Buy and Hold: 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Built for the Long Haul

Key Points

• Oracle is experiencing unprecedented demand for cloud infrastructure services.

• Broadcom's backlog hit a record $110 billion last quarter, driven by demand for AI chips.

• 10 stocks we like better than Oracle ›

Companies are investing significant sums in AI, and it's not slowing down. Consulting firm McKinsey estimates data center spending for AI workloads will reach $5.2 trillion by 2030.

What makes this opportunity unique for investors is that it doesn't involve high risk. The most dominant and profitable companies in the world are leading the AI revolution. These companies are the driving force behind the trillions of dollars that are expected to be invested in data centers to enable AI adoption across the economy.

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

Here are two AI stocks that are solid buy-and-hold investments.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Oracle

Businesses are increasingly turning to cloud services to put their cloud-stored data to use by incorporating AI and potentially gain an advantage. This is a huge opportunity for Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), which already leads in database management services.

Businesses have relied on Oracle's database and software for years. Over the last year, it generated $12 billion in net profit on $59 billion in revenue. It has reported consistent but low (single-digit) revenue growth over the last 10 years, but Oracle's cloud infrastructure business is exploding right now.

In the last quarter, Oracle's remaining performance obligations (contracted revenues not yet realized) jumped 359% year over year to reach $455 billion. That is three times what it reported in the previous quarter!

Demand should keep growing. One advantage of Oracle's versatile cloud offering is that it enables businesses to use top large language models, such as Google's Gemini or xAI's Grok, on data stored with any of the top cloud platforms, like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure.

The company's multicloud database revenue grew 1,529% last quarter. Management expects to sign several more deals in the next few months that will take its remaining performance obligations to over $500 billion.

The stock has nearly doubled year to date, but it's not too late to buy shares. These impressive numbers clearly show that the new industrial revolution driven by AI is still in the early innings, and that spells more upside for long-term investors in Oracle.

2. Broadcom

Investors interested in buying shares of Oracle or other leading cloud service providers should also consider Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO). This leading semiconductor company supplies a lot of the components needed for high-performance computing in data centers, which are the backbone of cloud computing.

Broadcom is one of the most valuable companies in the world, with a current market cap of $1.7 trillion. It has consistently reported double-digit revenue and earnings growth for several years, which reflects a wide competitive moat in supplying networking, software, and specialized chips for smartphones, wireless products, and electronic devices in industrial markets.

AI data centers are driving strong demand for Broadcom's custom AI accelerators. Revenue from AI products grew 63% year over year last quarter, making up 33% of the company's total. Management also doesn't see this level of demand slowing in the near term, with next quarter's AI chip revenue expected to be up 66% year over year.

Continued advancement in AI will require more networking bandwidth and processing power in data centers, which plays to Broadcom's strengths. The company's consolidated backlog of orders hit a record $110 billion, indicating robust demand for Broadcom's networking and semiconductors for AI.

Broadcom is a highly profitable business, which reflects management's investment in markets that generate high margins. It paid a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share last quarter out of adjusted earnings of $1.69.

The stock is up 56% year to date. It could be volatile after this sharp run, but it should continue to hit new highs over the next five years. Spending on AI data centers is only going to keep growing, which points to more gains for Broadcom shareholders.

Should you invest $1,000 in Oracle right now?

Before you buy stock in Oracle, 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 Oracle 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 $640,916!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,090,012!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,052% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 188% 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 September 15, 2025

John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and 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.