1 Industrial Stock I'd Buy Before Vertiv in 2026​

There has been a figurative gold rush surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) stocks over the past few years, and it has seen companies like Vertiv, which builds data centers, do rather well for themselves.

But there has also been a literal gold rush in the past year. Gold is up 72.5% over the past 12 months. There was a recent pullback, but over the past five years gold is up 156%.

Image source: Getty Images.

And even though investing in AI has been lucrative, there are reasonable fears many have that we are in a tech bubble akin to the dotcom crash of the early 2000s. In the case of an AI crash, Vertiv and companies like it might not be able to weather the storm.

And the fears of an AI bubble and the real issue of a weakening dollar are only likely to drive further investment into gold.

That makes it a solid hedge against both the potential AI bubble and a weak dollar. But many people don't have $5,000 to invest in a single ounce of gold.

Fortunately, Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM) offers a compelling and relatively inexpensive alternative.

Don't stream The Office; stream gold

Wheaton is a streaming company, just not one like Netflix. Instead of streaming tv shows, Wheaton streams gold and silver.

In nature, gold and silver can be found in deposits of copper, nickel, lead, etc.

Companies set up to mine one of those metals aren't necessarily able to get a good return on the gold and silver found with them.

Enter Wheaton, which pays the mine up front and offers to take that gold and silver off the mine's hands periodically at an agreed-upon price. A new mine is able to better finance its start-up costs and it generates regular income from metals it's not trying to mine. Wheaton gets gold and silver it can sit on or sell at market prices to generate revenue for itself.

At present, Wheaton has contracts with 23 mines and is involved in 25 development projects around the world. It's forecasting a 40% increase in production over the next two years; being able to profit from gold and silver while taking on none of the risks of operating a mine is a rather lucrative way to do business.

Striking gold without touching a pickaxe

As you might imagine, gold's bull run over the past year has been great for Wheaton, which generated $913.4 million in net earnings for the first nine months of 2025, more than double the $440.9 million it generated over the same period in 2024.

Earnings per share (EPS) nearly doubled from $0.97 for the first nine months of 2024 to $1.80 for the first nine months of 2025.

The company also generated $1.15 billion in cash from operations over the first nine months of 2025 compared to $708 million over the same period in 2024. That equates to an operating cash flow per share of $2.55 for the first nine months of 2025 to $1.56 for the same period in 2024.

Wheaton also maintains a gross margin of 68.6%, an operating margin of 63.5%, and a net margin of 54.7%. Even with gold's recent pullback, that kind of profitability absolutely trounces the net profit margin of 10% achieved by most gold mining companies.

If you want to profit from an actual gold rush as opposed to a metaphorical one, give Wheaton a look.

James Hires has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Netflix and Vertiv. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.