3 Stocks I Plan to Buy If the Stock Market Crashes in 2026

The stock market isn't cheap right now. In fact, as my colleague Sean Williams points out, the benchmark S&P 500 index is trading at the second-most-expensive valuation in its history, dating back to 1871.

But timing the stock market is practically impossible, and investors who stay on the sidelines in anticipation of a correction sometimes miss out on significant gains instead. Simply put, there is never a bad time to invest as long as it's for a long-term period of at least five years, which will smooth out the noise and maximize the odds of earning a positive return.

With all of that said, it can be useful to keep a short list of quality stocks to add to your portfolio if the broader market does hit a speed bump. Here are three names I plan to scoop up if there is a crash in 2026.

Image source: Nvidia.

The first stock I plan to buy: Nvidia

With a market capitalization of $4.6 trillion, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is currently the world's largest company. Its current fiscal 2026 will conclude at the end of January in just a few weeks, and it's on track to deliver record revenue and earnings thanks to incredible demand for its data center chips, which are the best in the world for developing artificial intelligence (AI).

Nvidia is likely to grow even further in fiscal 2027, with Wall Street's consensus estimate (provided by Yahoo! Finance) pointing to $319 billion in total revenue. If the company's recent operating results are anything to go by, the data center segment will be responsible for around 90% of that figure.

Later this year, Nvidia will launch a new lineup of AI graphics processing units (GPUs) for the data center, which will be based on its new Rubin architecture. These chips could be 3.3 times more powerful than the company's current Blackwell Ultra chips, so they will be ideal for deploying the latest reasoning models like OpenAI's GPT-5, Anthropic's Claude 4.5, and Alphabet's Gemini 3. Therefore, demand is likely to be astronomical.

Nvidia stock is trading at an attractive valuation as I write this. Its price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is 46.7, which is a discount to its 10-year average of 61.3. However, that's still a hefty premium to the P/E of the S&P 500, which is 25.4. As a result, I'll probably be a buyer if the stock gets swept up in a broader market sell-off at some point this year.

The second stock I plan to buy: CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) is one of the world's largest cybersecurity vendors. Its Falcon platform is an all-in-one solution designed to protect the entire enterprise, from cloud networks to endpoints (computers and devices), which saves businesses a ton of money because they can consolidate their spending with one vendor.

As of its recent fiscal 2026 third quarter (ended Oct. 31), CrowdStrike had $4.9 billion in annual recurring revenue, but management has put forward an ambitious plan to more than double that figure to $10 billion over the next five or six years. This would be a great growth story to have in any portfolio, especially considering demand for cybersecurity will only increase over time.

However, CrowdStrike stock is rarely ever cheap. Its current price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 24.7 is nearly double that of its nearest competitor, Palo Alto Networks, which trades at a P/S ratio of 13.3. That opens the door to significant potential downside in the event of a broader market sell-off, or if the company delivers a weak set of quarterly operating results at some point.

Therefore, while I wouldn't buy the stock today, I'm definitely watching for an opportunity to scoop it up at a more reasonable price.

The third stock I plan to buy: Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is the parent company of social networks Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which are used by 3.5 billion people every single day. The company generates the overwhelming majority of its revenue by selling advertising slots to businesses on those apps, and last year, it used AI to significantly improve engagement and monetization.

Meta also continues to develop its popular open-source Llama large language models. They are at the foundation of new features like Meta AI, a chatbot that has already amassed over 1 billion monthly active users after launching just two years ago.

The company likely spent upwards of $70 billion on AI data center infrastructure and chips during 2025 (the official number will be revealed in late January), which it's using to constantly improve its Llama models to ensure applications like Meta AI produce the most accurate outputs for end-users. A widely adopted chatbot could unlock entirely new revenue streams, so Meta is fighting hard to beat competitors like OpenAI and Alphabet in this race.

Meta stock is already down 17% from its all-time high, and its current P/E ratio of 28.7 makes it one of the cheapest "Magnificent Seven" stocks. But in light of the expensive broader market, I'm willing to wait for a better opportunity -- while being fully aware I could miss my chance entirely if it never comes around.

Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, CrowdStrike, Meta Platforms, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.