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Cryptocurrencies are dangerous as they don’t have underlying money flows to help costs.
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Alphabet is a giant AI beneficiary that’s investing for the long run and producing a ton of money.
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Airbnb already has a robust outlook, and AI ought to solely assist because it expands across the globe.
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10 stocks we like better than Alphabet ›
Bitcoin has been among the finest performing funding property of the final decade. Regardless of its volatility, the cryptocurrency has produced life-changing returns for traders who’ve purchased and held on for the lengthy haul. Nevertheless, this doesn’t make it an computerized purchase for traders right this moment.
Cryptocurrencies lack one factor in comparison with shares: cash flow. These digital currencies might excite traders, however they’re not more than gambles on whether or not different traders will purchase alongside you, driving up the worth together with it. Because of this, cryptocurrencies are extremely dangerous in comparison with most shares you should buy which are anchored to the annual money flows generated by an underlying enterprise.
Listed here are two shares with extra potential than any cryptocurrency, as a result of gobs of money stream they generate for shareholders each 12 months.
First up is Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG). The know-how conglomerate on the forefront of synthetic intelligence (AI) innovation owns Google, YouTube, Google Cloud, and Waymo (the self-driving taxi community). With a market capitalization of round $3 trillion, Alphabet is without doubt one of the largest corporations on the planet right this moment.
Rising disruption from AI to software program and know-how companies has been pitched as a menace to Alphabet, however there is no such thing as a enterprise higher positioned to make the most of the AI growth. Alphabet has billions of customers throughout Google, YouTube, Google Maps, and different digital companies who can be utilized to coach its AI instruments akin to Gemini. It has the tensor processing unit (TPU), a buyer pc chip it has innovated on for a decade that permits it to course of extra AI queries than the competitors like OpenAI.
These benefits ought to result in sustained AI income progress for Alphabet over the following few years. Subscription income grew 20% 12 months over 12 months final quarter to $11.2 billion, which is the place income from Gemini is segmented. Google Search remains to be chugging alongside simply effective, with income up 12% 12 months over 12 months to $54 billion final quarter.
In fact, Alphabet is producing lots of free money stream — $67 billion within the final 12 months, to be precise. That is on the similar time that the corporate is spending a report quantity on capital expenditures to increase its information middle footprint, at $67 billion over the past 12 months and a projected $75 billion in 2025. Examine that to OpenAI by no means producing optimistic money stream and it’s clear that Alphabet is one of the best AI inventory to guess on over the long run.
Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) could also be a beneficiary of AI because it improves client seek for journey on its platform, however the inventory is a a lot less complicated story for traders to purchase right this moment. The journey service centered on distinctive home-sharing lodging is pushing to new geographies to drive extra folks to host their actual property on Airbnb, which is able to allow extra folks to e-book houses on the platform.
By localizing advertising and marketing and tailoring the Airbnb platform to completely different international locations, Airbnb has not too long ago seen an acceleration in bookings in international locations like Japan and Germany. Though Airbnb had $23.5 billion in gross reserving worth by way of its community final quarter, the journey portal remains to be pushed by just a few international locations akin to the USA, United Kingdom, and France. Increasing to new vacationer locations akin to Japan and Mexico may also help the corporate speed up progress within the coming years.
This isn’t to say that Airbnb’s income is weak right this moment. Income was $11.6 billion over the past 12 months, grew 13% 12 months over 12 months final quarter, and is up 243% cumulatively within the final 5 years.
Though it is a comparatively younger enterprise, Airbnb is producing robust quantities of free money stream whereas concurrently investing for the long run. Free money stream totaled $4.3 billion over the past 12 months, which Airbnb is utilizing to persistently retire its shares excellent by way of share buybacks (one thing Alphabet is doing as nicely). It will assist develop earnings per share (EPS) in the long run.
Whenever you have a look at the underlying financials, it’s clear that each Alphabet and Airbnb are higher investments over the long run than of venture on cryptocurrencies.
Before you purchase inventory in Alphabet, think about this:
The Motley Idiot Inventory Advisor analyst staff simply recognized what they imagine are the 10 best stocks for traders to purchase now… and Alphabet wasn’t considered one of them. The ten shares that made the lower might produce monster returns within the coming years.
Contemplate when Netflix made this checklist on December 17, 2004… for those who invested $1,000 on the time of our advice, you’d have $648,924!* Or when Nvidia made this checklist on April 15, 2005… for those who invested $1,000 on the time of our advice, you’d have $1,102,333!*
Now, it’s value noting Inventory Advisor’s complete common return is 1,052% — a market-crushing outperformance in comparison with 190% for the S&P 500. Do not miss the most recent prime 10 checklist, accessible with Inventory Advisor, and be a part of an investing neighborhood constructed by particular person traders for particular person traders.
See the 10 stocks »
*Inventory Advisor returns as of October 13, 2025
Brett Schafer has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Idiot has positions in and recommends Airbnb, Alphabet, and Bitcoin. The Motley Idiot has a disclosure policy.
2 Tech Stocks With More Potential Than Any Cryptocurrency was initially revealed by The Motley Idiot
