The Smartest Artificial Intelligence (AI) Investment Moves to Make With $5,000 in July

If you've got $5,000 (or really, any amount) burning a hole in your pocket, then there are a handful of stocks that I think would make for great buys now. Among them are Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Micron (NASDAQ: MU), and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

All three of these companies are leaders in their respective industries, and each is also on sale right now compared to historical averages -- but these prices won't last forever.

Image source: Getty Images.

Nvidia

It may be hard to stomach the idea that the world's largest company by market cap is actually underpriced, but that's exactly what the numbers tell investors. Right now, it trades at 22.6 times forward earnings and 15.9 times next year's expected earnings.

NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

For reference, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) trades for 21.7 times forward earnings, so Nvidia is only slightly more expensive than the broad market average. However, when one looks a bit further into the future, it looks dirt cheap, as 2027 is expected to be another year of strong growth for Nvidia due to the continuing ramp-up of the data center build-out. Additionally, a GPU upgrade cycle is coming later this year, as the new Rubin architecture will launch. Nvidia's Rubin chips are expected to reduce inference token costs by a factor of 10 compared to its Blackwell GPUs, and to be 4 times more efficient for training.

Those major performance increases will help Nvidia deliver a strong growth rate again next year. Wall Street analysts project 41% growth, but they have consistently underestimated Nvidia's growth since 2023. I think that's likely to be the case again this year, which could lead to an incredible 2027 stock performance, especially from its currently cheap starting point.

Micron

Micron is a candidate for stock of the year, as it has risen by a jaw-dropping 250% so far this year -- even after its recent pullback. With a rise like that in the rear-view mirror, it may seem odd to continue recommending the stock, but the reality is that Micron's growth wave hasn't wrapped up yet.

The data center build-out has created massive demand for memory chips, and there simply isn't enough production capacity to meet that demand. With such shortages come skyrocketing prices, and Micron's revenues and profits have soared as a result. This supply-and-demand imbalance isn't expected to be fully resolved anytime soon; Micron's management team believes that market conditions won't improve before 2028.

With Wall Street estimating 81% revenue growth in its fiscal 2027 (which ends in August 2027) and the stock trading at a mere 6.6 times fiscal 2027 earnings, there is plenty of room for Micron to continue rising.

Microsoft

Microsoft has had the worst first half of any stock on this list. It's down around 20% so far in 2026, but based on its business performance, it didn't deserve that slide. During its most recent quarter, Microsoft's revenue rose 18% year over year, and earnings per share increased at a 23% clip. That's a solid performance for a tech behemoth like Microsoft.

However, the market hasn't been impressed. Microsoft actually trades now for a cheap 19.9 times forward earnings. As mentioned above, the S&P 500 trades for 21.7 times forward earnings, so this discount to the broader market is a potentially perfect buying opportunity, since Microsoft's revenues are rising faster than the market's average 10% growth rate.

The market will eventually come back around to buying Microsoft at a premium. Buying shares now positions you to achieve maximum gains when that shift eventually happens.

Keithen Drury has positions in Microsoft and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Micron Technology, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.