2 Stocks That'll Be Worth More Than Nvidia 5 Years From Now
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By Will Healy – Jan 9, 2026 at 9:55AM ESTKey PointsAlphabet's growing prominence in AI and autonomous driving could make it a market cap leader over time.Success in autonomous driving could reinvigorate Tesla.CEO says this is worth 18 Nvidias. Will this make the world's first trillionaire? ›NASDAQ: GOOGLAlphabetMarket Cap$3.9TToday's Changeangle-down(1.14%) $3.71Current Price$329.14Price as of January 9, 2026 at 10:17 AM ETAn emerging industry could upend Nvidia's leadership among the Magnificent Seven companies.The increasing demand for all things artificial intelligence (AI) helped Nvidia emerge out of nowhere to become the world's largest company as measured by market cap. Between the $4.6 trillion market cap and the continuing growth of the AI accelerator market, few companies hold a realistic chance of overtaking it anytime soon. Still, few does not mean zero, and competition from companies like Advanced Micro Devices could slow its growth. That could present opportunities for some top companies to claim the world's largest market cap title. If any company overtakes Nvidia, it will most likely be one of these two enterprises. Image source: Getty Images. Alphabet After the release of AI large language model GPT-4 by OpenAI, Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL +1.14%) (GOOG +1.18%) suffered from a perception it was going to be left behind when it comes to artificial intelligence-related search. Google Search's market share had fallen below 90%, and AI engines often bypassed the advertising ecosystem that still drives the majority of Alphabet's revenue. However, Alphabet was an early pioneer in AI and has always invested in technical improvements. Also, the company's tremendous resources allowed it to spend between $91 billion and $93 billion in capital expenditures (capex) in 2025 alone. Today, the latest version of Google Gemini has made competitive strides against ChatGPT and other AI engines. Moreover, Google Cloud continues to grow rapidly, and Waymo appears to be emerging as one of the top autonomous driving companies.Advertisement Furthermore, Alphabet can continue these investments. As of the third quarter of 2025, it held more than $98 billion in liquidity. Additionally, it generated almost $74 billion in free cash flow over the previous 12 months, a figure that does not include the aforementioned capex spending. ExpandNASDAQ: GOOGLAlphabetToday's Change(1.14%) $3.71Current Price$329.14Key Data PointsMarket Cap$3.9TDay's Range$325.85 - $330.6452wk Range$140.53 - $330.64Volume283KAvg Vol36MGross Margin59.18%Dividend Yield0.26% Indeed, with the nearly 65% gain in Alphabet's stock price over the last 12 months, investors have started to notice its growth potential, and it is likely not too late to buy. At a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 31, it is the lowest-valued Magnificent Seven stock next to Meta Platforms. Also, if it matched Nvidia's current P/E ratio of 46, it would already hold the title of the world's largest market cap. Hence, as the Google parent and Nvidia's largest peers continue to make competitive strides, Alphabet will be in the race for the world's largest market cap, possibly overtaking Nvidia over time. Tesla Another company that could overtake Nvidia's market cap is Tesla (TSLA +0.99%). In many ways, this choice may seem more surprising than Alphabet. At a P/E ratio of 290, it has the highest market cap in the Magnificent Seven. Also, its market cap of $1.4 trillion is less than one-third of Nvidia's size. With its automobile deliveries falling, it seems both figures might be more likely to fall than rise. Also, Tesla's $8.9 billion spent on capex and $6.8 billion in free cash flow are a small fraction of Alphabet's overall investments in its business. Such conditions may explain Tesla stock's more modest gains of around 6% over the last year. ExpandNASDAQ: TSLATeslaToday's Change(0.99%) $4.31Current Price$440.11Key Data PointsMarket Cap$1.4TDay's Range$430.48 - $440.5952wk Range$214.25 - $498.83Volume726KAvg Vol80MGross Margin17.01% However, like Alphabet, Tesla has emerged as an autonomous driving leader, and unlike Waymo, Tesla also manufactures its own vehicles. Thus, it adds the specific hardware tailored to its robotaxi platform, which could conceivably offer a more complete autonomous vehicle ecosystem than competitors. Also, if one believes the analysis of Cathie Wood's Ark Invest, the company will reach a $2,600 per-share price target by 2029, an increase of nearly sixfold from current levels. If Tesla meets that price target, its market cap would exceed $8.6 trillion, nearly double Nvidia's market cap today. According to Ark Invest's forecast, Tesla would reach that price as subscriptions to its robotaxi platform overtake vehicle sales as the company's primary source of net income. Investors should also remember that software platforms tend to have much higher profit margins than vehicle sales. That arguably renders the aforementioned P/E ratio, which it bases on vehicle sales, relatively meaningless. Hence, when combining those higher margins with the more complete ecosystem, Tesla could overtake Nvidia as it drives a critical, emerging industry.Read NextJan 9, 2026 •By Patrick SandersPrediction: This Artificial Intelligence Stock Will Become a Member of the $4 Trillion Club in 2026Jan 8, 2026 •By John Bromels3 Millionaire-Maker Artificial Intelligence (AI) StocksJan 8, 2026 •By Courtney CarlsenThe Best Stocks to Invest $1,000 in Right NowJan 8, 2026 •By Keith SpeightsThe Best Quantum Computing Stock to Buy Hand Over Fist in 2026Jan 7, 2026 •By Danny Vena, CPAThis Was the Best Performing "Magnificent Seven" Stock in 2025 (Hint: Not Nvidia)Jan 6, 2026 •By Will Healy2 Warren Buffett Stock Picks That Could Soar in 2026About the AuthorWill Healy is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering technology and consumer goods industries.
Before The Motley Fool, Will was a freelance writer covering stocks and personal finance for MSN Money, Yahoo! Finance, and Nasdaq. Earlier in his career, he was an expert in geographic information systems, applying spatial and IT skills to perform RF and demographic analysis in the telecom industry. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Texas A&M University and an MBA in finance and strategy from the University of Texas at Dallas.TMFWillHealyX@HealyWritingStocks MentionedAlphabetNASDAQ: GOOGL$329.14 (+0.01%) $+3.71TeslaNASDAQ: TSLA$440.12 (+0.01%) $+4.32AlphabetNASDAQ: GOOG$329.70 (+0.01%) $+3.69*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.Advertisement