Got $3,000? 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Long Term

Artificial intelligence (AI) spending isn't expected to slow down anytime soon, let alone in 2026. The AI hyperscalers have all informed investors to expect increased data center spending in 2026. As a result, several companies look like promising buys right now.

I think these three make for great places to invest $1,000 each in, and investors should act quickly before the market decides to give these stocks a greater premium than what they currently have.

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1. Nvidia

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been at the top of nearly every artificial intelligence investing list since 2023 for a good reason: It's well positioned to capture huge growth. Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) are the primary computing units used to train and run AI models, and its rise to become the world's largest company by market cap can be directly tied to the generative AI build-out.

Although Nvidia has been a wildly successful investment over the past few years, I think 2026 will be an even better one than 2025. Nvidia enters the year trading at a lower valuation than at this point during 2025. Last year, Nvidia's stock traded for 50 times forward earnings -- an expensive price tag. At 40 times forward earnings now, I think Nvidia is still slightly expensive, but the premium is well worth the growth it's delivering.

NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

For fiscal year 2027 (ending January 2027), Wall Street analysts expect 50% revenue growth. That's a strong performance after several strong results in previous year, and it showcases that AI spending isn't slowing down or going anywhere.

As a result, Nvidia will continue to be a top investment option in the AI world, and I think every growth investor should have some exposure to Nvidia stock.

2. AMD

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) hasn't had nearly the same success as Nvidia in the AI realm. It has struggled to match Nvidia's ecosystem, although there are signs that it's improving. Its controlling software, ROCm, was always seen as an inferior version to Nvidia's software, CUDA. However, AMD reported that ROCm downloads had increased tenfold year over year in November 2025, showcasing that AMD's software is starting to become more popular. This could indicate AI companies are doing some investigation into how well AMD's products work, and it could start to capture some emerging market share from Nvidia.

Management believes it is positioned to do just that, and told investors to expect a 60% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from its data center business through 2030. That's a huge acceleration from where AMD has been over the past few years, and if management can deliver on those expectations, AMD is in great shape to soar throughout 2026.

3. Broadcom

Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) isn't approaching the AI computing world in the same manner as AMD or Nvidia. These two are both offering GPUs, which excel in broad computing environments. However, most of the AI workloads are fairly established and could use some optimization. This is the area Broadcom is pursuing, as it's partnering with AI hyperscalers to design custom AI chips, known as ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits). These computing devices are designed with an end workload in mind, so they are far more optimized than a GPU. This can lead to better performance at a lower price, all at the cost of flexibility.

Broadcom's products won't replace GPUs entirely, but they will supplement them, and we're already seeing some of the effects of the popularity of these cheaper alternatives to Broadcom's business. In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025 (ending Nov. 2), its AI semiconductor revenue increased 74% year over year to $6.5 billion. For Q1, it expects this business to double year over year to $8.2 billion.

That's massive growth and showcases how much Broadcom can benefit from these custom devices in the future. Broadcom is working with several other hyperscalers to design their own chips, so this growth is just the beginning. I think Broadcom is an excellent investment to make alongside Nvidia and AMD, and all three of these stocks should greatly outperform the market over the next five years due to massive AI spending.

Keithen Drury has positions in Broadcom and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.