The United States government pivoted to an America-first strategy. Whether you agree or disagree with this strategy, it is the reality we are dealing with as investors today. You cannot invest in the world you wish existed, but you can invest in the world as it actually is. The U.S. grew its lead when it comes to gross domestic product (GDP), with GDP per capita of over $80,000 compared to the average European Union GDP per capita of just over $40,000.
Reinvestment into America may further expand this GDP gap. The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is centered in America, with most technological innovations still coming from the United States. Here are two durable American stocks to invest in and ride the reshoring wave.
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Warren Buffett's favorite credit card company
The first stock literally has "America" in its name: American Express(NYSE: AXP). The financial services giant has been a mainstay in the United States for over 100 years and is now one of the largest credit card issuers in the world focused on the travel and entertainment space. It's one of the mainstays of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett's portfolio, as the Oracle of Omaha owns more than 21% of the company and 151 million shares.
American Express has one key difference to other credit card issuers -- it operates its own payments network, which generates over half of its revenue coming from transaction fees on credit cards. Other issuers like JP Morgan Chase may use the duopoly pure-play payment rails in Visa or Mastercard to outsource this service.
Vertical integration enables American Express to provide an immense amount of benefits to its credit card holders while simultaneously generating a boatload in profits. These grease the wheels of consumer spending in the United States by giving customers perks on airlines, hotels, travel, ride sharing, and plenty of basic shopping needs. That drives increased spending for American Express' merchant partners, making everyone in its ecosystem happy.
A beautiful part of American Express' business model is its inflation protection. If the price of goods rises because of tariffs and someone buys one shirt for $100 instead of two for $50 each, American Express will still earn its small cut of every transaction through its credit card swipe transaction revenue. It should be able to raise its credit card fees along with inflation and will be able to issue more loans to its members. Loss rates on loans should remain low because of the company's target of wealthier spenders with better credit scores.
In total, American Express is a bulletproof stock tailor made to ride the growth of the United States. At a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 21, the stock is trading at a reasonable price as well.
There is perhaps no company that has invested more in America in the last 20 years than Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN). The e-commerce and cloud computing company spent a cumulative $355.7 billion on capital expenditures from 2015 to 2024, with most of that spending coming in the last few years and in the United States. It helped raise wages for millions of workers on the lower end by bringing its starting hourly rates to around $20 or higher.
This growth will only continue in the years to come. AI infrastructure spending is centered in the United States. Amazon's cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), should benefit immensely from the growth of AI, which is why the company is planning to spend over $100 billion on capital expenditures in 2025. The shipping, delivery, and warehouse infrastructure built by Amazon facilitates online shopping with same- and next-day delivery for Prime members.
Amazon is at risk if tariffs on China stay elevated for a long time due to the amount of Chinese merchants on its website, but this is not a long-term concern. In e-commerce, Amazon generally makes money by taking a cut of merchant sales, advertising, and its Prime subscription service. It does not matter if sellers are from China, Mexico, or directly from the United States: Amazon will earn its cut either way.
Over the next decade, there is an opportunity for Amazon to invest hundreds of billions of dollars more into the U.S. in order to improve its e-commerce infrastructure and more importantly take advantage of the growing demand for AI in cloud computing. This should lead overall revenue growth and earnings for Amazon to grow in the years to come. With a P/E ratio of 33, which is close to an all-time low for the stock, Amazon is a good stock to buy to bet on the American growth story continuing.
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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. American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Brett Schafer has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard, and Visa. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
