Investing in AI is an exciting opportunity for investors of all ages.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently driving significant infrastructure development and productivity gains across almost every industry, from software to healthcare and beyond. Companies providing the hardware and software platforms essential to AI are the most direct beneficiaries of the current boom. This includes chipmakers and cloud service providers who are experiencing massive capital expenditures.
Beyond pure technology, companies across various industries are leveraging AI to innovate their respective businesses. In short, there is an abundance of great companies that offer long-term investors the opportunity to become part-owners of quality companies and participate in the potential of the AI revolution. If you have $2,000 to invest, here are two obvious AI stocks to invest all or part of that in right now.
Image source: Getty Images.
1.Microsoft
THE Microsoft (MSFT 0.76%) The Azure cloud computing platform continues to position itself at the epicenter of growing demand for high-performance computing (HPC) needed for AI workloads. The company’s early and deep partnership with OpenAI has given it access to cutting-edge AI models that are integrated across its product lines and underscore its leadership position in enterprise AI.
Microsoft Copilot uses OpenAIThe latest templates for automating complex tasks like writing personalized sales emails, summarizing multi-page legal contracts, and generating meeting transcripts. Copilot is directly integrated with widely used products such as Microsoft 365 (Office, Teams, Outlook), GitHub and Dynamics 365, leveraging a massive integrated user base for monetization. More than 230,000 organizations have used Copilot Studio to create AI Agents. Customers have created over a million custom agents in total.
The use cases for Microsoft AI tools are virtually endless for large enterprises. For example, hospitals use Azure OpenAI for personalized diagnostics, such as analyzing MRI scans as well as medical histories to tailor treatments to patients. Organizations deploy sophisticated AI agents that handle routine requests, write knowledge base articles, and other customer support solutions. And the list goes on.
Today’s change
(-0.76%) $-3.70
Current price
$483.78
Key Data Points
Market capitalization
$3.6 billion
Daily scope
$483.29 -$488.10
52 week range
$344.79 -$555.45
Volume
416 KB
Average flight
23M
Gross margin
68.76%
Dividend yield
0.70%
Then there’s Microsoft Foundry, a unified end-to-end Platform as a Service (PaaS) for building, deploying, and managing enterprise-grade AI applications and agents. The platform integrates various AI components, models and tools under a single layer in Azure and provides a structured environment to move from prototype to production. Microsoft is moving beyond simple AI assistants to autonomous AI agents that can execute complex workflows and business tasks with minimal human intervention.
Microsoft Foundry Models offers a comprehensive catalog of over 11,000 models from Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropicand other suppliers. The Foundry Agent service uses the Microsoft Agent Framework to coordinate one or more specialized agents in complex, multi-step workflows. Businesses can use these agents to automate complex financial transactions involving multiple steps or optimize different stages of the retail supply chain like inventory management and logistics coordination.
Demand for AI training and inference is fueling massive capital spending on data centers and graphics processing units (GPU). Revenue from Azure and other cloud services increased 40% in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. The company generated total revenue of $294 billion and profits of $105 billion in the last 12 months alone. If you’re looking to invest in a top AI stock, Microsoft is an obvious contender to add to your buying list.
2. Symbolic
Symbolic (SYM 1.28%) provides an AI-driven robotics and software platform to modernize and automate warehouses and distribution centers for large retailers and wholesalers. Its technology provides a critical solution to the challenges of the supply chain industry. Symbotic’s core offering is a modular system that transforms entire warehouse operations, from receiving goods to building optimized outbound pallets.
Its fleet of autonomous mobile robots (aptly called Symbots) with advanced computer vision and sensing capabilities move goods around warehouses at speeds of up to 25 mph. Its system uses a unique storage structure and algorithms to maximize inventory density and reduce a warehouse’s physical footprint by 30-60% compared to traditional operations.
Symbotic’s proprietary AI software orchestrates the entire system, including managing complex bot routing and real-time task optimization to create mixed SKU pallets ready for efficient in-store delivery. The rise of e-commerce has put immense pressure on other retailers to increase their efficiency and speed. Symbotic provides the AI-powered solution that enables large enterprises like Walmart, TargetAnd Albertson to keep up.
Today’s change
(-1.28%) $-0.77
Current price
$59.50
Key Data Points
Market capitalization
$7.3 billion
Daily scope
$59.42 -$61.04
52 week range
$4:32 p.m. -$87.88
Volume
1.5M
Average flight
2.8 million
Gross margin
18.05%
The system’s accuracy rate is exceptionally high, at 99.9999% for task management, a level unattainable with manual work. Symbotic also has a joint venture with SoftBank called GreenBox, which offers a warehouse-as-a-service model to businesses that don’t have the financial means to purchase a complete system.
Symbotic’s contracted backlog of approximately $22.5 billion provides exceptional revenue visibility for years to come and sets it apart from more speculative growth plays in the AI space. The company is expanding into new verticals, including healthcare, as it aims beyond the retail sector.
Although Symbotic is not currently profitable, it generated revenue growth of $2.3 billion (up 26%) in its 2025 fiscal year that ended September 27. The company ended the fiscal year with a strong cash position of $1.25 billion in cash and cash equivalents, which increased by $467 million from the prior quarter. Walmart accounted for about 85% of its revenue this year.
As the world’s largest retailer, Walmart provides a stable and predictable source of revenue for Symbotic. If you’re interested in a growth-oriented AI company rather than an established technology leader, Symbotic might be a good idea.