The Best Stocks to Invest $1,000 in Right Now
Key Points
Amazon has two leading businesses that are benefiting from its technological innovations.
Apple has one of the best business models in the world.
- These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires ›
If you're just starting out and have $1,000 to invest, I'd stick with the stocks of well-known leading companies that still have a lot of growth left in the tank. You really want to understand the companies you're investing in, so buying stocks of companies whose products you see every day can be a smart move. As such, the two stocks I'd split $1,000 between are Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).
Let's dig a little deeper into these growth stocks to see why they look like good long-term buys. For a little over $1,000, you can buy two shares of each stock.
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Amazon: An e-commerce and cloud leader
If you're like my household, you probably have Amazon packages arriving at your doorstep frequently. Amazon is the largest e-commerce company in the world, and this business is still growing sales at a nice pace. However, from an investment standpoint, the most exciting thing about this business is actually what the company has been doing behind the scenes.
Amazon is also the world's largest manufacturer and operator of robots. Together with the use of artificial intelligence (AI), the company is making its e-commerce business much more efficient. This, in turn, is leading the segment's profits to grow much faster than its revenue. This could be seen in the first quarter of 2026, when its North American operating income surged 43% on a 12% increase in sales. The company also has a fast-growing, high-margin sponsored ad business, which is contributing to this.
In addition to being an e-commerce giant, Amazon is also the largest cloud computing company in the world. This is actually the company's largest business in terms of profitability. Its Amazon Web Services (AWS) segment has been riding the AI wave, with huge demand for compute and AI services. Revenue growth for the segment has been accelerating, and that should continue given Amazon's partnerships and investments in Anthropic and OpenAI.
One of Amazon's big advantages within this segment is its chip business. This is now a $20-billion-run-rate business, or $50 billion when taking internal use into account. While internal use doesn't count as revenue, it helps the company get more bang for its buck when spending on AI infrastructure, and it helps reduce AI inference costs. In addition to its own custom AI accelerators, Amazon has its own custom central processing units (CPUs), which positions it well for agentic AI.
Overall, Amazon has two leading businesses that are benefiting from the company's internal technology investments. The company is a proven long-term winner and a stock to buy right now.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Apple: A great business model
Another company that most people are familiar with is Apple. The company leads the smartphone market in the U.S., where it holds a more than 60% share. While its iPhone is not generally at the cutting edge of smartphone technology, Apple has established itself as a global luxury electronics brand whose products are known for their stylish design and for working seamlessly with each other.
The iPhone remains Apple's primary revenue driver, and the smartphone market has a fairly predictable replacement cycle that helps keep sales high. However, the real beauty of Apple's business model is that once someone buys an iPhone, they typically get locked into the Apple ecosystem. It's generally a hassle to transfer photos to competitors' devices, and any app purchases would get lost.
As such, once someone is in the Apple ecosystem, they tend to stay and buy more services, such as cloud storage, apps, and subscriptions. The company also generates a huge amount of money from a revenue-sharing deal it has with Alphabet to allow Google to be the default search engine on its devices, and from when people use Apple Pay to make purchases. Apple's service segment has been a consistent mid-teens revenue-growth business. More importantly, it carries much higher gross margins than its devices, which helps drive its profits.
Apple has one of the best business models on the planet, making the stock a long-term buy.
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*Stock Advisor returns as of May 27, 2026.
Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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