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This "Magnificent Seven" Stock Is Historically Cheap and Begging to Be Bought (Hint: It's Not Nvidia)

newsfeedback@fool.com (Sean Williams)
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⚡ Quantum Brief
Nvidia’s AI dominance faces growing risks despite its 16x forward P/E ratio, historically low for the stock. GPU scarcity and premium pricing mask vulnerabilities, including potential data center losses to cheaper in-house chips from major clients. Amazon’s valuation hits historic lows, trading at 9.8x forecast 2027 cash flow—a 48% discount to its five-year average. This reflects undervaluation despite robust growth in AWS, advertising, and Prime subscriptions. AWS, Amazon’s cash flow engine, saw 24% Q4 sales growth driven by generative AI and large language models. Cloud infrastructure leadership and ad pricing power bolster its dual-industry dominance beyond e-commerce. Nvidia’s 20+ price-to-sales ratio signals lingering bubble risks, echoing past tech overvaluations. AI hardware stocks historically face volatility when adoption or optimization falls short of hype. The "Magnificent Seven" divergence highlights Amazon’s relative bargain versus Nvidia’s premium, despite its AI leadership. Investors favor Amazon’s diversified cash flow over Nvidia’s hardware-dependent growth.
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By Sean Williams – Mar 24, 2026 at 5:06AM ESTKey PointsThough the Magnificent Seven represent Wall Street's most influential companies, these businesses aren't created equally.Despite Nvidia's utter dominance in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware, headwinds are mounting for this market leader.Meanwhile, a dual-industry leader has never been this inexpensive, relative to its forward-year cash flow.Wall Street's "Magnificent Seven" have played a pivotal role in sending all three major stock indexes to new heights. These are the stock market's most influential companies, and they possess a healthy combination of sustainable moats and/or competitive advantages. But not all members of the Magnificent Seven are created equally -- and their valuations prove it. While the face of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, Nvidia (NVDA +1.80%), is trading at one of its lowest forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios in some time, it may not be the bargain you think it is. Meanwhile, dual-industry leader Amazon (AMZN +2.33%) has never been cheaper, according to one key operating metric. Image source: Getty Images. Wall Street's AI goliath may not be as cheap as it appears On the one hand, Nvidia has been utterly dominant in the AI arena. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) hold a virtual monopoly in enterprise data centers, with its hardware maintaining clear compute advantages over rivals. Ongoing GPU scarcity and its superior compute have enabled Nvidia to charge a hefty premium for its AI hardware. With Nvidia consistently crushing Wall Street's consensus sales and profit expectations, its shares can be purchased for just 16 times forward-year earnings. ExpandNASDAQ: NVDANvidiaToday's Change(1.80%) $3.11Current Price$175.81Key Data PointsMarket Cap$4.3TDay's Range$174.76 - $178.3752wk Range$86.62 - $212.19Volume7MAvg Vol175MGross Margin71.07%Dividend Yield0.02% However, history suggests that artificial intelligence hardware stocks are susceptible to an AI bubble-bursting event. Every game-changing technology since the advent of the internet over three decades ago has navigated its way through a bubble caused by investors overestimating the adoption and/or optimization of a new technology. The latter (optimization) would be the catalyst for an AI bubble-bursting event. Nvidia may also lose valuable data center real estate. Many of its top customers by net sales are developing AI chips for their data centers. Though these chips aren't superior to Nvidia's hardware, they're cheaper and more accessible. There's a valuation concern, as well. Nvidia's price-to-sales (P/S) ratio briefly topped 30 in early November (a level commonly associated with valuation bubbles), and it remains above 20, as of this writing on March 19. Image source: Amazon. Amazon has never been this inexpensive, relative to projected cash flow At the other end of the spectrum is Amazon, a company that doesn't look particularly cheap using the traditional P/E ratio, but is quite inexpensive relative to its projected cash flow. Most folks are likely aware that Amazon is the runaway leader in U.S. e-commerce. While this is a high-dollar operating segment, margins associated with online retail sales are slim. It's Amazon's other leading operating segment, Amazon Web Services (AWS), that's responsible for much of the heavy lifting on the cash flow generation front. ExpandNASDAQ: AMZNAmazonToday's Change(2.33%) $4.78Current Price$210.15Key Data PointsMarket Cap$2.3TDay's Range$209.51 - $212.8052wk Range$161.38 - $258.60Volume2.6MAvg Vol49MGross Margin50.29% AWS is the world's No. 1 cloud infrastructure service platform by total spend. Most importantly, sales growth is reaccelerating -- AWS sales jumped 24% in the fourth quarter compared with the previous year -- thanks to the incorporation of generative AI solutions and large language model capabilities. In addition to AWS, Amazon has sustained double-digit sales growth from subscription services (e.g., Prime) and advertising services. A growing content network and leading online marketplace afford the company exceptional ad pricing power. Lastly, Amazon's valuation is more attractive than it's ever been. Investors paid a median of 30 times year-end cash flow to own shares throughout the 2010s. Opportunistic investors can buy Amazon stock right now for 9.8 times forecast cash flow in 2027, representing a 48% discount to its average multiple to cash flow over the trailing five years.Read NextMar 24, 2026 •By Brett SchaferAmazon Stock at a Crossroads: Generational Buy or Massive Value Trap?Mar 23, 2026 •By David Jagielski, CPAAmazon Expects AWS Annual Revenue to Hit $600 Billion in 10 Years.

The Stock Looks Like a Dirt Cheap BuyMar 23, 2026 •By Neil Rozenbaum5 Big Tech Stocks That Are Too Cheap to IgnoreMar 23, 2026 •By Keith SpeightsAI May Disrupt Millions of Jobs. These 3 Stocks Could Be Big Winners.Mar 21, 2026 •By Trevor JennewineBillionaire Bill Ackman Has 25% of His Hedge Fund in 2 Brilliant AI Stocks (Hint: Not Nvidia)Mar 21, 2026 •By Adria CiminoDoes Amazon's Andy Jassy Know Something Wall Street Doesn't?

He Just Made a Game-Changing AI Prediction -- and It's Excellent News for Investors.About the AuthorSean Williams is a data-driven Motley Fool contributing analyst who's been investing for 27 years and has penned north of 15,000 articles. You'll find him at the intersection of politics and investing tackling macroeconomic topics of interest (Social Security and Donald Trump's economic/tax policies), analyzing which stocks billionaire investors (e.g., Warren Buffett) are buying and selling, and digging into how the world's most-influential businesses and trends -- everything from the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) to the next stock split -- are changing Wall Street. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego.TMFUltraLongX@AMCScamStocks MentionedAmazonNASDAQ: AMZN$210.15(+2.33%)+$4.78NvidiaNASDAQ: NVDA$175.81(+1.80%)+$3.11*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.

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