Are Quantum Computing Stocks Becoming the Next AI?
Investors flocked to artificial intelligence (AI) stocks last year, and they drove market gains, leading the S&P 500, the Nasdaq Composite, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher. Today, these players continue to advance, and they're joined by certain stocks in the high-potential field of quantum computing.
In fact, quantum computing stocks might be following in the footsteps of AI stocks, becoming the next industry to lead market gains, and here's why.
Why AI became so popular
First, though, it's important to understand why AI grabbed the world's attention in recent years. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the way things are done -- from business to our daily lives -- by introducing more efficiency into processes. AI also can help companies develop new and better products -- from therapeutics to autonomous vehicles -- faster. So, AI can be a gamechanger, and experts have even likened the technology to the development of the steam engine, or in more recent days, the internet.
Companies powering AI, such as AI chip leader Nvidia and networking giant Broadcom have seen their shares surge -- and so have companies offering AI infrastructure, like Amazon, or those developing AI platforms and applying them to their businesses. A good example of that is Meta Platforms, which trained AI model Llama, a tool that powers its popular AI assistant.
Today, AI continues to be an interesting growth story, and there are plenty of chapters left in this exciting book. But quantum computing may be even earlier in its growth story -- and also promises to become a game changer. Investors generally like getting in on an investing theme early to fully benefit as it develops. So, what exactly is quantum computing? It's a type of computing that relies on the principles of quantum mechanics, or how subatomic particles interact.
In quantum computing, the computing is done by qubits rather than the bits used in traditional computing. Their ability to process data as a zero, a 1, or both at the same time, and the combining of many of these qubits allows for the solving of problems that have been impossible for classical computers.
D-Wave's record quarter
Several pure play companies are publicly traded and are working toward making this process useful for real world problems. In fact, D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) recently launched its Advantage2 quantum computer to be used in fields such as business optimization or AI. D-Wave, thanks to sales of its Advantage system and services, in the recent quarter said revenue soared 500% to a record $15 million -- the increase in revenue shows customers are interested in such technology, and the revenue level shows there still is plenty of room for gains as this technology develops.
Though D-Wave and others such as Rigetti Computing and IonQ are generating revenue from certain systems and services, quantum computers haven't yet even come close to reaching their full potential. The good news here is that means, if research and development goes well, revenue could explode higher down the road -- making now an excellent time to get in on these players.
The big difference between AI and quantum computing today is AI is more regularly and easily applied to real world problems, while quantum has significant challenges to conquer. For example, qubits are fragile and can only hold information for a short period of time. Other challenges are error rates and difficulty scaling quantum systems. All of this makes quantum computing stocks higher risk right now than AI stocks -- but, considering the promise of quantum computing, investing in these stocks could lead to enormous returns over time if the technology is successful.
Should you invest in quantum computing stocks?
What does this mean for you as an investor? If you're an aggressive investor looking for the next big thing in technology, you may consider buying shares of some of the leading pure play companies such as the players I've mentioned above. If you're cautious but still interested in the field, you could opt for well-established tech giants such as Alphabet or Microsoft that also have quantum computing programs.
It's still too early to say how successful quantum computing will be over time, but companies have made progress recently, and potential is strong. That means quantum computing stocks could become the AI stocks of 2025 -- and help lead the overall market higher.
Should you invest $1,000 in D-Wave Quantum right now?
