# Analysts Recommend Three AI Stocks to Buy and Hold > Source: > Published: 2026-06-05 18:52:59.741085+00:00 # Analysts Recommend Three AI Stocks to Buy and Hold Daniel Sparks of The Motley Fool names Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Broadcom as AI-themed stocks to buy and hold for the next decade, arguing that profitable incumbents and infrastructure suppliers can fund multi-year AI buildouts. The article leans on Meta's first-quarter results, which independent filings confirm: revenue rose about 33 percent year over year to roughly $56.3 billion, with operating income near $22.9 billion. Meta also lifted its 2026 capital-spending guidance to $125 billion to $145 billion, from $115 billion to $135 billion, citing higher component costs and additional data-center investment. The piece is an investment opinion column rather than company or market news, but the underlying capex and earnings figures are a useful gauge of how much large platforms are committing to AI infrastructure. ### What happened Daniel Sparks of The Motley Fool published a column naming Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Broadcom as three AI stocks to buy and hold for the next decade. The thesis is that companies with large, cash-generative core businesses, along with key infrastructure suppliers, can sustain expensive multi-year AI investment. The piece supports the case with Meta's recent results. ### The Meta numbers Independent filings and reporting corroborate the figures cited. Meta's first-quarter 2026 revenue rose about 33 percent year over year to roughly $56.3 billion, with family-of-apps advertising revenue up 33 percent to about $55 billion; ad impressions rose 19 percent and average price per ad rose 12 percent. Operating income was about $22.9 billion, a 41 percent operating margin. Meta also raised its 2026 capital-expenditure guidance to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, from $115 billion to $135 billion, citing higher component pricing and additional data-center costs. When the raise was announced, Meta shares fell sharply as investors weighed the spending. ### Why it matters for data teams The picks highlight two sides of the AI economy: hyperscale deployers such as Meta and Microsoft that consume and serve large models, and suppliers such as Broadcom that provide chips and networking. Capital-spending guidance is a practical leading indicator of compute capacity, data-center buildout, and downstream demand for accelerators, which affects availability and pricing for teams that rent or buy AI infrastructure. ### What to watch Useful signals include quarterly revenue attribution to AI products, changes in capex guidance, and gross-margin trends as a proxy for whether investment is pressuring profitability. For infrastructure suppliers, order books and channel demand are leading indicators. Advertising and antitrust regulation in the U.S. and Europe remains a material external factor for ad-driven platforms. ### Caveat This is an opinion column framing long-term holds, not company news, a model release, or a regulatory action. The investment thesis is the author's; the earnings and capex figures, however, are confirmed by Meta's filings and multiple outlets. ## Scoring Rationale This is a Motley Fool opinion column recommending three large-cap stocks as long-term AI holds, not a technical development, deal, or regulatory action. The Meta earnings and capex figures it cites are verifiable and useful as an AI-infrastructure signal, but the AI angle is tangential to an investment-advice format, which places it in the minor band. Practice with real FinTech & Trading data 90 SQL & Python problems · 15 industry datasets [Active Verified Users by Income TierEasy](/problems/sql/active-verified-users-by-income) [Technology Stocks with High BetaMedium](/problems/sql/technology-stocks-with-high-beta) [Portfolio Performance ScorecardHard](/problems/sql/portfolio-performance-scorecard) 250 free problems · No credit card [See all FinTech & Trading problems](/problems/datasets/fintech)