Prediction: This "Magnificent Seven" Stock Will Be the Most Valuable Company in the World in 10 Years

If you looked at a list of the world's 20 most valuable companies from a decade ago, you'd notice several familiar names: Apple, Microsoft, Google (now Alphabet), and Berkshire Hathaway all made the list back then.

But as much as things have stayed the same, there's also been considerable turnover and movement in the ranks. Wells Fargo and Novartis have fallen way down the list over the last decade. Nvidia had only recently climbed out of the mid-cap stock range in 2015, but soared into the top 10 in 2021.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

All this is to say a lot can change in 10 years. And I believe one "Magnificent Seven" company that's bringing up the rear in that group today is also the one that's best positioned to become the world's most valuable company within the next decade.

Image source: Getty Images.

A second-order winner from the artificial intelligence trend

Nvidia has been a huge beneficiary over the last few years from the massive artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure spending by the hyperscalers: Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). Its cutting-edge GPUs (graphics processing units) are unparalleled when it comes to training large language models in the most cost-efficient manner. As a result, Nvidia is selling its chips just as fast as they're manufactured (indeed, faster -- its order backlog for Blackwell GPUs is now around a year), leading to strong margin expansion and earnings growth.

But the long-term winners of any technological revolution tend to be those that are best able to use the technology. That is, the second-order effects of new technology are even bigger than the first-order effects. To use the old gold rush analogy, it's not the pick and shovel makers, but the prospectors with the best systems for utilizing those picks and shovels who end up wealthiest of all.

With that in mind, Meta looks best positioned to take advantage of everything large language models and generative AI can do. That's why I expect it to be the biggest second-order winner from artificial intelligence, and why I anticipate that tailwind to propel it to the status of most valuable company in the world. It'll just take some time for the company (and investors) to fully realize the impact of AI on its business.

The massive unlock of generative AI

Meta has been a big investor in artificial intelligence for a long time. It's fundamental to its core business, which is simply putting content in front of users. Whether that content was originally generated by a friend, a stranger, or a business, Meta has become very good at surfacing the right content to users in order to maximize its revenue through a combination of increased engagement and increased ad value. And its AI algorithms are a key reason why it's been able to successfully do that.

Generative AI powered by large language models has the potential to unlock a ton of value for Meta's business. Here are four ways that could happen over the next decade.

1. AI-assisted advertising campaigns

Meta used to require advertisers to select a target audience for their ad creatives. While sophisticated marketers may be able to eke out a few extra basis points of performance from custom ad targeting, Meta's AI now does a great job of finding those target audiences to optimize for conversions (or any other campaign objective).

As a result, there's more emphasis on the ad creative. Developing a good ad creative that resonates with the target audience performs exceptionally well on Meta's platform. But that requires a lot of testing and iteration, not to mention time. Generative AI can assist with developing dozens of ad creatives with hyper-targeted copy, images, and videos. That in turn improves conversions faster than any improvements Meta can make to its targeting algorithm.

Meta also has more potential to benefit from generative AI than other digital advertising channels like Google or Amazon. That's because marketers use Meta to find their target audiences, while ad impressions on Google or Amazon already have viewers with high intent. If someone searches for "shovel" on Amazon, it doesn't take complicated software to figure out that you'll probably do well to show them ads for shovels.

2. Agentic AI to unlock economic value

Meta stands to benefit from building several different types of AI agents for its customers.

During Meta's first-quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg described his vision for AI in advertising: "Our goal is to make it so that any business can basically tell us what objective they're trying to achieve ... and how much they're willing to pay for each result, and then we just do the rest," he said.

What he's describing is an AI agent that will make some ad creatives, test them using Meta's automated targeting, iterate on those creatives, and ultimately deliver the desired result. The advertisers' savings in time and resources should translate into higher ad prices for Meta.

Meta could also benefit from developing customer service agents and sales agents for its messaging apps. That could enable businesses to deepen their relationships with prospective and existing customers without spending significantly on overhead. More importantly, that software scales quickly and easily. That should enable Meta to massively expand its click-to-message business, which was a $10 billion annual business as of early 2023. One analyst thinks chat agents could be a $100 billion business for Meta.

3. More engaging content

Generative AI is helping marketers make more engaging ads. Eventually, Meta could use AI to generate bespoke content for each user.

Zuckerberg said as much on the company's first-quarter earnings call. "AI is also enabling the creation of better content," he said. While some of that content will be in collaboration with human creators, he also sees "AI generating content directly for people that is personalized for them."

If Meta is able to create an endless feed of hyper-specific personalized content, it could result in one of the most engaging platforms ever. On top of that, it could make advertising even more effective, as AI-generated ad campaigns become just as personalized and even indistinguishable from entertainment in Meta's feeds.

4. Building the metaverse

Meta was an early mover when it came to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). One of the biggest challenges it has faced is that there's not a large ecosystem of content, nor many compelling use cases yet for a headset compared to smartphones and other computer formats. However, generative AI could help solve that.

The company has already seen success with integrating Meta AI into a pair of glasses, which gives the AI the ability to take in visual data from the world as the user sees it. Augmented reality takes that one step further by enabling the AI to interact virtually with the world. That could lead to all sorts of interesting human-computer interactions, better user interfaces, and improved experiences.

Just as Zuckerberg envisions AI generating unique content for users on Facebook and Instagram, it could also generate even more immersive and interactive content. That's the type of content that could push AR and VR headsets forward, and Meta is well positioned to own that format with its 10-year head start.

Becoming the most valuable company in the world

There's a good reason Meta is willing to spend around $70 billion this year on capital expenditures, primarily going toward the advancement of its AI development. The potential payoff for the business is massive, likely more than any other company.

So, while Nvidia is reaping the rewards in the short run, Meta stands to be the biggest long-term winner from AI, and I expect that will translate into the social media giant carrying a much bigger market cap a decade from now.

Should you invest $1,000 in Meta Platforms right now?

Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $635,275!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $826,385!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 967% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 12, 2025

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Wells Fargo is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Adam Levy has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. 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.