In this article, we will discuss: 5 Best Stocks to Buy in 2026 According to Billionaire D.E. Shaw. For more stocks, you can head to 10 Best Stocks to Buy in 2026 According to Billionaire D.E. Shaw.
David E. Shaw of D.E. Shaw
5. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
D. E. Shaw’s Q1 2026 Stake: $1.8 billion
Consumer electronics giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s shares are up by 48.9% over the past year and by 16,9% year-to-date. Evercore ISI discussed the firm on June 25th, as it kept a $365 share price target and an Overweight rating on the stock. The coverage came after Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) made a major announcement due to the ongoing historic shortages in the memory market. This announcement saw the firm increase its product prices across the board due to the pricey memory chips. Everocre remarked that the price hikes showed that even Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), despite its heft, was not immune to component pricing pressures.
A few days earlier, on June 22nd, KGI Securities had downgraded the shares. It had cut the rating to Hold from Outperform and kept a $315 share price target. More recently, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been in the news due to a historic leak of details about its iPhone 18. The upcoming smartphone’s pictures, supplier list and other details were leaked after India’s Tata Electronics was targeted by a cyberattack.
4. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
D. E. Shaw’s Q1 2026 Stake: $1.9 billion
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s shares are up by 103% over the past year and 13% year-to-date. Over the course of the past year, the firm has managed to transform itself from operating under the threat of action by the Justice Department to being one of the most indomitable forces in the technology industry. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) made key inroads in the fast growing agentic artificial intelligence sector on July 7th. The firm announced that it had partnered with consulting firm Accenture to expand market access to its Google Cloud products. Through the partnership, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Accenture will provide cybersecurity, workforce management, and other products.
Banking giant Wells Fargo discussed Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s shares on July 2nd. It cut the share price target to $416 from $435 and kept an Overweight rating on the stock. While it cut the share price target, the financial firm expressed enthusiasm about Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s ability to grow Google Search, and more importantly, Google Cloud revenue.
3. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)
D. E. Shaw’s Q1 2026 Stake: $2 billion
Semiconductor designer Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)’s shares have been quite volatile over the past couple of days. While they are up by 15% year-to-date, they lost 12% between June 18th and July 2nd, only to gain 11% since then. On June 30th, Jefferies discussed Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) as it reiterated a Buy rating and a $550 share price target. It discussed the chip company’s AI business and outlined that Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was benefiting from increased visibility into future earnings. Jefferies added that the firm’s Tensor AI chip business with Google was also doing well.
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)’s AI chip demand was at the center of a 19.5% share price drop between June 3rd and 5th as it failed to raise its revenue guidance for the products. Erste Group downgraded the shares to Hold from Buy on July 7th and outlined that it believed that the current share price levels reflect most of the firm’s valuation.
Carillon Eagle Growth fund discussed Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
Broadcom was weak for the quarter as higher inflation led investors to fear a slowdown in hyperscaler spending. This ed to lower spending on custom silicon, the main reason for Broadcom’s strength over the last couple of years. We believe Broadcom still has some of the best tech in the space and will be one of the biggest winners from AI.
2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
D. E. Shaw’s Q1 2026 Stake: $2.3 billion
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s shares are down by 22% over the past year and by 18% year-to-date. Several analysts have discussed the firm in July. For instance, DA Davidson kept a Buy rating on July 6th, while Wolfe Research kept a Buy rating and a $525 share price target on the 5th. Then, on July 7th, BMO Capital cut Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s share price target to $500 from $515 and kept an Outperform rating on the shares. The technology company’s second quarter and cloud computing business were on the financial firm’s mind as it remarked that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) should deliver a small upside for its Azure business in the upcoming second quarter earnings.
Bloomberg was out with a major report for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) on July 6th, when it outlined that it expected the firm to cut 3,200 jobs in its Xbox division to streamline operations and divest game development studios.
RiverPark Large Growth Fund discussed Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“Microsoft Corporation: MSFT was the portfolio’s largest detractor for the quarter due to various headwinds. In January, Microsoft reported its fiscal Q2 2026 results with strong operational metrics, revenue up 17% year-over-year, Azure up 39%, and RPO of $392 billion up more than 50% year-over-year, but management’s guidance for a sequential deceleration in Azure growth and sharply elevated capital expenditures weighed on investor sentiment. This was then compounded by the sector-wide reassessment of hyperscaler capex cycles in February following Alphabet’s $175–$185 billion and Amazon’s $200 billion 2026 spending announcements. The combination of slowing near-term growth expectations and rising capital intensity drove multiple compression across the entire cloud software and infrastructure group.”
1. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
D. E. Shaw’s Q1 2026 Stake: $2.5 billion
2026 hasn’t been kind to AI GPU giant NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s shares, as they are up by a modest 9.6% year-to-date. With the shares currently trading around the $207 mark, Bank of America discussed the firm on July 8th as it reiterated a Buy rating and a $350 share price target. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) was in the news recently after SpaceX announced its Grok 4.5 model and revealed that it was trained on tens of thousands of NVIDIA AI chips. Throughout the year, even though rivals such as Google and Amazon have touted their custom AI chips, NVIDIA’s products have remained the leaders when it comes to performance.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s own GR00T made inroads into the robotics sector recently after the firm announced a collaboration with Hugging Face to integrate its physical AI capabilities into the LeRobot open source robotics library. The partnership will allow users to consolidate human data, model fine tuning and behavior validation in a single platform.
Antipodes Global Strategy discussed NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“The opportunity in NVIDIA has been created from the market’s extrapolation of near-term AI uncertainty, despite a structural demand inflection for the world’s dominant AI infrastructure provider. On our estimates NVDA trades on a 2027 multiple of 13x. Management now guides at least $1 trillion in AI infrastructure demand through 2027 — double the $500bn signalled twelve months ago — and frames this as a floor with NVDA the main beneficiary underpinned by the CUDA installed base. Revenue is also diversifying beyond hyperscalers, with sovereign clouds, enterprise, and robotics growing while the SaaS-to-agentic transition represents a further enterprise IT monetisation opportunity.”
While we acknowledge the potential of NVDA to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NVDA and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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