Big Tech just had a week investors will remember. At its low on Friday, Alphabet had lost $477 billion in market value for the week, its worst week ever and the second-biggest weekly wipeout for any US-listed stock by Yahoo Finance’s calculations, Yahoo Finance reported on October 30.
Most of the damage came Thursday, when the Google parent lost $475 billion in a single session after its third-quarter results. For October as a whole, Yahoo Finance calculated a loss of about $766 billion at Friday’s low. That is the second-biggest monthly loss ever for a US-listed company, behind only SpaceX’s roughly $822 billion drop in July.
Heavy Losses Spread Beyond Alphabet
Alphabet wasn’t alone. SpaceX, Intel and Nvidia each lost more than $100 billion in market value this week, according to Yahoo Finance. Intel fell as much as 30% on Friday after a weak outlook, its steepest drop in decades, and Amazon shed about $70 billion after reporting results Thursday. Software stocks took some of the sharpest hits in percentage terms, with ServiceNow and Fortinet down roughly 25% to 33%.
Nvidia was among the biggest losers. Our analysis of whether Nvidia can sustain its exceptional margins as it becomes more than a chipmaker looks at what keeps its profits so high.
UBS Argues Against Heading for the Exits
Not all the money left the market. Eli Lilly, Tesla and SK Hynix added about $370 billion in combined value over the same stretch, even as the Magnificent Seven stumbled, Yahoo Finance said.
UBS’s chief investment office argued against retreating. Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, the bank’s CIO Americas and global head of equities, wrote on Friday that further volatility does not make leaving markets an effective way to protect a portfolio from drawdowns. She said UBS still sees scope for equity gains overall and believes investors should focus on “building a resilient portfolio that includes exposure beyond tech.”
The selloff also left Alphabet’s price-to-earnings ratio at its lowest in more than a decade, Yahoo Finance noted. You might also be interested in reading our piece on why Alphabet’s low P/E is misleading even as the AI opportunity looks real.
That is why a five-year view has to look past any single earnings reaction. The ten stocks below were built on very different businesses, from chip equipment to advertising, and each has been picked up on lists of the best technology stocks to hold for the long term. Here is how they rank by size.
Our Methodology
To compile this list, we searched for the best tech stocks for the next five years and reviewed rankings published by several financial websites over the past 12 months. From the stocks that came up, we picked the 10 with the largest market caps and ranked them in ascending order of market cap, as of October 31, 2026. These stocks are also popular among elite hedge funds that we track.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Insider Monkey’s quarterly newsletter strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 599.2% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 372 percentage points (see more details here).
10 Best Tech Stocks for the Next 5 Years
10. ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)
Market Cap: $603.15 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 140
ASML supplies the lithography machines chipmakers use to mass-produce the patterns on integrated circuits. The case for the stock is that customers want more machines than ASML plans to build.
In the third quarter, ASML reported total net sales of €11.7 billion and net income of €5.0 billion, and it expects 2026 net sales of between €44 billion and €45 billion with a gross margin around 56%. Chief Executive Officer Christophe Fouquet said the company now expects its planned supply for both 2027 and 2028 to fall short of customer demand, and some customers have expressed interest in orders for 2029 and even 2030, which gives the company unusual visibility into future demand. ASML is investigating ways to add 2028 capacity beyond the 30% increase it announced earlier.
The business earns strong returns on that position, with a 54.33% gross margin and a 38.53% operating margin over the past 12 months. Earnings per share grew 23.58% a year over the past five years. Our analysis of whether ASML’s stock is priced for a chip equipment shortage that lasts into 2028 looks at how the market is valuing that backlog.
9. Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD)
Market Cap: $823.98 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 164
Advanced Micro Devices makes processors for servers, PCs and game consoles, along with the AI accelerators and full server racks it now sells to data centers. Investors like it because large AI buyers are signing multiyear deals for its newest hardware.
In the second quarter, revenue rose 50% to a record $11.5 billion. Data Center revenue was $6.7 billion, up 107%, and made up 58% of the total, which shows how far the business has shifted toward AI. Chief Financial Officer Jean Hu said she expects Data Center sales to accelerate in the second half of the year, and AMD guided third-quarter revenue to about $13 billion, plus or minus $300 million.
