Key Points
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Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform is yet another growth catalyst for this top artificial intelligence stock.
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Broadcom is becoming a leader in AI chips for inference workloads.
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Vertiv is a key infrastructure stock with massive growth potential as data center construction continues.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming a race to the bottom, at least for users. Whether it’s ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Claude, people can switch app subscriptions almost as quickly as they change their shirt.
AI models could eventually become commodities, so the real opportunity lies in the infrastructure they depend on. I’m talking about the physical systems that support AI: the chips, energy, and cooling technology that data centers require.
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The companies providing most of these components are already public, unlike OpenAI and Anthropic, which will likely IPO at eye-popping valuations that leave far less room for new investors to profit. These three companies have powerful AI tailwinds, and adding them to your portfolio could even help you become a millionaire as AI matures over the next decade and beyond.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Still the standard in AI compute
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the biggest company in the world today, and its stock has already generated life-changing returns for those who have held it over the longer term. But the journey isn’t over.
The AI data centers being built today are using Nvidia’s flagship Blackwell chip architecture, and the company will begin shipping its next-generation Vera Rubin platform by the end of this year. Nvidia is expanding its presence on the server rack with Vera Rubin, a six-chip platform that forms an AI supercomputer and includes both a GPU and a CPU.
CEO Jensen Huang has already stated that Nvidia anticipates $1 trillion in total orders for Blackwell and Vera Rubin across 2026 and 2027, priming the company for more explosive revenue growth. Wall Street estimates that Nvidia’s revenue will spike from $253.5 billion over the past 12 months to $391.7 billion this fiscal year and then to $551.7 billion next fiscal year. Analysts also expect 45% annualized earnings growth over the long term.
Big tech companies continue to raise capital to spend on their AI build-outs, which signals that arguably the greatest investment cycle since the industrial revolution could still have plenty of legs. Nvidia is already worth roughly $5 trillion today, but trading at only 23 times its 2026 earnings estimates, this AI stock still has tremendous upside.
A rising star in the inference era
Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) is coming on strong in the AI chip race. Initially, Broadcom’s AI business focused on selling networking chips for data centers. But the company has successfully shifted its focus to designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for AI hyperscalers.
While Nvidia’s GPUs are the most widely used general-purpose parallel processors, Broadcom customize its chips for each customer to handle the specific AI workloads those chips will see. That cuts their manufacturing costs and makes them more efficient for those particular workloads. That’s a big deal when it comes to handling AI inference, where efficiency becomes even more important than at the training stage.
To date, Broadcom has inked AI chip deals with several major AI customers, including Alphabet, Meta Platforms, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Broadcom’s AI revenue will surge as these deals ramp up. In its fiscal 2026 second quarter, which ended May 3, the company’s revenue from AI semiconductors grew by 143% year over year to $10.8 billion. CEO Hock Tan believes Broadcom will generate over $100 billion in AI semiconductor revenue in 2027. For comparison, its total net revenue in fiscal 2025 was just shy of $64 billion.
Broadcom’s soaring AI revenue could drive earnings growth on par with rival Nvidia. Wall Street analysts estimate that Broadcom will grow earnings at an annualized rate of nearly 46% over the long term.
The stock is more expensive than Nvidia at 33 times its 2026 earnings estimates, but Broadcom’s market cap is just $1.8 trillion. That’s probably still too large for the stock to make you rich overnight, but there’s definitely enough room for growth that Broadcom could move the needle for your portfolio over time.
Helping power and cool AI factories
Vertiv Holdings (NYSE: VRT) doesn’t get anywhere near the level of press coverage that the chip companies do. However, AI can’t happen without companies such as Vertiv. It sells crucial infrastructure components, including power and thermal management systems, racks, enclosures, busbars, and monitoring equipment. These products operate behind the scenes to keep data centers energized and cool, arguably the most under-followed piece of the data center equation.
Naturally, the business is thriving as companies race to build data centers. Its organic sales in the Americas grew by 44% to $1.8 billion, and operating profit margins rose by 5.1 percentage points. Those rising margins reflect Vertiv’s pricing power, as data center builders are prioritizing speed over everything else. The flip side, of course, is that Vertiv’s business is essentially in a huge boom. The company will feel the shock when the pace of data center construction drops off.
The big tech companies that have ultimately funded much of this activity are continuing to lean further into AI investments. However, given that Vertiv is trading at a lofty 49 times its 2026 earnings estimates, it would be reasonable for interested investors to wait for a pullback before buying.
That said, analysts estimate that Vertiv will grow its earnings at an annualized rate of more than 32% over the long term, so it might be wise to instead start sooner and dollar-cost average your way into a position. That way, you can avoid getting caught waiting for a lower price that the stock might never reach.
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Justin Pope has positions in Alphabet and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Vertiv. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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