Advanced Micro Devices is benefiting from surging demand for data center chips.
New content experiences powered by AI could be a significant growth catalyst for Meta Platforms.
The concerns around tariffs and the impact on the economy triggered a sharp sell-off for stocks recently. But this uncertainty hasn't seemed to slow the momentum for the artificial intelligence (AI) market. Top companies enabling the AI era are still in position to deliver significant returns for investors.
If you're looking to invest some extra cash this month, shares of Advanced Micro Devices(NASDAQ: AMD) and Meta Platforms(NASDAQ: META) could be timely buys. To double your money in five years, you need to earn around a 15% compound annual return on your money. But these top tech stocks are expected to grow their earnings at higher rates.
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1. Advanced Micro Devices
There is a massive investment cycle going into advanced processors to create new applications and services with AI. Nvidia has been the runway leader in the AI chip market, but companies are looking for cheaper alternatives. This is an opportunity for Advanced Micro Devices.
AMD shares have fallen 56% from their previous highs, but the company's accelerating growth over the past year suggests the stock is due for a rebound. Revenue grew 24% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, and Wall Street analysts project the company's revenue to grow another 21% in 2025.
Half of AMD's annual revenue is coming from data centers. AMD is also seeing surging demand for its EPYC central processing units (CPUs), which are now being used by several leading companies to power their servers, including recent deployments by ServiceNow, Visa, LG, among others.
The stock is down over concerns that AMD is losing ground to Nvidia in the AI chip market. AMD is not likely going to catch the leader, but investors are underestimating its growth potential as the only other alternative for graphics processing units (GPUs) that can be adapted for a wide range of computing tasks. AMD has made key acquisitions over the last few years to widen its product offering to software solutions and other chip technologies that could stretch its addressable market.
AMD has been selling chips to all the top data center operators, including Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft. These companies launched new AI workloads in Q4 powered by AMD hardware. Analysts expect AMD's earnings to grow at an annualized rate of 28% in the coming years, yet investors can currently buy the stock at just 23 times 2025 earnings estimates.
2. Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms is one of the leading digital advertisers. With about half the world's population using its social media platforms every day, it is investing huge sums in data centers and technology to support the growth of the business. In doing so, it is creating a valuable asset with its data center infrastructure that could drive excellent returns for investors over the long haul.
Meta's investments in AI have significantly benefited the company's growth. The company reported a revenue increase of 16% year-over-year in the first quarter, which followed 22% growth in 2024.
This growth came during a year when the Meta AI personal assistant reached more than 700 million monthly users. Meta AI could become one of the most popular AI assistants, which ultimately can increase time spent on the company's social media apps, and therefore, grow advertising revenue.
AI is improving audience targeting, ad creation, and content discovery. Management noted during the first-quarter earnings call that 30% more advertisers are using AI creation tools compared to the previous quarter, indicating how these investments are strengthening its ad business.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees a new type of interactive content coming in the near future, which would serve as the next progression of social media after photo and video. This could lead to more advertising opportunities. There's also an opportunity to drive more engagement across Meta's family of apps by enabling users to create better content with AI tools.
The stock might be one of the most attractive buys among the "Magnificent Seven" right now. Analysts expect earnings to grow at an annualized rate of 18% over the next several years, while Meta's stock trades at a very reasonable 24 times this year's 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. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. 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. John Ballard has positions in Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, ServiceNow, and Visa. The Motley Fool 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.
