These Could Be 3 of the Best Stocks to Own in 2026

With less than three weeks left in the year, the S&P 500 is thriving, up nearly 17%. Will it be able to manage a fourth year of double-digit gains in 2026? There's no way to know. What investors should be focused on instead is making sure their portfolios are well diversified with growth stocks to benefit from strong gains and solid value stocks to fortify their positions if there's market volatility.

With that in mind, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG), Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU), and Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM) are three stocks that offer strong growth opportunities in 2026 and beyond.

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1. Alphabet: Multiple businesses, including AI

Alphabet is a lot more than the Google search engine today. It has a varied list of products and services that are driving growth for the company, and it has tailwinds in artificial intelligence (AI) development. Although it trades at a premium to the S&P 500 average and its own recent averages, it's still fairly cheap for a growth stock, trading at a P/E ratio of 32.

Although the company is more than a search engine, Google Search is by far the most-used internet search engine, with around 90% of the market. That gives the company a tremendous edge in a space used by millions of users daily. Alphabet has developed the powerful Gemini large-language model (LLM) to generate valuable content for searchers, and it also provides Gemini, along with many other generative AI tools, to its cloud services clients. Although Google Cloud comes in at No. 3 in global cloud services behind Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure, it's growing on par with Microsoft and faster than AWS on a percentage basis.

Alphabet has many more segments, including hardware like phones and autonomous vehicles. These are the kinds of varied business streams Warren Buffett loves, and Buffett's holdings company, Berkshire Hathaway, took a position in Alphabet in the third quarter. AI or not, Alphabet has a stable and growing business that can keep growing in 2026 and the long term.

2. Nu: Expanding into new regions

Nu is a former Buffett stock, and it continues to be an incredible investment for shareholders today, up 61% in 2025.

The company, which operates an all-digital financial services business, has loads of tailwinds, and it's an exciting time to be a part of the story. Right now, it serves more than 60% of the population in its headquarters in Brazil, but management thinks there's still tons of potential in monetizing this base through cross-selling and upselling. It's also just getting started in Mexico and Colombia, which, with Brazil, make up the three largest countries in Latin America. That leaves a long-term growth runway as it captures more of the population and monetizes them down the line, a la the trajectory in Brazil.

But it also has major ambitions in opening up in new geographic locations, including the U.S. Like Alphabet, it trades at only 32 times trailing-12-month earnings, which is a great price considering its growth and long-term prospects. Look for Nu to keep launching new products in new places in 2026 and for its stock to reflect its growth.

3. Taiwan Semiconductor: Powering all kinds of technology

Taiwan Semiconductor is a fabulous stock for almost any investor, offering tremendous growth prospects and a solid, established model that can benefit from diverse trends. It manufactures semiconductors designed by companies like Nvidia and Alphabet, and it's enjoying robust AI tailwinds, but it also makes the chips that power smartphones, autonomous vehicles, and other technologies. That protects its business in the event that one technology type is overtaken by something new. In fact, it's likely to benefit from any new type of technology, so it's well positioned to keep churning out strong growth, whatever happens with AI.

It's also extremely profitable, with a 50.6% operating margin in the third quarter of 2025 and a 39% increase in earnings per share (EPS).

Like the other stocks on this list, Taiwan Semiconductor stock isn't expensive; it's actually the cheapest of the three, with a P/E ratio of 30. That gives the stock even more room to run next year.

Jennifer Saibil has positions in Nu Holdings and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Berkshire Hathaway, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Nu Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.