Despite the sector’s struggles to start the new year, technology is still one of the best places to invest over the long run. The sector has helped power the market higher in recent years, which has led to eight of the largest companies in the S&P 500 being either technology companies or companies with strong technology ties.
With that in mind, let’s look at three great stocks to invest $1,000 in today for the long term.
1. Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms (META 0.24%) is one of the leading digital advertising platforms is the world through its portfolio of social media and messaging apps that include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads. The company has nearly 3.3 billion users who visit one of its apps on a daily basis.
In addition to having a large, active user base, Meta has been one of the best companies at monetizing its user base through advertising. Last quarter, its family average revenue per person (ARPP) climbed 12% to $12.29. That far surpasses the average revenue per user (ARPU) of other social media platforms. For example, Snap‘s global ARPU per daily user was $3.10 last quarter, while Pinterest‘s ARPU for global monthly users was $1.70. Meta does a particularly good job outside the U.S. where its competitors have found monetization more difficult.
Currently the company is pouring money into artificial intelligence (AI), where it it has developed its own large language model (LLM), called Llama. The company uses AI to increase user engagement in order to have them spend more time on its platforms, which can boost ad revenue. Meanwhile, it is also using AI to help advertisers improve their ads and increase conversions. These efforts are helping with both ad impressions and price, which were up 7% and 11% last quarter, respectively.
Meta is looking to turn Threads into its next big platform. At the end of last quarter, the company said the platform had 275 million users and that it was adding about 1 million users a day. Meanwhile, the company also continues to invest in the metaverse, which it still sees as big opportunity.
2. Alphabet
Like Meta, Alphabet (GOOGL 1.60%) (GOOG 1.62%) is one of the world’s largest digital advertising companies, serving ads through its Google search platform, YouTube streaming service, and other owned (such as Gmail and Google Maps) and third-party properties. Google remains the dominant player in search with an approximately 90% market share, while YouTube is the most-viewed video platform in the world.
In addition, Alphabet owns Google Cloud, the third-largest and fast-growing cloud computing company. The unit grew its revenue by 35% last quarter, while the segment’s operating profits soared from $266 million a year ago to $1.95 billion. The growth is coming as more customers build out their own AI models and apps using its services. The company has said its custom tensor processing unit (TPU) chips have been a differentiator, helping lead to lower costs and quicker processing times for AI inference.
Alphabet is investing heavily in AI as well, both in its cloud computing unit as well with its own AI model, Gemini, and AI applications, such as it text-to-video solution, Veo 2. It is also using AI to help improve its search results as well as give result summaries tagged “AI overviews,” which it should be able to later monetize through new ad forms.
The company is also leading the way in autonomous driving, where its Waymo unit is currently the only robotaxi company offering paid rides in the U.S. It also recently heralded a big breakthrough in quantum computing with its Willow chip.
All in all, Alphabet is a nice mix of leading and emerging businesses.
Image source: Getty Images.
3. Microsoft
Microsoft (MSFT 1.05%) was one of the first large tech companies to really embrace AI after forging a partnership with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and making a large investment in the AI company. Today, it has adopted the use of AI throughout much of its business.
The biggest beneficiary of the company’s AI push has been its cloud computing unit, Azure, which saw revenue jump 33% last quarter. Azure is the No. 2 cloud computing company behind Amazon‘s Amazon Web Services and has recently been taking market share. Similar to Alphabet’s Google Cloud, growth is being driven by customers building out their own AI assistants and applications.
Demand for its AI cloud computing services has been outpacing its capacity, capping its growth. However, the company expects growth to accelerate later this year as more capacity comes online. Meanwhile, it has said it plans to spend a whopping $80 billion on AI data centers this year.
In addition to cloud computing, Microsoft is the software leader in work productivity tools through its Microsoft 365 platform — which includes programs such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint — while it also has the leading PC operating system in Windows. The company has a nice opportunity in front of it, with its AI Copilot add-ons, which are AI assistants that can greatly help work efficiency.
All three of these companies have proven over time to be market leaders and innovators, and all are at the forefront of AI. This is why all three are great stocks to own over the long term.
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 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. Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet and Pinterest. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Pinterest. 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.
