Although artificial intelligence (AI) has been a popular investing theme over the past two years, there is still plenty of room for more growth in 2025. The tech world is just getting started with some of the most important parts of AI implementation, which means that many companies with significant AI exposure are far from done realizing their potential gains.
If you have $1,000 to commit to your portfolio now, two stocks that are no-brainer picks to buy with it right now are Nvidia (NVDA -1.10%) and Meta Platforms (META -2.31%). Both of these have been wildly successful picks over the past two years, and I think 2025 will also be another successful year for this duo.
Nvidia
Nvidia has been the go-to AI investment for a while, and I think it still deserves a place at the top of the pecking order. The reason? It's actually making money from the AI trend.
Many of the biggest tech players are pouring billions of dollars into AI infrastructure, and a huge chunk of that money is going to Nvidia. Because Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) -- and its CUDA software, which supports them -- have become the industry standard, it has established itself as the leader in this field. As AI hyperscalers continue to spend more on computing power in 2025 -- as many of them have indicated they will do -- Nvidia will profit.
For its fiscal 2026, which ends in January 2026, Wall Street analysts on average project that Nvidia will grow its revenue by 52%. That's not bad for a company whose revenue is on track to double in its soon-to-end fiscal 2025. Powering next year's growth trajectory will be its next-generation Blackwell-architecture chips. These chips outperform its previous top-of-the-line Hopper chips significantly on tasks like AI training. In fact, Blackwell chips are reportedly four times faster in training AI models than Hopper chips. Investors can be sure that the biggest players in the tech space will be clamoring to obtain these cutting-edge GPUs as they become more readily available.
There's a notion that Nvidia's stock is incredibly expensive now and should be avoided. I don't think that's true, as Nvidia trades for a reasonable (considering its growth) 47 times forward earnings.
NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.
Other big tech stocks like Apple (AAPL -0.48%) and Amazon (AMZN -0.32%) trade at 33 and 36 times forward earnings, respectively. However, neither of them is growing nearly as quickly as Nvidia, so this premium makes sense.
Nvidia is still one of the top ways to invest in AI, and investors shouldn't let it slip away.
Meta Platforms
Meta is dumping billions of dollars into AI research. However, it's doing that to make sure that its social media platforms stay relevant. Meta's primary revenue streams come from ad sales on its "family of apps": Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
It also has made significant investments in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) that haven't begun to pay off yet, but they might if Meta can deliver a consumer product that integrates top-tier AI at a competitive price point.
Regardless, those investments are years away from paying off, if they ever do. But in Meta Platforms' current business state, they're still an attractive investment.
Meta is projected to grow its revenue by 15% next year, which isn't as fast as Nvidia, but you also don't have to pay a huge premium to own the stock.
META PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.
At 24 times forward earnings, Meta is reasonably priced for a big tech stock. This is especially true if you consider the upside that Meta has if one of the products it's developing eventually hits it big. The stock is only being valued for its social media advertising business, which is still a fantastic reason to invest in it.
Meta is a huge AI player, but it still has a strong base business to pay its bills while we wait for AI to become fully integrated into its operations.
