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Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
The Smartest Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy With $1,000 Right Now
Key Points AI hardware investments are top picks due to the massive capital expenditures focused on AI. Cloud computing providers are benefiting from increased workloads. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Artificial intelligence (AI) investing remains at the forefront of the market as companies continue to invest billions of dollars in this emerging technology. We've barely scratched the surface of what an AI-first economy looks like, and to achieve this, we'll need to build out significantly more computing capacity. This is a bullish sign for many companies in this space, and I believe four companies are particularly smart investments to make right now. So, if you have $1,000 (or any other dollar amount) available to deploy, starting with these four is a great idea. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » AI hardware: Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing On the hardware side of things, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been king of the AI world since the AI race began. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) are widely deployed in AI applications and have established themselves as the go-to option, with a market share of 90%. Nvidia has several bullish factors brewing, including the company reapplying for an export license to resume shipping GPUs to China, while being given assurances by the U.S. government that this license will be approved. This will help reaccelerate Nvidia's growth rate, as it projects second quarter revenue to grow 50% year over year; however, it would have been projected to grown 77% if Nvidia were allowed to sell into China during Q2. That's a massive boost and would allow Nvidia to sustain its jaw-dropping growth rate further into the future. This is a bullish sign for Nvidia's stock, underscoring that Nvidia isn't going anywhere in the AI world. NVDA Operating Revenue (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) is a key supplier to Nvidia, as the company can't produce chips for its GPUs in-house. Instead, it purchases them from TSMC, the leading chip foundry. Taiwan Semiconductor has risen to the top by offering cutting-edge technology alongside best-in-class chip yields, which reduces scrap costs, leading to increased profit for TSMC and better prices for its customers. TSMC expects massive growth from AI to continue for some time. At the start of 2025, management projected that AI-related revenue would grow at a 45% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for five years. Chip orders are often placed years in advance, so when management tells investors that significant growth is coming, they should take notice. Both Nvidia and TSMC are poised for significant growth in the years to come, making them excellent stocks to buy now and hold for the long term. Cloud computing: Amazon and Alphabet Another industry that's benefiting from AI deployment is cloud computing. Many companies can't afford to build an expensive data center that may not be used to its full capacity, so it makes more sense to rent that computing power from a provider like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) via Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Alphabet 's (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google Cloud. Grand View Research found that the global cloud computing market size was around $750 billion in 2024, but that's expected to expand to $2.4 trillion by 2030. That growth is powered by both AI and non-AI workloads migrating to the cloud, and companies like Amazon and Alphabet are well positioned to profit from this trend. Each is also a critical part of its parent company's profit picture. In the first quarter, AWS accounted for 63% of Amazon's operating profits, despite comprising only 19% of total revenue. AWS is the profit driver for Amazon, and with its market-beating growth, it's slated to continue driving Amazon's stock higher. Google Cloud is still working toward AWS' impressive 39% operating margin, as it posted an 18% margin in Q1. However, it's growing faster than AWS (28% growth versus 17% growth) and could become a substantial part of Alphabet's profit picture in the coming years. Cloud computing providers, such as Amazon and Alphabet, are also benefiting from the rise of AI. With the overall cloud computing market expected to expand rapidly over the next few years, these stocks make for smart buys now. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, 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 Nvidia 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 $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% 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 July 15, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, 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. Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Globe and Mail
2 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
The Lucid-Uber Robotaxi Deal: How Nvidia Will Also Benefit
Key Points Starting next year, Uber plans to deploy 20,000 or more Lucid electric SUVs equipped with the Nuro Driver autonomous system in over a dozen global cities. Nuro's Nuro Driver is a Level 4 self-driving system trained on and powered by Nvidia's artificial intelligence (AI) technology. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › On Thursday, shares of Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID), a Silicon Valley-based electric vehicle (EV) maker, soared more than 36% following the announcement of a premium robotaxi service deal with ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER). My first thought upon seeing the news was "Yet another deal that will benefit Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)!" The artificial intelligence (AI) tech leader wasn't mentioned in the press release, but I knew of the Nvidia connection. