The Best Stocks to Invest $1,000 in Right Now

Key Points

• Alphabet recently received a positive ruling in its antitrust court case.

• Taiwan Semiconductor's chips are powering the AI arms race.

• The Trade Desk is an excellent turnaround story candidate.

• 10 stocks we like better than Alphabet ›

If you've got $1,000 sitting aside to deploy in the market, now is as good a time as any to get started. While the market continues to hover around new all-time highs, numerous stocks remain with potential to move even higher throughout the remainder of 2025 and into 2026.

Three that I've got my eye on right now are Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), and The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD). All of these are great values and are smart places to invest $1,000.

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 »

Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet

Alphabet recently received a favorable ruling from a judge regarding its antitrust case, allowing it to avoid a breakup that would have severely harmed the business. This caused the stock to jump 9% the following day, so it may feel odd to recommend buying Alphabet shares after that jump. However, the stock remains severely undervalued compared to its peers and is poised for a dominant five-year run.

The largest remaining fear surrounding Alphabet's stock is how it will fare in the AI arms race. At the beginning, Alphabet fell behind, but it has since caught up, and its generative AI model, Gemini, ranks among the best. It's also by far the most used, as it has been integrated into Google Search to provide AI-powered summaries at the top of each search result.

This innovation will enable Google to remain the primary way to access the internet, yet the market doesn't view it this way. They still believe Alphabet will be severely disrupted, even though this hasn't surfaced yet. In Q2, Google Search's revenue rose by 12%, which isn't a sign of a dying business. Overall, Alphabet's revenue rose by 14% and diluted earnings per share (EPS) increased by 22%.

Despite this strength, Alphabet's stock still trades at an attractive valuation of 23 times forward earnings. Considering that most of Alphabet's big-tech peers trade in the high 20s to low 30s range, this leaves plenty of room for upside, making Alphabet a great stock to buy now.

GOOGL PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

Taiwan Semiconductor

Taiwan Semiconductor is a significant beneficiary of the substantial investment in AI data centers. Nvidia is the primary provider of computing power in these facilities although Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom's custom AI accelerators are also rising in popularity.

Regardless of whose products are used, almost all of the chips that go into these devices are made by Taiwan Semiconductor. TSMC doesn't need to pick the winner of the AI arms race or determine which computing equipment to use. Since Taiwan Semi is the world's leading chip fabrication company, it will power the majority of these devices used by any competitor.

This is an excellent place to be in, and the growth has shown up in a big way for TSMC. During Q2, its revenue rose by 44% year over year in U.S. dollars. For Q3, the company expects that growth rate to be about 38%. That's massive growth considering Taiwan Semiconductor's size; yet, the market still doesn't value its stock that highly, with a forward P/E of 24.

Taiwan Semiconductor is a great stock to buy and hold for capitalizing on the AI arms race, and I believe it has immense upside from here.

The Trade Desk

The Trade Desk is on a different trajectory than Alphabet or Taiwan Semiconductor. While the previous businesses have been succeeding, The Trade Desk has not. The ad tech player is migrating its user base to a new, AI-centric platform, and that migration has not gone smoothly. This has caused The Trade Desk to miss out on some revenue, and led management to guide for a Q3 growth rate of 14%, its lowest ever outside of one quarter affected by COVID-19.

As a result, the stock is down over 60% from its all-time high. However, I still think there's a strong investment case for The Trade Desk.

One factor influencing this poor year-over-year growth comparison is that Q3 2024 was a strong quarter, driven by heavy political ad spending. The Trade Desk is not experiencing the same boost this year, which is negatively affecting its growth projections. Furthermore, The Trade Desk is a huge player in the connected TV space, which is still rapidly expanding. This will be a long-term tailwind for The Trade Desk and help propel it to new heights in the future.

Currently, The Trade Desk trades at 29 times forward earnings, which is quite inexpensive considering its growth rate and projected market opportunity. The Trade Desk could be a top turnaround story in 2026, and I think scooping up shares at a low price right now is a great move for investors.

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Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Broadcom, Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.