Worried About an AI Bubble? Buy This Tech Stock in 2026.

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has been driving some of the biggest gains in the stock market in recent years. A report from JP Morgan Asset Management found that ever since ChatGPT launched in November 2022, AI-related stocks have accounted for 75% of S&P 500 returns. Major tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta Platforms are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in high-powered chips and vast data centers to build the infrastructure of AI, which they hope will lead the next transformative wave of innovation and economic growth.

But in the past few months, some investors have turned skeptical about the AI stock story. In August 2025, an MIT study was published showing that 95% of generative AI projects at businesses failed to deliver a measurable return on investment. This MIT study was a potential warning sign to investors. If businesses can't figure out how to use AI to make money, save money, or be more productive and efficient, all of this AI capital expenditure (capex) spending by these major tech companies might not pay off, and would be halted.

Some investors are concerned that AI companies are spending too much on capital expenditures for AI, that AI is not demonstrating enough clear real-world use cases and profitable product opportunities, and that the expected returns on all of this AI capex might not arrive. The AI boom might turn into an AI bubble.

The good news is that no matter what happens next with AI companies, you can still invest in a major tech stock that might not be affected by a possible AI bubble. Here's a closer look at why this company could be a good stock to buy in 2026.

Apple is outside of any AI bubble

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is one of the world's largest and most influential tech companies, but it's not an "AI company" or an "AI stock" in the same way as Oracle, Nvidia, Microsoft, or Alphabet is. That's because Apple's not spending nearly as much on AI as these other companies, and Apple's business model doesn't depend on the future promise of AI. In fact, earlier in 2025, Apple was widely criticized for not moving fast enough on AI and being "behind" on AI strategy.

But Apple's patient approach to AI might turn out to be a good thing for Apple shareholders. Apple has managed to avoid getting dragged into a costly AI arms race. Instead of plowing billions of dollars into data centers, Apple has focused on its core business of selling phones and laptops. If you're worried that valuations of AI stocks have gone too high, but you don't want to give up on "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks, Apple could be a good choice.

Apple is poised to thrive in 2026

During the past six months, Apple stock is up roughly 33% while the S&P 500 is up 11%. Apple also outperformed major AI stocks like Nvidia and Oracle, and other AI-related tech stocks like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft. The launch of the iPhone 17 in September 2025 was a huge success, generating blockbuster demand. Apple is expected to ship 247.4 million iPhones in 2025, a 6.1% year-over-year increase, according to IDC.

Image source: Getty Images.

On its most recent earnings call, in October, Apple announced record-breaking numbers. The company earned $416 billion of revenue in its fiscal year 2025 (an all-time record), and its fourth-quarter revenue of $102.5 billion was an 8% year-over-year increase. iPhone revenue was up 6% year over year and hit a new September-ended quarter record. Earnings per share (EPS) were $1.85, another September-ended quarter record, and up 13% year-over-year, excluding a one-time charge from 2024.

Apple's services revenue was up 15% year over year in the quarter, which is an all-time record. Services have become a major profit engine for Apple because the margins on digital services are so high compared to physical products. Apple's gross margin for services was about 75% in its latest earnings report, compared to 36% for Apple products.

And the services segment is becoming a bigger slice of Apple's overall revenue. In its Q3 earnings for fiscal year 2025, Apple made more sales from services ($28.75 billion) than it made from all of its non-iPhone products combined (Macs, iPads and Wearables made $24.69 billion of sales).

And there are good reasons for investor optimism about Apple to continue into 2026. The company expects to see 10%-12% revenue growth in the first quarter of 2026, with double-digit iPhone revenue growth. That quarter is wrapping up now and includes the holiday selling period. Analysts have raised their estimate for Apple's earnings per share to $2.67 for the current quarter, up from $1.77 for Q4 of Apple's fiscal 2025.

With a price-to-earnings ratio of 34, Apple stock is not cheap compared to where its P/E ratio has been in the past few years. But if investors continue to shy away from high-priced AI stocks, and if more signs of real-world return on investment from AI don't materialize fast enough, Apple could look like a better deal than tech stocks that have more AI exposure.

Unless some new must-have device gets invented that can replace the iPhone, Apple seems well-positioned to stay highly profitable for a long time to come. No matter what happens next with the possible AI bubble, Apple should be a good stock to buy in 2026.

Ben Gran has no positions in the stocks mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle. 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.