2 AI Stocks to Buy and Hold for 10 Years

John Ballard, The Motley Fool

Thu, May 1, 2025, 3:25 AM 4 min read

Key Points

The AI market is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030.
C3.ai recently formed strategic partnerships with leading cloud services that could expand its sales potential.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing plans to increase capital spending this year to support growing demand for AI chips.

The recent sell-off in tech stocks is a great opportunity to buy shares of leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies at a discount. The AI market is projected to grow 26% on an annualized basis to reach $1 trillion by 2030, according to Statista. Here are two stocks to gain exposure to this burgeoning market.

1. C3.ai

C3.ai (NYSE: AI) builds AI software that helps businesses streamline operations, making faster decisions, and optimize supply chains. The company's revenue growth accelerated last year. Its strategic partnerships with leading cloud services and long-term growth potential could make it a very rewarding investment.

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C3.ai distinguishes itself from competitors by focusing on serving large organizations that have complex problems. Many of its customers are industry leaders across oil and gas, utilities, defense, industrial products, and financial services.

The downside to this strategy is that it serves a relatively small number of companies that comprise a high percentage of its annual revenue. Customer concentration risk has loomed over the stock over the past year, but C3.ai has great momentum in diversifying its business that could benefit the stock.

C3.ai's revenue grew 26% year-over-year in the fiscal third quarter, while the consensus Wall Street estimate has revenue growing 25% for the full year, according to Yahoo! Finance. C3.ai has partnerships with the top major cloud providers, Microsoft and Amazon, that should open up sales potential to more customers worldwide.

The sales pipeline through Microsoft Azure increased 244% year-over-year in the most recent quarter. Its strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services should lead to a similar expansion in its global sales potential.

C3.ai stock's recent sell-off doesn't seem to reflect the progress the company is making to expand its market potential. The stock has been volatile, but continued revenue growth should ultimately lift the stock to new highs.

2. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) makes chips for several top tech companies like Nvidia and Apple. It has delivered market-beating returns for many years and should continue to do so over the next decade.

The fluid situation with tariffs and the impact it could have on chip demand has sent the stock down. But investors only have to look at the company's capital spending plans to see where it's headed.

TSMC has delivered high double-digit annual growth in revenue and earnings for over 30 years. Yet its revenue is still growing at a rapid clip, increasing 35% year-over-year in Q1. Management sees AI-related chip revenue growing over 40% annually over the next five years.

The company plans to invest $165 billion in U.S.-based chip manufacturing. Last year it spent nearly $30 billion in capital expenditures, and plans to increase spending to between $38 billion to $42 billion in 2025. This indicates a strong outlook for AI chip demand.

Leading companies are making long-term investments in AI infrastructure, and TSMC stock is a great way to profit from that opportunity. The stock is trading at a particularly compelling value point right now at just 17 times 2025 earnings estimates.

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Ballard has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends C3.ai and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

2 AI Stocks to Buy and Hold for 10 Years was originally published by The Motley Fool

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