Before you buy stock in D-Wave Quantum, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and D-Wave Quantum wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $687,731!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $945,846!*
Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is818% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to175%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025
Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. 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. Adria Cimino has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and 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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
16 minutes ago
- CTV News
Trump plans executive orders to power AI growth in race with China
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is readying a package of executive actions aimed at boosting energy supply to power the U.S. expansion of artificial intelligence (AI), according to four sources familiar with the planning. Top economic rivals U.S. and China are locked in a technological arms race and with it secure an economic and military edge. The huge amount of data processing behind AI requires a rapid increase in power supplies that are straining utilities and grids in many states. The moves under consideration include making it easier for power-generating projects to connect to the grid and providing federal land on which to build the data centers needed to expand AI technology, according to the sources. The administration will also release an AI action plan and schedule public events to draw public attention to the efforts, according to the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Training large-scale AI models requires a huge amount of electricity, and the industry's growth is driving the first big increase in U.S. power demand in decades. Between 2024 and 2029, U.S. electricity demand is projected to grow at five times the rate predicted in 2022, according to power-sector consultancy Grid Strategies. Meanwhile, power demand from AI data centers could grow more than thirtyfold by 2035, according to a new report by consultancy Deloitte. Building and connecting new power generation to the grid, however, has been a major hurdle because such projects require extensive impact studies that can take years to complete, and existing transmission infrastructure is overwhelmed. Among the ideas under consideration by the administration is to identify more fully developed power projects and move them higher on the waiting list for connection, two of the sources said. Siting data centers has also been challenging because larger facilities require a lot of space and resources and can face zoning obstacles or public opposition. The executive orders could provide a solution to that by offering land managed by the Defense Department or Interior Department to project developers, the sources said. The administration is also considering streamlining permitting for data centers by creating a nationwide Clean Water Act permit, rather than requiring companies to seek permits on a state-by-state basis, according to one of the sources. In January, Trump hosted top tech CEOs at the White House to highlight the Stargate Project, a multi-billion effort led by ChatGPT's creator OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the U.S. Trump has prioritized winning the AI race against China and declared on his first day in office a national energy emergency aimed at removing all regulatory obstacles to oil and gas drilling, coal and critical mineral mining, and building new gas and nuclear power plants to bring more energy capacity online. He also ordered his administration in January to produce an AI Action Plan that would make 'America the world capital in artificial intelligence' and reduce regulatory barriers to its rapid expansion. That report, which includes input from the National Security Council, is due by July 23. The White House is considering making July 23 'AI Action Day' to draw attention to the report and demonstrate its commitment to expanding the industry, two of the sources said. Trump is scheduled to speak at an AI and energy event in Pennsylvania on July 15 hosted by Senator Dave McCormick. Amazon earlier this month announced it would invest $20 billion in data centers in two Pennsylvania counties. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Jarrett Renshaw; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Marguerita Choy)
Globe and Mail
18 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Tricks of the trade
The VivaTech trade show had barely opened at the sprawling Porte de Versailles convention centre in Paris and Alexander Jacquet was already feeling the stress. The Vancouver-based entrepreneur had been an hour late setting up his booth inside the Canada pavilion, which he'd been told he had for just half a day under a rotation system designed to showcase as much Canadian talent as possible over four days. It had taken forever to get a taxi to the outer edges of the 15th arrondissement and he ended up paying €80 (roughly $126), a sum he hadn't counted on. By 11 a.m., just three people had stopped by to talk to Mr. Jacquet, but his mood had improved considerably: Those three visitors represented some of France's largest beauty companies – potentially huge clients for his startup, Trusting Pixels Inc. He and his business