The Smartest Growth Stocks to Buy With $1,000 Right Now

Despite the market still trading near all-time highs, there are still some great opportunities. If you have around $1,000 to invest, I'd stick with market leaders with strong growth opportunities and wide moats.

With around $1,000, you could buy one share each of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). Here's a look at each.

1. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

One of the top ways to capitalize on the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure boom is by investing in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, or TSMC for short. TSMC is the world's leading manufacturer of semiconductors. The company is at the forefront of chip manufacturing technology, which has given it a virtual monopoly in making advanced chips, such as the graphics processing units (GPUs) that are powering the AI boom.

As competitors have struggled with yields (manufacturing chips with few defects) for advanced chips, TSMC has become the only foundry that has proven it can reliably make advanced chips at scale with high yields. This has made it an integral part of the semiconductor value chain and the go-to partner of chip designers.

It's also given the company strong pricing power and great future revenue visibility, as it works closely with its customers on their design roadmaps and future capacity needs. Best of all, it doesn't matter which AI chips take share, as it counts all the leading logic chip designers as its customers, including Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom. With the company projecting more than 50% annual AI growth over the next few years, this is a top stock to buy.

Image source: Getty Images.

2. Meta Platforms

One of the companies spending big on AI is Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), and for good reason. The social media giant has been one of the companies that has best applied AI to its core business to drive growth. The company does this in two main ways.

First, it has used AI to improve its recommendation engine, which is feeding users more of the content they are interested in. Social media sites Facebook and Instagram are much more about entertainment today than connecting with friends and family, and their algorithms are keeping users on their apps longer, leading to more opportunities to serve ads. This could be seen last quarter, as its ad impressions surged 18%.

At the same time, the company is also providing AI tools to its advertising customers. Through AI, it is helping advertisers more easily make more enticing campaigns. Its AI tools can also help its customers better target and convert users, which is leading to higher ad prices. This could be seen in Q4 2025, as its ad prices rose 6%.

Meta is currently hitting on all cylinders, making it an attractive growth stock to buy right now.

Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Broadcom and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.