3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Go Parabolic in 2026

Finding stocks that have the potential to go parabolic is a fun thing to attempt. A parabola's rise starts off gradually, then over a short span accelerates into a rapid climb. So when it comes to such stocks, investors have opportunities to add to their positions gradually during those slower growth periods before they -- possibly -- hit an inflection point and begin to rise more sharply.

Three stocks that I think could go parabolic in 2026 are Nebius (NASDAQ: NBIS), SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN), and IonQ (NYSE: IONQ). All three have been successful investments to this point, but 2026 could be a year of even greater growth.

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Nebius

Nebius provides cloud computing infrastructure and solutions focused on artificial intelligence. Its data centers feature the best graphics processing units (GPUs) available, and it's seeing huge demand for its computing clusters. For data center operators, getting access to the electricity required to power their energy-hungry systems is proving to be a key factor limiting growth. Previously, Nebius expected to have about 1 gigawatt of contracted power capacity by the end of 2026. But as of its most recent report to shareholders, it now expects to have 2.5 gigawatts of contracted power capacity by then, substantially increasing its potential revenue growth. There is a massive demand for AI computing capacity, and Nebius is aiming to provide a small portion of it.

If its projections pan out, its annualized run rate revenue will rise from $551 million as of the third quarter of 2025 to between $7 billion and $9 billion by the end of 2026. That's parabolic growth, and the stock could skyrocket as a result. Although Nebius stock looks expensive now at 66 times trailing sales, it's actually quite cheap relative to its expected 2026 sales.

NBIS PS Ratio data by YCharts.

I think this makes Nebius an excellent candidate to buy now, as explosive growth could be coming very soon.

SoundHound AI

SoundHound AI is merging generative AI technologies with speech recognition. Its technology allows its clients to replace human employees whose jobs involve handling repetitive interactions with customers -- insurance reps or drive-thru order takers, for example -- with conversational AI systems. It's already seeing great results; revenues rose 68% year over year in Q3. It also has numerous prominent clients. For example, in Q3, it reported that three of the top 10 global financial services companies expanded their deals with it to include additional services, and two renewed their contracts.

Management is bullish on its prospects, asserting that SoundHound AI can deliver 50% or greater organic growth for the ''foreseeable future." That is a recipe for a stock that could deliver parabolic growth, and a few big customer wins could drive the stock into unprecedented territory.

IonQ

IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) is one of the leading pure plays in the quantum computing field. Quantum computing as an industry is at the start of its parabolic curve, as demand is slowly increasing for the technology. However, quantum computing isn't expected to reach commercial viability and the beginning of its mainstream adoption phase until 2030 at the earliest. There are a few years between now and then, but there could be significant movement in IonQ stock if the company is successful during that period.

In my view, we're just one announcement away from IonQ's stock skyrocketing. It could be a breakthrough that nobody was anticipating or an announcement that a major cloud computing player has abandoned creating its own quantum computing system in-house and is partnering with IonQ. Regardless, if IonQ continues to deliver outstanding results in its pursuit of developing a viable quantum computing solution, I'd expect its stock to rise slowly for a while. Eventually, though, it could hit an inflection point, after which the stock would rise dramatically.

Risky businesses

However, all three of these stocks have big "ifs" attached to them.

There are numerous players -- both tech giants and small pure plays -- attempting to develop reliable, commercially useful quantum computing systems. There's no guarantee that IonQ will beat out the fierce competition.

Nobody knows how receptive the general public will be to generative AI agents taking over as customer service reps.

Nebius may not be able to grow its actual cloud capacity as fast as it projects, and its clients could go elsewhere as a result.

These are all possible scenarios that could cause the stocks in question to sink. As a result, there is considerable risk to investing in them -- but those uncertainties are also why they still have parabolic upside potential. I'm still bullish on all three of these stocks, but investors considering buying them should be realistic about the risks.

Keithen Drury has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends IonQ and SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.