2 Breakout Growth Stocks You Can Buy and Hold for the Next Decade

Key Points

• Alphabet and Meta Platforms are digital advertising giants using AI to help drive growth.

• Alphabet has a big distribution advantage when it comes to search, and its efforts in AI are starting to boost its revenue growth.

• Meta is using AI to increase user engagement and improve ad targeting.

• 10 stocks we like better than Alphabet ›

Growth stocks have helped lead the market higher over the past decade, and with the expanding and sustained interest in all things related to artificial intelligence (AI), they appear poised to keep doing so over the next decade as well. Given these dynamics, two growth companies look particularly well-positioned for the long term: Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). Both are digital advertising giants that are using AI to expand into new territories as well as strengthen their existing businesses.

Let's look at why these two stocks are solid options to buy and hold for the next 10 years.

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1. Alphabet

Alphabet is a leader in the digital search and AI niches, and its advantage starts with distribution. Its Chrome browser runs on billions of devices and holds roughly two-thirds of the global browser market. It's no wonder that rival Perplexity.ai recently made an unsolicited offer of $34.5 billion for Chrome. (Alphabet may be compelled to sell the browser after losing an antitrust case.) Meanwhile, its Android operating system powers more than 70% of smartphones worldwide.

These platforms gather a tremendous amount of user data that gets fed into Google's ad network. Meanwhile, Alphabet has built one of the largest and most effective digital advertising platforms on the planet. Few companies can match its ability to serve clientele ranging from global brands to small local businesses.

Alphabet is also using AI to enhance its user experience and drive growth. Over 2 billion people now use AI Overviews in Google Search, while a recent Oppenheimer survey found that 60% of respondents viewed its new AI Mode as being more useful than ChatGPT. While many have speculated in the past few years that new AI tools would disrupt the Google Search business, this hasn't yet proven to be the case. In fact, Alphabet's search revenue growth accelerated in Q2, due in part to its own AI efforts.

At the same time, Alphabet's cloud computing unit is growing rapidly. Google Cloud's revenue rose 32% year over year in Q2, while the segment's operating income more than doubled. Customers are being drawn to its cloud computing analytics and tools, as well as its Gemini foundational large language model (LLM). In addition, its custom tensor processing units (TPUs) are helping drive down costs of AI workloads, especially in inference.

But there is more to Alphabet than just search and cloud computing. YouTube remains a solid contributor to the company's finances, and it owns a bevy of other properties, including Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Workspace. Its Waymo unit, meanwhile, is leading the way in the robotaxi space -- that could become another huge business for the company in the next decade. It's also a leader in the emerging field of quantum computing.

Alphabet's combination of market-leading businesses and emerging technology investments gives it multiple growth opportunities over the next decade. That makes it a stock you should want to own.

2. Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms also has solid long-term growth drivers. It has long been one of the best digital marketing platforms in the world, but it's now using AI to become even better.

At the heart of Meta's efforts is its Llama LLM, which it is using to help improve the user experience by delivering more personalized and engaging content to users' feeds. It's also using AI to make its platforms more interactive and to enable users to get answers to questions and generate content without leaving its apps. This is leading to increased user engagement and people spending more time on its sites. This, in turn, is giving it the opportunity to serve those users more ads.

At the same time, the company is also using AI to improve the ad side of its business. Advertisers can now use AI-powered tools to create better ads for its platforms, as well as to better target consumers who are more likely to buy their products. As a result, advertisers are getting better returns, which is leading to higher ad prices.

The combination of more ad placements and higher ad prices helped drive Meta's results in Q2. Its advertising revenue climbed about 22% year over year to $46.6 billion, led by an 11% rise in ad impressions and a 9% increase in average price per ad.

At the same time, WhatsApp and Threads could become major growth drivers. WhatsApp has over 3 billion users, and Threads has already reached 350 million, and both are just gradually starting to introduce ads.

Meta also has bigger ambitions when it comes to AI, and the company isn't afraid to spend big in pursuit of its long-term vision. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear he wants to build what he calls "personal superintelligence," and the company is spending heavily to poach top AI talent.

Given its impressive AI investments and its ability to monetize its massive social media platforms, Meta is a stock you should want to own for the long haul.

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Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.