Micron’s latest AI-driven growth cycle will last at least two more years.
The Trade Desk will continue to pull advertisers away from the biggest “walled gardens”.
It might seem like a risky time to buy tech stocks. The S&P 500 still looks historically expensive at 30 times earnings, and most of its recent growth was driven by just a handful of tech giants.
However, I believe there are still compelling buying opportunities for investors who plan to hold their tech stocks for a few years instead of a few months. Let's take a closer look at two of those long-term winners: Micron (NASDAQ: MU) and The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD).
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Micron is one of the world's top memory chipmakers. Its revenue plunged in fiscal 2023 (which ended in Aug. 2023) as the market's previous growth cycle ended, but jumped 62% in fiscal 2024 and 49% in fiscal 2025 as the AI boom generated fresh tailwinds for its business.
As data centers upgrade their infrastructure to handle the latest AI applications, they need more of Micron's high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips and solid-state drives (SSDs). To meet that rising demand, Micron is manufacturing its DRAM chips more efficiently at the smallest 1γ (1-Gamma) node with ASML's (NASDAQ: ASML) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems. It's also ramping up NAND chip production at its newest 9th-generation (G9) node.
Micron usually follows the memory market's boom-and-bust cycles, but its current growth cycle might last a few more years as the AI market expands. From fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028, analysts expect its revenue and EPS to grow at CAGRs of 39% and 78%, respectively. Those are spectacular growth rates for a stock that trades at 13 times this year's earnings.
The Trade Desk is the world's leading independent demand-side platform (DSP) for digital ads. DSPs sell advertising space for automated ads across desktop, mobile, and connected TV (CTV) platforms. Its revenue rose 23% in 2023 and 26% in 2024, even as inflation, elevated interest rates, geopolitical conflicts, and other macro headwinds rattled the global economy.
The Trade Desk grew rapidly as more advertisers diversified their strategies beyond the "walled gardens" of digital advertising giants like Alphabet's Google and Meta. They also ramped up spending on ad-supported streaming video services that weren't tethered to those tech giants. To maintain that momentum, it's rolling out more AI-powered tools, new data-tracking solutions, and even its own smart TV OS.
From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect its revenue and EPS to grow at CAGRs of 16% and 22%, respectively. It might not seem like a bargain at 30 times this year's earnings, but it's carving out a defensible niche in the ever-expanding digital advertising market.
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Leo Sun has positions in ASML and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends ASML, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Micron Technology, and The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.