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » First, let's look at the Lucid-Uber deal and then see how Nvidia is poised to benefit. The Uber-Lucid-Nuro partnership The deal involves Uber procuring Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with Nuro Driver, a Level 4 self-driving system, to use in a global premium robotaxi service developed exclusively for the Uber ride-hailing platform. Moreover, Uber plans to make "multi-hundred-million-dollar investments" in both Lucid and Nuro, an autonomous driving technology start-up also based in Silicon Valley. More specifically, Uber "aims to deploy 20,000 or more Lucid vehicles equipped with the Nuro Driver over six years in dozens of markets around the world." Its first launch will be in a major U.S. city and is expected to occur later next year. The first robotaxi prototype is already operating autonomously on Nuro's closed-course testing facility in Las Vegas. Nuro is a venture-backed start-up, which in April raised $106 million in a Series E funding round, bringing its valuation to $6 billion. Last year, the company shifted its main focus from developing delivery robots to licensing autonomous driving technology. Of course, this deal is great news for Lucid and Nuro, especially given the big injection of cash they'll receive from Uber. Lucid's vehicles -- the Air sedan and the new Gravity SUV – get high marks for performance and comfort, and sport industry-leading ranges. But it's notoriously difficult for vehicle start-ups to succeed because automakers have extremely high fixed-costs, so liquidity is always a big concern. At the end of the first quarter of 2025, Lucid had cash and short-term investments of $3.61 billion, and its free cash flow for the quarter was negative $589.9 million, which equates to an annual cash-burn rate of $2.36 billion. At its current cash-burn rate, Lucid's cash and short-term investments would last about 1.5 years. Why Nvidia is poised to benefit from the Uber-Lucid-Nuro robotaxi deal Uber, Lucid, and Nuro all have some type of driverless vehicle-related partnership with Nvidia, which isn't surprising as along with enabling the overall AI revolution, Nvidia's AI tech is a major enabler of the AI-powered driverless vehicle revolution. But it's the Nuro-Nvidia partnership that's relevant to Nvidia benefiting from the Uber-Lucid-Nuro robotaxi deal. Lucid EVs will be equipped with the Nuro Driver Level 4 autonomy system, according to the deal's press release. Nuro is using Nvidia's AI tech to power this system, as it announced at Nvidia's annual GTC (GPU Technology Conference) in March 2024. More specifically, the "Nuro Driver is built on NVIDIA's end-to-end safety architecture, which includes NVIDIA GPUs [graphics processing units] for AI training in the cloud and an automotive-grade NVIDIA DRIVE Thor computer running the NVIDIA DriveOS operating system inside the vehicle," according to an Nvidia blog. In other words, Nuro is using Nvidia's AI tech for both AI training of its self-driving vehicle system and AI inferencing, since Nvidia's DRIVE Thor, a supercomputer, is the "brains" inside the vehicle. So, not only does Nuro use Nvidia's data center AI products, which are available via all of the major cloud computing services, but the icing on top is that it must buy an Nvidia DRIVE Thor supercomputer for each vehicle that it equips with its Nuro Driver system. So, it seems safe to assume that every Lucid vehicle that Uber acquires for its new robotaxi service will have an Nvidia DRIVE Thor supercomputer inside it. That Uber and Lucid also have various individual partnerships with Nvidia provides further support for this assumption. For some context, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) uses Nvidia's AI tech for training its self-driving vehicle system, called FSD (Supervised), with FSD standing for full self-driving. However, it does not use an Nvidia DRIVE system inside its vehicles. Tesla uses its internally developed tech -- or "AI chip" -- inside its vehicles. Last month, Tesla had a limited launch of its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas. The Uber-Lucid-Nuro robotaxi service is poised to compete with services operated by Tesla and Alphabet 's Waymo, which is currently the leader in the U.S. robotaxi space. Given Uber's ride-hailing service scale and considerable financial resources (since last year, its trailing-12-month free cash flow has exceeded that of Tesla), the newly planned premium robotaxi service could be a big winner. And the more successful the new Uber-Lucid-Nuro robotaxi service is, the more money Nvidia should make. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, 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 Nvidia 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 $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% 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 July 15, 2025
National Post
3 hours ago
- National Post
Trump could crush Canada's softwood exports. Here's how a new crisis could play out
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Canada-U.S. softwood lumber trade relationship has dealt with ups and downs, disputes and resolutions, for decades. Anxiety for Canadian exporters is reaching a fever pitch again as the U.S. threatens to more than double softwood lumber duties and add even steeper tariffs under a national security investigation. Article content Canadian foresters, mills, and governments that enjoy taxes, economic spinoffs and stumpage fees from Crown land will feel the pain if they lose too much access to the massive U.S. market. But larger producers have been preparing for just this kind of contingency and have cleverly hedged their bets, building capacity in the U.S., where they can sell as much as they want to Americans, tariff-free. Article content Article content Canadian firms will soon receive word from the U.S. Commerce Department's Sixth Administrative Review (AR6) of U.S. countervailing and anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports, with the rate expected to jump from around 14 per cent to roughly 34 per cent. For Canfor, the Vancouver-based lumber giant selected as a mandatory respondent in the AR6 review, it will be even worse. Its duties are calculated based on its own shipments and prices, not an industry average, like it is for other companies. Article content Article content Then there's the threat of tariffs from President Donald Trump's ongoing national security investigation of Canadian lumber imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which he ordered in March and is due late this year. Currently, lumber shipments are exempted from Trump's baseline tariffs, because they're covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal (USMCA), but that could soon change based on the findings of the 232 probe. Article content Article content National Post breaks down the position of the two countries, what the impacts could be, and how Canadian producers are trying to mitigate the potential damage of punitive trade barriers. Article content Article content The U.S. Lumber Coalition is playing for keeps. It backs higher anti-dumping duties and tariffs for what it sees as a subsidized domestic industry. It claims Canadian producers don't pay market rates for stumpage because their forests are publicly owned and provincial governments set the stumpage rates, while U.S. producers face higher market rates. But it doesn't stop there: the U.S. coalition also wants to see Canada's U.S. market share significantly chopped. Article content Miller isn't shy about the goals: 'A countrywide quota with no exemptions and no carveouts, and a single-digit market share' for Canadian lumber. Article content Today, Canada has a 25 per cent market share, with exports of 12 billion feet of softwood lumber to the U.S. each year, according to the coalition. Softwood lumber accounts for about 7.5 per cent of Canadian exports; in 2023, the U.S. was the destination for 68 per cent of those forestry products. The whole industry is worth about $33.4 billion in sales annually and employs more than 200,000 workers across Canada, according to a report this year from RBC.
