3 Unstoppable Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy Right Now for Less Than $1,000

Source The Motley Fool

Key Points

  • Palantir had another blowout quarter.

  • Nvidia is the primary driver of AI spending growth.

  • Alphabet has a fast-growing cloud service and a dominant advertising business.

  • 10 stocks we like better than Palantir Technologies ›

One of the best things about the stock market is that you don't need a lot of money to start your investing journey. The magic of time and compounding interest can turn a little bit of money into a lot. All you need is patience and the discipline to consistently add to your portfolio.

If you have just $1,000 available to invest that isn't needed for an emergency fund or to pay down short-term debt, there are three artificial intelligence (AI) stocks that you might want to invest in with the funds. All of them are proving to be unstoppable, with long runways that can help build wealth and turn that $1,000 investment into something more.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now, when you join Stock Advisor. See the stocks »

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Image source: Getty Images.

Palantir Technologies

Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) is a hot name right now, as the company is coming off another solid earnings report. Palantir's fourth-quarter revenue was $1.41 billion, up 70% from a year ago. Net income of $609 million and earnings per share of $0.24 showed a 43% profit margin.

Palantir's data mining and AI-powered software provides real-time insights to government agencies and commercial businesses -- and it's rapidly becoming a must-have tool for many. Palantir reported closing 180 deals valued at more than $1 million in the fourth quarter. Its deals were for a company record $4.26 billion in total contract value, up 138% from a year ago.

Nvidia

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is a key reason behind the big rise in AI stocks over the last three years. The company's vaunted graphics processing units (GPUs) are used for many high-performance computing tasks, such as cryptocurrency mining, running virtual reality programs, and powering AI platforms.

Nvidia became the biggest company in the world by market cap because companies are buying as many GPUs as they can to bundle and power their data centers.

In Nvidia's last earnings report, management said its cloud GPUs were "sold out" -- and that's before Nvidia begins selling its next-generation Rubin chips later this year.

Look for Nvidia to have another blowout quarter when it reports earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2026 on Feb. 25.

Alphabet

As much as I like Nvidia, I think Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) will have an even better year in 2026. The biggest driver of Alphabet's growth is its Google Cloud computing division, which is capitalizing on the growth of AI. More companies are moving to cloud environments to train and run AI platforms because data centers are so expensive. That's why Alphabet got $15.15 billion in revenue in the third quarter from Google Cloud, up 33% from a year ago.

But the other reason I really like Alphabet is its dominant position on the internet. Alphabet has the world's most popular browser, Chrome, and the most popular search engine, Google. That gives it a massive advantage in internet advertising, which accounted for $74.18 billion of Alphabet's revenue in the most recent quarter.

Alphabet is also starting to market its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), which are its in-house alternative to GPUs. It has a deal with Anthropic, which will expand its use of Google Cloud to include up to 1 million TPUs, and it's also in talks with Meta Platforms on a deal reportedly valued in the billions of dollars.

Should you buy stock in Palantir Technologies right now?

Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this:

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Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $436,126!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,053,659!*

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*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2026.

Patrick Sanders has positions in Nvidia and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Disclaimer: For information purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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