partner launched the enterprise in 2018, building on Mr. Jacquet's work as a visual effects artist on film and TV shows such as Game of Thrones. The pair developed software that uses artificial intelligence to detect digital alterations in photos and videos. Their aim was to pinpoint social-media influencers who offer beauty and fashion tips online without disclosing that much of their content has been manipulated. Mr. Jacquet came to VivaTech in 2024, but this year, he was part of a much larger, 600-strong Canadian contingent – by far the largest national delegation and one that consisted of entrepreneurs, academics and non-profits. The number of Canadian participants was also an indication of how seriously the people behind some of Canada's newest ventures have begun looking to Europe for customers. Opinion: Technology will play a vital role in this brave new world of international trade As U.S. President Donald Trump wreaks havoc on global trade and taunts Canadians with talk of annexation, Canadian companies have found fresh incentive to look beyond the United States. But that's no easy task given decades of trade dependence on Canada's southern neighbour and a historical lack of interest in seeking new markets an ocean away. Canada's goods-and-services trade with the U.S. tops $1-trillion annually. That's roughly five-times larger than our trade with the European Union's 27 member countries. In services alone, where the tech sector dominates, trade with the U.S. totalled $227.6-billion in 2023, compared with $78.1-billion with the EU. It's easy to understand why Canadian companies have largely shied away from the European market, where they have to grapple with different languages, shipping and logistics headaches, and varying regulations across a multitude of jurisdictions. But necessity – not to mention a new breed of Canadian tech entrepreneur – have combined to open new opportunities much further afield. If Canadian representation at VivaTech and Germany's recent Hannover Messe trade show are any indication, the number of businesspeople heading to Europe has never been higher. France and Europe 'are almost the market for us,' said Mr. Jacquet, who is 39. 'This wasn't just like, 'Oh, let's go to France and have fun.' It's, 'Let's go to France because it's the right market.'' The Globe and Mail followed Mr. Jacquet and two other Canadian entrepreneurs – Alex Qi and Emily Charry Tissier – over four days at VivaTech to get a sense of the opportunities and challenges they face in Europe. For all three, attending VivaTech was almost compulsory. The trade show has exploded in popularity since it was founded nine years ago, and it's now the largest annual tech gathering in Europe. This year's event attracted 14,000 entrepreneurs from around the world and a host of high-profile guests, including Nvidia Corp. chief executive Jensen Huang and French President Emmanuel Macron. The 230,000-square-metre Porte de Versailles pulsed all week with thumping music and flashing lights. Robots were everywhere, alongside innovative gadgets such as an AI-powered electric motorcycle, shopping bags made from recycled tree leaves and a foot-mounted navigational system for the visually impaired. Canada took centre stage as VivaTech's 2025 'country of the year.' Its giant bright-red pavilion – one of the floor's largest – offered up free coffee, along with a dozen or so booths where entrepreneurs could show off their wares. VivaTech also hosted presentations from high-profile Canadians including Martin Kon, president of machine language learning specialists Cohere Inc., and Sasha Luccioni, a leading researcher on the environmental impact of AI. Canada's country-of-the-year selection was made months before Mr. Trump's tariff squeeze – the selection is based largely on a country's tech development, with Japan, South Korea and India preceding Canada in the past three years. But the timing was auspicious. 'That was an incredibly wise decision, much more than we thought,' said VivaTech co-founder Pierre Louette, chief executive of French media company Groupe Les Echos-Le Parisien. Canada's star turn thrust technology to the forefront of the debate over economic sovereignty, he added. Suddenly everyone from Mr. Macron to Canada's new Minister of AI and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, was talking about the importance of increasing national computing capacity and building sovereign AI data centres. 'VivaTech is a perfect moment for Canada because it fits our political imperatives to broaden our trade ties, and it fits our technological imperatives to scale our champions,' Mr. Solomon said in an interview at the show. Mr. Jacquet, Ms. Charry Tissier and Mr. Qi shared that ambition, and they welcomed the government's growing interest in tech. But their focus at VivaTech was more down to Earth: finding customers. Mr. Qi's eyes lit up as he made his way along the trade show floor and jostled with throngs of fellow entrepreneurs. 'It's almost like a different world,' he said, one of very few people in the crowd wearing a suit and tie. 'There's really great energy.' He'd come to VivaTech in a mad rush after a business trip to Asia; he didn't even bring brochures to hand out. His six-year-old Waterloo, Ont.