Since 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions have made the U.S. stock market turbulent. Despite the economic turmoil, many technology stocks have had stellar gains. Technology stocks have been driven by remote employment, online shopping, cloud computing, and AI use. Investors eager to capitalize on the digital transformation trend can consider my three top technology recommendations for long-term profits.
Microsoft Over the past year, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) shares have risen 50%. In late January, the corporation reported second-quarter fiscal 2024 revenue and earnings that exceeded analyst expectations. The company's investments in ChatGPT developer OpenAI remain a hot topic. Microsoft quickly acquired new customers and increased productivity by integrating OpenAI's solutions across its products.
Microsoft's AI strategy has benefited Azure, its cloud computing platform. Azure had 24% market share in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2023, up 2% from a year earlier. Customers choose Azure to simplify and speed up cloud migrations.
Microsoft also reports that numerous AI-first startups and over half of the Fortune 500 are using Azure's OpenAI offering. At the conclusion of the second quarter, Microsoft had 53,000 Azure AI customers, with over one-third new to Azure.
Microsoft's AI-powered assistant, CoPilot, is improving productivity for Microsoft 365 and GitHub users outside Azure. CoPilot helped Github revenue exceed 40% year over year in the second quarter.
Microsoft's vast geographic footprint and diverse product portfolio are key reasons to support the stock, as AI has accelerated growth. Its bank sheet includes $81 billion in cash and $58.7 billion in free cash flow. Microsoft's AI-powered companies and strong financial position make the stock a good investment.
Amazon Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) also topped revenue and earnings in the fourth quarter of 2023, making it another excellent stock. Operating income rose 383% to $13.2 billion for Amazon. This helped boost trailing-12-month free cash flow to $35.5 billion, up $48.3 billion year-over-year.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) leads cloud infrastructure with 31% market share despite competition from Azure. AWS is increasing double-digits and on track to earn $100 billion annually. AWS' strong security and access control have helped attract long-term clients.
Amazon is aggressively adding new features and generative AI technologies to AWS, which uses Nvidia and proprietary AI chips to compute AI tasks. Amazon's Bedrock fully managed solution lets clients create customized AI applications using several of its fundamental models and those from other AI companies. Amazon Q helps developers and provides insights from numerous data sources.
Amazon is ready to profit from its globally dominant e-commerce industry. Prime members buy more due to the company's delivery speed priority. The company's e-commerce sector is also benefiting from more third-party merchants. Finally, Amazon sells targeted and relevant advertising to vendors and customers to monetize its online marketplace. Amazon leads many high-growth markets, therefore it appears to have room to grow.
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