{"id":372584,"date":"2026-04-03T07:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/372584\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T07:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:26:10","slug":"got-1000-1-artificial-intelligence-ai-stock-to-buy-and-hold-for-the-next-decade-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/372584\/","title":{"rendered":"Got $1,000? 1 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock to Buy and Hold for the Next Decade and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shares of technology behemoth Amazon (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/quote\/nasdaq\/amzn\/\" class=\"font-bold hover:underline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AMZN<\/a> 0.41%) have had a surprisingly tough run so far in 2026. As of this writing, the stock has dropped about 9% year to date, meaningfully underperforming the broader market during that span.<\/p>\n<p>Given the company&#8217;s dominant position in both e-commerce and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/c\/cloud-computing\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cloud computing<\/a>, a sell-off of this magnitude might seem alarming to some shareholders. The primary culprit appears to be Wall Street&#8217;s anxiety over the staggering cost of competing in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/a\/artificial-intelligence\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">artificial intelligence (AI)<\/a> arms race, which requires unprecedented levels of infrastructure spending. And geopolitical uncertainty probably isn&#8217;t helping either.<\/p>\n<p>But while those capital requirements are certainly real, the underlying fundamentals suggest this recent pullback might actually be a gift for patient investors. Here is why deploying $1,000 into Amazon stock today could be a smart move for the next decade and beyond.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Computer servers in a data center.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"h-auto max-w-full rounded object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775201170_732_.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Image source: Getty Images.<\/p>\n<p>AWS revenue growth is accelerating<\/p>\n<p>At the core of Amazon&#8217;s AI strategy is its highly profitable cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS). While the company&#8217;s sprawling retail operations remain the most visible part of its empire, AWS is its true profit engine. And right now, that engine is inflecting upward.<\/p>\n<p>In the fourth quarter of 2025, AWS revenue surged 24% year over year to $35.6 billion. This represents a meaningful acceleration from the 20% growth the segment posted in the third quarter. Demand for generative AI applications is driving enterprises to aggressively modernize their data infrastructure, and Amazon is benefiting.<\/p>\n<p>To meet this surging demand, however, Amazon is spending heavily.<\/p>\n<p>Management guided for capital expenditures of roughly $200 billion in 2026 &#8212; up sharply from $131 billion in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>This $200 billion outlay represents a massive financial commitment for a company with a market capitalization of about $2.25 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>But Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sought to alleviate investor concerns during the company&#8217;s Q4 earnings call, noting that management has &#8220;deep experience understanding demand signals in the AWS business and then turning that capacity into strong return on invested capital.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A strong return on invested capital on $200 billion of invested capital would be material &#8212; even for a company with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/m\/market-cap\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">market capitalization<\/a> of $2.25 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>The cash flow story is widely misunderstood<\/p>\n<p>If Amazon were purely reliant on AWS to fund its ambitious AI goals, the heavy infrastructure spending might be a heavier burden. However, the company benefits from incredible diversification across its business empire.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, Amazon&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/t\/ttm\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trailing-12-month<\/a> free cash flow plummeted to $11.2 billion, down from $38.2 billion in the year-ago period. But this metric is highly distorted by the company&#8217;s aggressive spending on its data center build-out. A much cleaner way to measure the underlying health of Amazon&#8217;s core operations is operating cash flow. On that front, trailing-12-month operating cash flow jumped 20% year over year to $139.5 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Further, Amazon&#8217;s total Q4 operating income rose 18% year over year to $25.0 billion, fueled not just by AWS, but also by high-margin segments like advertising and subscription services. This diverse, cash-generating revenue base means Amazon can afford to self-fund its AI infrastructure investment cycle without heavily diluting shareholders or taking on crippling debt.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Amazon Stock Quote\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"w-full flex-none object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775201170_586_.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s Change<\/p>\n<p>(-0.41%) $-0.87<\/p>\n<p>Current Price<\/p>\n<p>$209.70<\/p>\n<p>Key Data Points<\/p>\n<p>Market Cap<\/p>\n<p>$2.3T<\/p>\n<p>Day&#8217;s Range<\/p>\n<p>$204.93 &#8211; $212.22<\/p>\n<p>52wk Range<\/p>\n<p>$161.38 &#8211; $258.60<\/p>\n<p>Volume<\/p>\n<p>1.3M<\/p>\n<p>Avg Vol<\/p>\n<p>51M<\/p>\n<p>Gross Margin<\/p>\n<p>50.29%<\/p>\n<p>A compelling setup for long-term investors<\/p>\n<p>Of course, investing in Amazon right now is not without risks. If the broader market&#8217;s appetite for AI software fades, or if the financial payoff from its massive data center build-out takes longer than anticipated, the stock&#8217;s valuation could face further pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the current setup looks highly favorable overall. Investors have the opportunity to buy a dominant, well-diversified technology leader that is seeing real acceleration in its most important business lines.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, I believe Amazon stock looks attractive after its recent 9% year-to-date sell-off. The underlying business is throwing off an incredible amount of operating cash to fund its next wave of growth. For investors with a long-term horizon and $1,000 to put to work, this is an AI powerhouse worth buying and holding for the next decade and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shares of technology behemoth Amazon (AMZN 0.41%) have had a surprisingly tough run so far in 2026. As&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,46,125],"class_list":["post-372584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}