-based venture, Pontosense Inc., is a father-son affair. Mr. Qi's dad, Yihong Qi, was once a top engineer at Research In Motion Ltd. (now known as BlackBerry Ltd.) who's credited with changing the location of the antenna on a cellphone, from top to bottom, to address concerns about brain cancer caused by radio waves. He's also a serial innovator who has more than 650 patents to his name and half a dozen companies under his belt, including China's Shenzhen Sunway Communication Co. Ltd., which makes dozens of components for cellphones. How smart tech is supporting health on the home front Pontosense specializes in tiny sensors that act like super-sophisticated radar. Initially, the Qis sold the sensors – which are powerful enough to monitor the heartbeat of a baby from across a room – to automakers to serve a variety of functions such as preventing theft, activating airbags and identifying the location of a child in a car. But they soon expanded into elder care. Pontosense's wall-mounted sensors, which cost a couple of hundred dollars apiece, can track an elderly person's vital signs and transmit the information to relatives thousands of kilometres away via a subscription-based app. Mr. Qi wasn't sure if the company, which has around 60 full-time employees, would fit in at VivaTech, since it's not really a startup. But when he received an invite from Scale AI, a Montreal-based non-profit organization that helped organize the Canadian delegation, he jumped at the chance. It paid off. Roaming the convention floor, Mr. Qi met executives and heads of research from several major companies. He was so excited by the potential opportunities that he rushed back to his hotel to find someone to print up brochures. Pontosense has a large presence in Ontario, and Mr. Qi is hoping to land some elder-care contracts in the U.S., too. But his main focus has been outside North America, in places such as Britain, Japan and Singapore, and he came to VivaTech looking to expand into France and across Europe. 'We're basically going country to country,' he said. 'I see Western Europe being locked down for us in the next year.' At VivaTech, he found a receptive audience, particularly from telecom providers and insurers looking for new services to offer. Delivery companies were also interested in using the sensors to keep better track of their vehicles. 'There's a big push in Europe now toward AI, and startups, and these new frontier technologies,' he said. But Mr. Qi faces some hurdles in Europe, including regulations and government policies that give precedence to national suppliers. Germany, for example, offers subsidies to automakers to source components from local businesses. The challenge, Mr. Qi said, 'is understanding how the local governments work and their incentives.' Then there's the ever-changing nature of Mr. Trump's tariffs. Pontosense relies on dozens of factories in 10 countries in Asia, Europe and Mexico, and Mr. Qi has had to shift production with almost every tweak to Mr. Trump's levies to stay competitive in the U.S. Pontosense has an advantage in Europe because it can supply EU customers tariff-free from plants in Romania and Italy. 'Potentially very dangerous': Nobel winner Hinton wants AI minister to regulate the tech Mr. Qi, 38, has had a couple of takeover offers, but he has no interest in selling the business. He wants to build the next Canadian tech giant in Waterloo. 'We do want to kind of bring that feeling back to the town,' he said. 'We want to build the next BlackBerry, right there.' VivaTech proved to be well worth the trip (despite a few days of illness due to food poisoning). 'I think we scratched 10 per cent of what we could do, if I had only planned it better,' he said over coffee after the show ended. Then he smiled, reached into his backpack and pulled out the flyers he rushed to get printed when he arrived. They were delivered to his hotel the day he was leaving. The moment Donald Trump was elected U.S. President again last year, Emily Charry Tissier knew her startup had no future in the U.S. She'd launched Whale Seeker in 2018 in Montreal with a team of marine biologists, data scientists and software developers. They came up with a system that can analyze reams of aerial photographs using AI to pinpoint the location of whales and other sea life at a rate that's 25 times faster than the human eye. The software has a myriad of uses. It can help governments control fishing zones, offshore oil companies find the best locations for new drilling platforms and cruise-ship operators plot new routes, all without causing unnecessary harm to marine wildlife. Ms. Charry Tissier had always planned to expand into the U.S., and she was on a Canadian trade mission to Boston in November, 2024, meeting prospective clients in the offshore wind sector, when the U.S. election results came in. 'We had lots of connections and were really invested in that as our growth strategy,' she said. When it became clear Mr. Trump had won, 'we just saw that there was no way a foreign company was going to get a contract in the U.S.,' she said. 