The Best Stocks to Invest $5,000 in Right Now

By Geoffrey Seiler – Mar 21, 2026 at 1:52PM ESTKey PointsNvidia remains the king of AI infrastructure and it's not sitting still.Alphabet has one of the most complete AI stacks, giving it an advantage. If you've got $5,000 available to invest that isn't needed to bolster an emergency fund or pay down short-term debt, and are looking to get into the market, I would start by investing in two leading artificial intelligence (AI) stocks. Let's look at two great options you can buy right now and hold for the long term. Nvidia The king of AI infrastructure, Nvidia (NVDA 3.28%), is not sitting still waiting for its crown to be usurped. The company has grown to be the largest in the world on the back of its graphics processing units (GPUs), and it is still seeing rapid revenue growth. Its CUDA software platform has been a differentiator and created a wide moat, but it knows that this may no longer be enough by itself as the market shifts more toward inference and agentic AI. Image source: The Motley Fool. Through its acquisition of Groq and SchedMd, Nvidia has really positioned itself to be a leader in these two fields and expand on its ecosystem advantages. We can already see this with its introduction of NemoClaw, which utilizes SchedMD's Slurm, to create a powerful agentic AI platform, and by integrating Groq's inference-focused LPUs (language processing units) into its chip and software platform. ExpandNASDAQ: NVDANvidiaToday's Change(-3.28%) $-5.86Current Price$172.70Key Data PointsMarket Cap$4.2TDay's Range$171.72 - $178.2652wk Range$86.62 - $212.19Volume241MAvg Vol174MGross Margin71.07%Dividend Yield0.02% Nvidia is no longer just a chip company; it's become an end-to-end AI data center behemoth with one of the most complete tech stacks out there. That makes it a solid long-term investment. Alphabet In the AI revolution, it's becoming more and more about controlling the ecosystem. Nvidia is doing that on one end, while Alphabet (GOOGL 2.01%) (GOOG 2.25%) is attacking it on the other end. Alphabet has the most complete AI stack at the moment, as it is the only company with world-class AI chips, with its tensor processing units (TPUs) plus a top-tier AI model in Gemini. ExpandNASDAQ: GOOGLAlphabetToday's Change(-2.01%) $-6.17Current Price$300.96Key Data PointsMarket Cap$3.6TDay's Range$298.29 - $305.7652wk Range$140.53 - $349.00Volume1.6MAvg Vol32MGross Margin59.68%Dividend Yield0.28% Alphabet's biggest advantage is its TPUs, which were developed more than a decade ago and which it has long used to power much of its internal workloads. These chips help Alphabet be one of the few companies not beholden to Nvidia, which ultimately gives it a huge cost advantage. By using its own chips, it can train its models and run inference much more cost-effectively than competitors who primarily use GPUs. Meanwhile, that advantage just increases as spending on AI infrastructure rises. This creates a powerful flywheel effect that positions Alphabet to be a long-term AI leader. At the same time, Alphabet can use its distribution edge (through Chrome, Android, and its deals with Apple) and expansive ad network to better monetize AI models than competitors, as well. Throw in its huge cloud computing growth that also benefits from the company having its own AI chips and a foundational large language model (LLM), and Alphabet is a top AI stock to own moving forward. Read NextMar 21, 2026 •By Leo SunCould Nvidia Stock Turn $10,000 Into $1 Million This Decade?Mar 21, 2026 •By Prosper Junior BakinyJensen Huang Just Delivered Incredible News for Nvidia InvestorsMar 21, 2026 •By Danny Vena, CPAPrediction: This Will Be Nvidia's Stock Price by the End of 2026Mar 21, 2026 •By Keithen DruryMeet the 5 "Magnificent Seven" Stocks That Are Brilliant Buys NowMar 20, 2026 •By Geoffrey Seiler3 Bargain Stocks the Market Is Mispricing After the Recent Sell-OffMar 20, 2026 •By Patrick SandersThe Best Stocks to Invest $10,000 In Right NowAbout the AuthorGeoffrey Seiler is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering technology, consumer goods, healthcare, energy, and materials stocks. Prior to The Motley Fool, Geoffrey was a senior equity analyst at Raging Capital Management, a $600 million long-short hedge fund. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Haverford College.TMFFindProfitStocks MentionedNvidiaNASDAQ: NVDA$172.90(-3.17%)-$5.66AlphabetNASDAQ: GOOGL$301.00(-2.00%)-$6.13AlphabetNASDAQ: GOOG$298.85(-2.25%)-$6.88*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.