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

With market volatility having eased, now can be a great time to begin investing in shares of market-leading companies. A great place to start is with $1,000. Then, if the market dips, investors can always add more to their investments.

Let's look at three leading companies to invest in right now.

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 »

Nvidia

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) remains one of the best ways to invest in artificial intelligence (AI). The company's graphics processing units (GPUs) are the backbone of AI infrastructure due to their powerful parallel processing capabilities. However, the real secret behind Nvidia's success is its CUDA software platform.

The company created the software platform nearly two decades ago to make it easier for developers to program its chips. It pushed CUDA into universities and research labs early on, so it became the system on which most developers learned to program GPUs. Over time, Nvidia built out a collection of AI tools and libraries on top of CUDA, called CUDA X, that helped improve the performance of its GPU for use in running AI workloads.

That combination of powerful chips and a sticky software platform helped Nvidia secure a 90% share of the GPU market in the first quarter. As AI infrastructure spending took off, so did Nvidia's revenue, with its data center revenue increasing more than ninefold in just two years.

That momentum appears set to continue. Nvidia has said its new Blackwell chips are selling faster than any product in its history, and demand for full-stack AI "factories" is accelerating. Even with Chinese export restrictions, Nvidia forecast $45 billion in Q2 revenue, a 50% increase. Meanwhile, the company has predicted that data center capital expenditures (capex) will surpass $1 trillion by 2028.

Beyond the data center, Nvidia is quietly building a potential second growth engine in the automotive space. Its Drive platform is gaining traction with automakers like Mercedes Benz, Toyota Motor, and Hyundai Motor as they roll out more advanced driver assistance and autonomous features. Nvidia's automotive revenue surged 72% last quarter, and it expects it to hit $5 billion this year.

While a slowdown in AI spending is a risk, Nvidia remains the best way to invest in the AI infrastructure buildout.

Image source: Getty Images.

Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) -- the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and other social media and messaging apps -- is one of the world's most dominant players in digital advertising. The company is seeing strong momentum across its platforms. This could be seen in its Q1 results, as ad impressions rose 5%, while average price per ad jumped 10%. This growth is the result of users spending more time on Facebook and Instagram, and advertisers getting better returns.

Meta's Llama AI model is the biggest reason behind the company's strong revenue growth. Llama is helping provide a better user experience, which in turn is leading users to spend more time on Meta's platforms. This opens up more ad inventory. At the same time, AI is providing advertisers with better tools to target users and improve campaign performance, and with improved ad performance, advertisers are willing to spend more per ad.

Another potential growth driver from Meta is its newest social media platform, Threads. Meta has a strong history of building platforms and then later monetizing them through advertising. It grew Threads to over 350 million monthly users, and is just beginning to gradually monetize the platform. This could be a big future growth driver.

Behind the scenes, Meta continued to invest heavily in its Llama AI model. Its latest iteration, Llama 4, includes both agentic and multimodal capabilities, adding other potential growth areas down the line.

The biggest risk to the stock is a broad-based ad slowdown, but over the long term, Meta is well positioned to continue to take ad market share.

Netflix

Another potential long-term advertising winner is Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX). The video streaming company is shifting from a pure subscription model to a hybrid one, where advertising will play a much bigger role in the future. Its lower-priced ad-supported tier is catching on, with a growing number of new users choosing this cheaper option. At the same time, Netflix is adding more live programming, like WWE's Monday Night Raw. Live programming draws a captive audience and tends to have natural ad breaks.

Netflix also recently rolled out its own adtech platform in the U.S. and Canada, and plans to expand it to 10 more markets this year. It's also adding new targeting and measurement tools, with a longer-term plan to introduce machine learning-based ad optimization and new ad formats. The company expects to see its ad revenue double this year, but more importantly, it is laying the groundwork for even more growth in 2026 and beyond.

Meanwhile, Netflix keeps showing pricing power on the subscription side, helped by a strong content lineup. The biggest risk for Netflix is that it is still in the early innings of scaling its ad business, so there is always the potential for a misstep. That said, as the content leader in streaming, Netflix looks positioned to continue to grow through both ads and subscriptions over time.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

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Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Geoffrey Seiler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms, Netflix, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.