'All of his rhetoric was so nerve-wracking, especially for a woman running an AI company in the environment space.' Mr. Trump's 'drill, baby, drill' rhetoric and hostility toward environmental protection left her feeling unwelcome. She pulled out of the trade mission, gave up on the U.S., and focused her energy on Europe and South America. Ms. Charry Tissier arrived in Paris well prepared for VivaTech. She set up a series of meetings, including participating in a roundtable event at the Chilean embassy. She was also invited to join a panel discussion on AI and the environment at VivaTech, where she spoke about the need for more, and better, ocean data analysis. She's hoping those connections will help her with potential clients in Britain, and with government regulators in Germany and France. After VivaTech, she was headed to another conference in Paris, Seaenergy, which concentrated on offshore renewable power. She'd been assigned time at a booth in the Canada pavilion during VivaTech but arrived too late from the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice. So she explored some of the other booths and arranged more meetings. Landing customers in Europe can be tricky for an outsider. 'What we're having trouble with is not being European,' she said as she sat on a stool in the pavilion dressed in a bright orange jacket and watching the constant flow of people. The company's Quebec roots help somewhat in France, but European clients often want to stick with who they know. Cracking that bias, she said, 'takes so long. Even though we're being considered, there won't be anything coming to fruition for years.' She's also grappling with how to persuade cost-conscious leaders why high-quality AI tools such as hers are a vital means of monitoring marine life. 'What we get asked a lot is, 'Why is it so expensive for you to label data?'' she said, referring to the process of identifying whales in aerial images. Some companies offer less expensive AI-enabled data collection services, she said, but they don't have the expertise to make sense of it. Instead of identifying only whales, for example, these services throw up everything that's visible, without distinguishing between whales, boats, buoys, whitecaps and penguins. 'They did the thing that they were asked to do, but they didn't understand the use case, and they didn't understand the data they were working with, so the output wasn't usable,' said Ms. Charry Tissier. 'I know how to interpret those images, and I know what that looks like in real life.' The issue speaks to a broader concern she has about AI and how it's used in areas such as conservation. 'You can have the best algorithms in the world,' she said, 'but if it's still derived from crappy training, it will never be good.' Back at the Canada pavilion, Mr. Jacquet managed to score more time at the booth, and he crammed in as many presentations, meetings and chats as possible. By the third day, he was running on fumes. 'I'm barely alive. I'm on a fine line right now,' he said looking exhausted as he waited for yet another group to arrive. During one demonstration, he drew a shocked response from representatives of Sephora, the global beauty retailer owned by France's LVMH Group that regularly partners with influencers as part of its marketing campaigns. Using Trusting Pixels' tech, he showed them a list of some of France's most popular influencers and indicated how much of their online posts had been altered. That's a potential violation of a French law that requires influencers to disclose any manipulations. One top influencer, who has millions of followers and was well known to the Sephora reps, retouched 43 per cent of her content, Mr. Jacquet's analysis showed. Some of the others edited just 3 per cent. He'd also audited the social-media accounts of France's top beauty brands and found that one, which he didn't name, manipulated 19 per cent of its material. His conclusion for the Sephora delegation: 'The point is that not everyone values authenticity the same. So you can pick someone who has a lot of followers, but half their content might be retouched. Is that really who you want to work with?' Mr. Jacquet said he launched his business after becoming frustrated by the amount of doctored photos he came across online. Then he saw that some countries – notably France, Norway, Germany and Britain – were cracking down on fake content. So he turned his talent for manipulating content for special effects into Trusting Pixels. Getting European brands and retailers interested in his software hasn't been easy. Many have no idea that their material is being doctored, and as long as an influencer discloses any editing, no laws have been violated. Also, so far, just a couple of European countries have laws that target manipulation by influencers. 'A lot of brands' content is not created in-house – it's created by an agency or influencer,' Mr. Jacquet said. 'So, brands don't even know if their own content is retouched or labelled accordingly or not. Because the law doesn't say don't retouch. The law just says if you do, label it.' He's met French regulators a couple of times to pitch his software, but they have yet to sign up. That's frustrating, he said, because it takes him no time to identify influencers who are breaking the law. 'We're seeing, literally, beauty tutorials with retouched faces – someone trying on makeup and their face is retouched,' he said. 'This leads to serious issues – mental health issues, body image issues – and it's just not fair for advertisers to profit off of people by showing them a complete misconception of what they can attain.' By the time VivaTech ended, Mr. Jacquet had made more contacts than he did in 2024, with better leads. But he'll only know if it paid off once he closes some deals. There's no doubt in his mind that Trusting Pixels' future lies in Europe. 'That's an unquestionable. It's, like, for sure.'