The company’s Helios server rack is being deployed by AI labs and cloud providers including Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Oracle, and AMD announced a partnership with Anthropic to deploy up to 2 gigawatts of its MI450 GPUs. Revenue grew 28.82% a year over the past five years. AMD reports its next quarter early next week. Our analysis of how AMD’s premium valuation puts its execution under the microscope looks at what investors will want to see.
8. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)
Market Cap: $1,001.07 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 184
Micron makes the memory chips that AI servers, phones and PCs rely on, including the high-bandwidth memory that sits beside AI processors. The case for the stock is that AI demand has multiplied its sales and its profit on each dollar of them.
Fiscal fourth-quarter revenue was $54.23 billion, against $11.32 billion a year earlier. Full-year revenue came in at $133.19 billion, compared with $37.38 billion the year before. Gross margin reached 86.8% in the quarter, up from 44.7% a year earlier, and the Core Data Center business unit brought in $18,002 million at a 90% gross margin. That shows how quickly demand for AI memory has changed the company.
For the fiscal first quarter, Micron guided revenue of $61.5 billion, plus or minus $1.5 billion. Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mehrotra said he expects an even stronger fiscal 2027 and said the company’s strategic customer agreements add confidence in the durability of its financial performance. Earnings per share grew 70.65% a year over the past five years. Our analysis of what Wall Street may be missing about Micron’s low earnings multiple looks at how the market prices all of this.
7. Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Market Cap: $1,556.59 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 170
Broadcom supplies semiconductors and infrastructure software, and it has become a leading maker of the custom AI accelerators and networking chips that fill data centers. Investors like it because that AI business is growing faster each quarter.
In the fiscal third quarter, revenue was $29.6 billion, up 86% from a year earlier. AI semiconductor revenue was $16.7 billion, up 221% from a year earlier and up 54% from the previous quarter. Software still adds a steady base alongside the chips. Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan said demand for the company’s custom accelerators and networking remains very strong. For the fiscal fourth quarter, Broadcom guided revenue of about $34.8 billion, up 93%, and expects AI semiconductor revenue to accelerate to $21.7 billion, up 236%.
The company turned that growth into cash. It generated $13.7 billion of free cash flow in the quarter, or 46 percent of revenue, and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share. Earnings per share grew 49.76% a year over the past five years. Our analysis of whether Broadcom’s growth is becoming too dependent on AI spending covers the main question around that run.
6. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Market Cap: $1,572.06 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 254
Meta runs Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, and it sells advertising across all four. Investors like how well it uses AI to make those ads more effective.
Third-quarter revenue was $64.60 billion, up 26% from a year earlier, and advertising brought in $63,061 million of it. The number of ads Meta delivered rose 10%, and the average price per ad rose 14%, so the company grew on both measures at once. That mix shows growth did not rely on higher prices alone, which helps explain why advertisers keep spending. Meta said its family of apps reached 3.64 billion daily active people on average in September, up 3% from a year earlier.
The profits behind that growth are large, and they show the ad business is highly profitable as well as fast-growing. Meta kept an 81.03% gross margin and a 32.86% operating margin over the past 12 months, and earnings per share grew 18.41% a year over the past five years. Investors also watch for new ways to earn money from that audience, and our analysis of whether WhatsApp can become a meaningful business beyond advertising looks at one of them.
5. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM)
Market Cap: $2,106.39 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 249
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing makes chips designed by other companies. In 2025 it manufactured 12,682 products for 534 customers, so it earns money when AI spending rises, whichever chip design wins. Because it builds chips for many different designers, it is less tied to any single product launch than the companies that sell the finished chips. That breadth is the heart of the case.
Third-quarter revenue was $46.72 billion, up 41.2% from a year earlier in US dollars. Gross margin was 66.4%, operating margin was 58.7% and net profit margin was 51.1%. Advanced technologies, meaning 7-nanometer and more advanced, made up 79% of wafer revenue, and 2-nanometer shipments already accounted for 8%. High-performance computing, which includes AI chips, made up 68% of revenue.
Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said TSMC expects continued strong demand for its leading-edge processes, including the steep ramp-up of 2-nanometer technology. For the fourth quarter, the company guided revenue of between $52.3 billion and $54.3 billion. Earnings per share grew 25.67% a year over the past five years. Our analysis of whether TSMC’s next chip breakthrough can justify its valuation weighs that growth against the price.
4. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Market Cap: $3,412.31 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 275
Alphabet owns Google Search, YouTube and Google Cloud, and it designs its own AI chips and models. Investors like that the cloud and AI side is now growing fast, while the shares have dropped to their lowest earnings multiple in more than a decade, according to Yahoo Finance.
Third-quarter revenue rose 25% to $127.6 billion, the 13th straight quarter of double-digit growth. Google Cloud revenue climbed 103% to $30.7 billion on demand for AI infrastructure, and Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai pointed to strong demand for its TPU systems from a wide range of customers. The Gemini app reached one billion users, which Alphabet called the fastest growth of any product in its history, and Search query growth was the highest in five years. Together, those results show the AI business reaching beyond Search into products and customers of its own.
The company backs that growth with a 33.33% operating margin over the past 12 months, and earnings per share grew 29.82% a year over the past five years. Our analysis of whether Alphabet’s valuation reflects the potential of Waymolooks at one more source of upside.
3. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Market Cap: $3,876.25 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 273
Microsoft sells cloud computing through Azure, business software such as Microsoft 365, and the Copilot AI assistant built into it. Investors like it because its AI spending is turning into faster cloud growth.
In its fiscal first quarter, revenue came in at $92.28 billion, ahead of the $90.63 billion Bloomberg estimates called for, and earnings per share of $4.89 beat the $4.73 forecast. Azure revenue grew 48% to $33.17 billion. Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood expects Azure growth of 49% to 50% next quarter and said better engineering efficiency helped Microsoft meet more demand with the capacity it had. That growth reflects customers buying more AI and cloud capacity from a vendor they already use. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said the number of customers with 50,000 Copilot seats rose eightfold from a year earlier.
The business behind that growth is highly profitable, with a 47.10% operating margin over the past 12 months. Earnings per share grew 17.38% a year over the past five years. Our analysis of whether security bundles can earn Microsoft more profit per customer looks at another way to grow from customers it already has.
2. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Market Cap: $4,934.48 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 285
Nvidia designs the processors that train and run most large artificial intelligence models, and it now sells them as complete data center systems. Investors like it because orders keep growing as customers expand their AI computing capacity.
In its fiscal second quarter, revenue reached $96.2 billion, up 106% from a year earlier. Data Center revenue was $89.0 billion, up 117%. Data Center is the engine, accounting for nearly all of the company’s revenue. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said the build-out of AI computing capacity is moving at top speed. For the fiscal third quarter, Nvidia expects revenue of $108.0 billion, plus or minus 2%, and that outlook assumes no Data Center compute revenue from China.
The next product cycle is already underway. Vera Rubin, its newest platform, is now in full production. Nvidia also returned about $26.0 billion to shareholders in the quarter through share repurchases and dividends, and earnings per share grew 95.27% a year over the past five years. Our look at how Nvidia is using its AI growth to expand into autonomous driving covers one place that growth could go next.
1. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Market Cap: $5,032.07 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 169
Apple makes the iPhone, Mac, iPad and Apple Watch, and it sells the services that run on them, such as the App Store, iCloud and Apple Pay. The appeal is a loop: every device sold adds to an installed base that keeps paying for services.
Apple’s fiscal third quarter showed that loop working. Revenue was $109.4 billion, up 16 percent from a year earlier, and iPhone, Mac and Services each set a June-quarter record. Services alone brought in $30,739 million. Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh said the installed base of active devices reached a new all-time high across every major product category and geographic segment, and Tim Cook called it Apple’s strongest June quarter ever.
The record rests on a long earnings climb. Over the past five years, earnings per share grew 17.91% a year, and Apple earned a 33.17% operating margin over the past 12 months. New hardware keeps the base growing, with a 14-inch MacBook Pro and a new iMac, both built on its M6 chip, introduced recently. Our analysis of whether Apple’s valuation is running ahead of its growth looks at how much of that strength investors already price in.
While we acknowledge the risk and potential of AAPL as an investment, we believe certain AI infrastructure stocks offer far stronger long-term potential at a much more attractive entry point. If you are looking for an AI stock more promising than AAPL that operates as a critical AI tollbooth and stands as the most important company in the world, check out our report about this must-own AI stock.
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