Artificial intelligence stocks have been some of the biggest drivers of the bull market since the end of 2022. Unfortunately, they've also been some of the biggest loss-makers amid the recent market sell-off.
Not every AI-fueled company will generate lasting wealth for investors. Some stocks may continue lower over the long run. But buying the best of the best companies with sustainable competitive advantages across multiple areas should produce excellent returns for shareholders. And if you can buy them on a dip in the share price, as we've seen recently, you'll do even better.
Here are three no-brainer artificial intelligence stocks to buy amid the current market sell-off.
1. Amazon
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is the leading public cloud provider, an essential resource for AI training and development. While the growth of AI has opened the door for competing hyperscale cloud providers such as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) to win new customers, Amazon has been able to hold its own. Its cloud platform, Amazon Web Services, grew revenue 19% in the most recent quarter, helping it maintain its leadership position.
But Amazon is much more than a cloud computing company. Its the dominant force in e-commerce. Its Prime membership creates a virtuous cycle for online sales. As more customers sign up, it bring more merchants into the marketplace using Amazon's fulfillment network to access Prime shipping. That gives Amazon more money to invest in logistics, enabling faster shipping speeds, increasing the attractiveness of Prime. Amazon delivered more than 5 billion items to customers' doorsteps same day or next day during the first six months of the year.
Amazon's also the third largest digital advertising company in the world. It surpassed a $50 billion run rate in the second quarter, growing 20% year over year. That high-margin revenue has become a significant source of profit for the company as the retail business maintains very slim margins.
Amazon goes through cycles of investments and scaling to capitalize on its investments. Every cycle results in more and more free cash flow generation. The most recent efforts have paid off with $53 billion in free cash flow over the last 12 months. Even with its investments in AI, Amazon is poised to keep growing cash flow for some time as it pulls back on fulfillment center spending. Shares currently trade near a 10-year high free cash flow yield, making them attractive at this price.
2. Microsoft
Microsoft is the fastest-growing hyperscale cloud provider, but its 29% growth last quarter in Azure, its cloud platform, still managed to disappoint Wall Street's high expectations. The sell-off could be a great opportunity for long-term investors. That's because despite its strong growth over the past few years, management expects Azure revenue to accelerate in the second half of the year.
Microsoft has been investing heavily in AI. Since adding $10 billion to its investment in OpenAI in early 2023, Microsoft has spent billions building out data centers and buying the chips necessary to outfit its servers. But while those capital expenditures hit upfront, it takes time for Microsoft to deploy all those chips and get its servers up and running and ready for Azure customers. As additional capacity comes online, Microsoft expects it won't have any problems finding demand.
Microsoft has become a top source for AI-focused developers, and its own consumer and enterprise-facing AI services, which it brands Copilot, have also found good traction. Management says its Copilot customer base increased 60% sequentially last quarter. Considering there are more than 400 million Office 365 customers, there's a long runway for growth, too.
Microsoft stock isn't cheap by a valuation standard. Its enterprise value is over 10 times analysts' sales estimates for next year. Its forward P/E of nearly 31 is well above the S&P 500 average, not to mention its own historic valuation over the past 15 years. But Microsoft is growing faster than it has in a long time and it has a long runway of growth ahead of it, justifying the premium valuation.
3. Adobe
Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) is well known for its creative software suite featuring designer staples like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom. Last year, the company introduced new generative AI features powered by its Firefly model. Firefly was trained on Adobe's proprietary data, including its stock image library. Firefly features include generative fill and generative expand in Photoshop, text to vector in Illustrator, and remove object in Lightroom.
These new features have helped Adobe attract and retain users over the past year. What's more, it's managing to push free users of Adobe Express to sign up for its paid subscription, and paid subscribers to pay more for greater access to AI features. The result is a return to growth in its core metric, annualized recurring revenue. ARR exceeded analysts' expectations last quarter coming in at $487 million, and management provided strong guidance for the current quarter.
Adobe's looking to repeat its performance in the creative suite with its Document Cloud (Acrobat) and its marketing platform. New AI tools help automate and generate output for users, which could drive increased subscriptions and higher subscription revenue per user in the future.
While generative AI has enabled multiple new creative design tools to enter the market, Adobe benefits from a strong network effect as the industry standard. Any designer looking for work needs to be well versed in Adobe's software, and any company looking for design work needs access to Adobe's tools as well. That creates a virtuous cycle that will make it hard to unseat Adobe.
Adobe shares currently trade at an enterprise value-to-revenue ratio around 11, below its 10-year average. Likewise, its forward PE around 27 is below its historic average and very attractive considering its growth prospects. That makes it a great stock to buy amid a sell-off.
Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this: