market has been a bit volatile in November, but that means there are still some great stocks for long-term investors to buy that are now available at a discount. What these long-term investors should remember, however, is that during these more volatile periods, starting positions with a smaller amount -- say $1,000 -- can be a good way to dip your toe into the market.

Let's look at two stocks that might be worth a $1,000 investment right now.

Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet

After seeing its stock struggle early in the year, Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) share price has more than doubled off the bottom it hit this spring. However, that doesn't mean there isn't more upside ahead.

Sometimes competition draws out the best in both people and companies, and that appears to be the case with Alphabet. Once thought of as a potential artificial intelligence (AI) loser, Alphabet now looks as if it may be the best positioned in the AI space. The company's advantage comes from its having the most complete tech stack in all of AI.

By having both its own world-class AI model and the best custom AI chips, Alphabet has created a virtuous cycle that will only increase its advantage over time. By using its own custom chips, Alphabet can realize a better performance at a lower cost for both its own internal workloads (Gemini and search) and its customers'. This also gives it a better return on its investment, which lets it spend more on its chips and models, which keeps making both better. This starts to draw in more customers who want to use Gemini and its more cost-efficient tensor processing unit (TPU) infrastructure, and the flywheel continues.

Currently, no other company is as far along with custom AI chips as Alphabet, whose TPUs are now in their seventh generation and were first designed over a decade ago. This gives it a huge cost advantage compared to AI model companies like OpenAI as well as cloud computing rivals, whose custom chips are not nearly as advanced. Meanwhile, both Amazon and Microsoft generally rely on third-party large language models (LLMs), so they aren't capturing this revenue stream the way Alphabet's in-house products can.

Throw in the big edge Alphabet has with distribution (owning the market-leading browser, Chrome, and the market-leading smartphone operating system, Android) and data (decades of search queries), and the company is uniquely positioned to be the biggest winner in AI over the long term.

PayPal

Probably one of the most undervalued stocks in the market today is PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL). The stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of less than 11 times 2026 estimates, but what is even more notable is that the company has a free cash flow yield (free cash flow/market cap) of more than 10%. It's using this cash to buy back a lot of stock, and it has the opportunity to significantly shrink its share count in the coming years.

At the same time, PayPal is working to transform itself from a payment solution into an AI-powered commerce solution by introducing several innovations. One example is its Fastlane solution, which lets customers check out with a simple tap without having to set up multiple accounts with different retailers. It has also introduced a smart wallet that can automatically activate available discounts, cash back, or loyalty programs. The company has also been working to better monetize its popular Venmo brand, such as by introducing Venmo-branded credit and debit cards and a Pay with Venmo option available from e-commerce retailers, including Amazon and TikTok Shops.

In addition, it recently signed deals with both Alphabet and OpenAI around agentic AI commerce. As part of the Alphabet deal, it will serve as the branded checkout and primary payment service throughout Google's ecosystem. Meanwhile, for OpenAI, PayPal will become the first payment wallet integrated into ChatGPT, and it will do the payment processing for merchants that sign up for OpenAI's Instant Checkout.

Altogether, PayPal is a very cheap stock that has some nice potential growth opportunities, making it one of the best stocks to invest in now.

Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and PayPal. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and PayPal. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, long January 2027 $42.50 calls on PayPal, short December 2025 $75 calls on PayPal, and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.