Have $2,000? 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy and Hold for at Least a Decade.

The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution contains a wealth of investment opportunities, not to mention the potential for massive economic transformation and productivity enhancements. Companies ranging from small start-ups to the world's largest corporate giants are investing heavily in AI research and infrastructure in a bid to keep up in the global technology race.

This strong institutional support is expected to accelerate development and adoption and create a favorable and stable environment for AI-focused businesses over the long run. While not all AI stocks will be winners, focusing on quality companies with robust competitive advantages and strong financial foundations can allow you to capitalize on the future of this industry in its still relatively nascent stages.

On that note, if you have $2,000 to invest, here are three AI stocks to buy and hold for at least a decade.

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1. Alphabet

Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) full-stack AI ecosystem, vast data moat, dominant market positions in search and cloud, and substantial financial strength continue to pose enviable tailwinds for this behemoth business. Alphabet boasts end-to-end AI infrastructure, including its in-house AI chips (Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs), the Gemini foundational models, the Google Cloud platform, and a massive array of user-facing products, including Search, YouTube, and Android.

TPUs are application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) designed specifically for neural network math, which makes them efficient for AI training and inference, unlike more general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs). Not only are TPUs the backbone of Google's AI, running core products like Google Search and training massive models like Gemini, but they also provide notable cost savings and boost internal performance.

By developing its own silicon, Alphabet is able to decouple from external chip supply chains and pricing to achieve greater control and scale for AI development. Google Cloud now offers TPUs as a service, which also positions Alphabet as a major force in the lucrative AI hardware market beyond just being a consumer of chips.

User interaction data from Search and YouTube is used to train and refine AI models, providing another durable competitive advantage for the broader business ecosystem. Importantly, AI is boosting Google Search traffic and optimizing ad placements. Search is the company's core cash engine and still represents more than half of the company's overall revenue.

Google is the default search engine on most devices, which gives Alphabet a vast distribution network to deploy and refine new AI features. Other ventures, like Waymo (autonomous driving) and AI-powered healthcare research through its subsidiary Verily, are more nascent sources of long-term growth potential and demonstrate Alphabet's commitment to AI innovation.

Alphabet remains consistently profitable (net income increased 33% in the third quarter alone) and generates significant cash flow, which it habitually invests in AI infrastructure, data centers, and research. The company remains a compelling and stalwart play in the AI space that long-term investors can buy, hold, and add to for years to come.

2. SoundHound

SoundHound (NASDAQ: SOUN) specializes in developing and providing independent voice and conversational artificial intelligence solutions for businesses across various industries. This enables companies to integrate customized, natural-sounding voice assistants into their products, services, and apps. Instead of a two-step process of transcribing speech to text and then processing it, SoundHound's technology understands both speech and intent in one step, allowing for faster and more accurate responses.

These solutions are used in multiple sectors. SoundHound has moved beyond its initial focus on the automotive sector (e.g., its partnership with Stellantis) into areas such as restaurants (e.g., Chipotle Mexican Grill, Five Guys, White Castle, Jersey Mike's) to reduce its dependency on any single customer. For example, restaurants utilize SoundHound's platform to automate phone and drive-thru orders, manage complex menu modifications, and address customer inquiries about business hours.

SoundHound also provides AI agents for customer service in various industries, including healthcare, financial services, and insurance. The company generates revenue through subscription fees for its software solutions, commissions from voice-enabled commerce interactions, and by licensing its technology to partners.

SoundHound's Q3 2025 revenue of $42 million represented a 68% increase from a year ago. However, SoundHound has never posted an annual profit, continues to report substantial GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net losses, and its core operations are still bleeding cash. That's why the stock has been hit so hard of late.

Still, SoundHound's collaborations with major brands and the acquisition of companies like Amelia (an enterprise agentic AI platform) and Interactions (a customer service AI platform) have strengthened its market position, expanded its customer base, and added new capabilities that could prove to be generous growth tailwinds. SoundHound reported a significant contractual backlog of approximately $1.2 billion at the end of 2024.

And unlike big tech competitors (Amazon, Google, and Apple) whose voice AI solutions are tied to their ecosystems, SoundHound offers white-label, customizable solutions that allow businesses to maintain full brand control and data privacy and provide a key selling point for these enterprises. If you believe in that value proposition and have the risk tolerance to invest in a more pure-play, AI-driven business, SoundHound could be worth considering for at least a small position over the next decade.

3. Amplitude

Amplitude (NASDAQ: AMPL) is a digital analytics platform that helps businesses understand how customers use their digital products to improve user experiences and drive revenue growth. The company has fully embraced AI by launching a suite of AI agents and features that automate data analysis and generate actionable insights for customers.

Amplitude's AI agents are autonomous AI tools that monitor user behavior, detect issues (like falling conversion rates), form hypotheses, and suggest or even implement optimizations for things like checkout flow or feature adoption. Its AI feedback solution is an AI-native tool that synthesizes customer feedback from various sources (e.g., calls, reviews, tickets) to instantly develop themes, connect them to user behavior, and help companies build better features.

After some post-pandemic headwinds, Amplitude's growth has started to accelerate again, with recent quarters showing solid increases in revenue and annual recurring revenue (ARR). Amplitude reported excellent Q3 2025 results, with ARR of $347 million, up 16% year over year, and remaining performance obligations (RPO) of $391.9 million, up 37% year over year.

Amplitude's business model is a freemium tiered software-as-a-service framework centered on product analytics. It employs a land-and-expand strategy, where it acquires customers through a robust free tier and scales revenue as they grow and adopt more advanced platform capabilities. Companies across various industries, including prominent names such as Walmart, Atlassian, and Shopify, as well as growth-stage disruptors like DoorDash and Coinbase, utilize Amplitude to gain insights into their users' behavior and enhance their digital products.

The company has a diverse base of over 4,500 customers and a growing number of large enterprise customers. Its cohort of customers with $100,000 or more in ARR rose 15% year over year in Q3. Overall revenue grew 18% year over year in Q3 2025.

While still posting a GAAP net loss, Amplitude is cash-flow positive and expects to achieve non-GAAP operating income for the full year 2025. It generated free cash flow of $3.4 million in Q3. If the company's AI platform continues to gain headway, this business could have a significant role to play in the evolving AI revolution. That's a value proposition that some long-term investors might want to capitalize on.

Rachel Warren has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Shopify. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Atlassian, Chipotle Mexican Grill, DoorDash, Shopify, SoundHound AI, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global and Stellantis and recommends the following options: short December 2025 $45 calls on Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.