Globe and Mail
32 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
2 Tech Stocks I'd Buy and Never Sell
Everyone thinks they know what Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are -- a social media company and an electric vehicle (EV) maker. But what if I told you that's like calling Amazon a bookstore? The real story is far more intriguing, and it's unfolding right now. Here's why these two tech giants deserve a permanent spot in your portfolio. The stealth transformation into an AI powerhouse Mark Zuckerberg is spending money like a man possessed. The Facebook founder just dropped $14.3 billion to acquire 49% of Scale AI, bringing its CEO Alexandr Wang aboard to lead a new superintelligence lab. He's offering $100 million signing bonuses to poach OpenAI engineers. When Sam Altman says your rival CEO is personally emailing his team with "crazy" offers, you know something extraordinary is happening. This isn't desperation -- it's calculation. Meta has quietly built one of the most impressive artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructures on the planet. The company's Llama models pioneered the open-source approach to large language models, fundamentally different from the closed systems at OpenAI and Anthropic. While critics fixate on Meta's recent AI stumbles, they're missing the forest for the trees. Consider the talent acquisition alone. Beyond the Scale AI deal, Meta has recruited former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and AI entrepreneur Daniel Gross. The company approached Perplexity AI, Runway, and Safe Superintelligence for potential acquisitions. Zuckerberg himself is making job offers that one AI researcher described as "at least $10,000,000 a year." This isn't hiring -- it's building an AI Manhattan Project. The strategy makes perfect sense when you understand Meta's endgame. The company forecasts its generative AI products will generate between $460 billion and $1.4 trillion in total revenue by 2035. That's not a typo. Meta sees AI agents transforming everything from WhatsApp customer service to Instagram content creation. With 3.3 billion daily active users across its apps, Meta has the distribution advantage that pure play AI companies can only dream about. Wall Street remains skeptical, with Meta's 64% AI talent retention rate trailing competitors. But that misses the point. Meta isn't trying to win the current AI race -- it's changing the track entirely. By combining massive capital deployment, open-source development, and unmatched distribution, Zuckerberg is positioning Meta to own the AI infrastructure layer of the internet. More than meets the eye Tesla finally launched its robotaxi service in Austin on June 22, 2025. The rollout was small -- around 10 Model Y vehicles and front-seat riders serving as "safety monitors." Critics called it smoke and mirrors. They're right about the modest start but wrong about what it represents. This isn't about competing with Alphabet 's Waymo, which already operates 1,500 robotaxis and provides more than 250,000 paid trips per week across its markets. It's about Tesla's fundamental transformation from an automaker into an AI robotics company. The robotaxi launch is merely the opening act of a much bigger production. The real story is Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot. Musk plans to produce 5,000 units this year -- what he calls a "legion" of robots. By 2026, that number jumps to 50,000. The robots will start in Tesla factories, handling dangerous and repetitive tasks, before expanding to external customers at a projected price of $20,000 to $30,000 each. Here's what makes Tesla different: vertical integration. The company designs its own AI chips, writes its software, and manufactures at scale. Every component developed for Tesla vehicles -- batteries, motors, AI inference computers -- applies directly to Optimus. Competitors like Boston Dynamics build impressive demos. Tesla builds production lines. The robotaxi service provides the perfect real-world testing ground for Tesla's AI. Every mile driven generates data that improves both autonomous driving and robotic navigation. It's a feedback loop that compounds exponentially. Musk believes Optimus could eventually be "more valuable than everything else combined" at Tesla. Given that humanoid robots could address the global labor shortage while transforming manufacturing, healthcare, and home assistance, that might be conservative. Critics point to Tesla's history of missed deadlines and Musk's "corporate puffery." Fair enough. But they said the same thing about Tesla overtaking legacy automakers in electric vehicles. The company's ability to manufacture at scale, combined with its AI prowess, creates a moat that's nearly impossible to cross. Forever stocks in the making Both Meta and Tesla are making audacious bets on AI that could fail spectacularly. Meta might burn billions on talent that never delivers breakthroughs. Tesla's robots might remain glorified factory tools. But that's precisely why these stocks belong in a never-sell portfolio. These aren't trades -- they're generational investments in the future of technology. And with both companies led by founders willing to risk everything on their vision, selling would be the real mistake. Don't miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you'll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a 'Double Down' stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you're worried you've already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it's too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you'd have $400,193!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you'd have $38,264!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you'd have $687,731!* Right now, we're issuing 'Double Down' alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join Stock Advisor, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon. See the 3 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025 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. 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. George Budwell has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
