Aug. 15, 2026 Mastercard goes beyond the credit card <\/p>\n
Mastercard (NYSE: MA) stock is up 27% per year since its initial public offering (IPO) in 2006. That’s an increase of over 130x in value, turning $10,000 into $1.3 million. <\/p>\n
This month, Tom Gardner talked with Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach about the company’s future. <\/p>\n
Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again.\u00a0In 2009, a “Double Down” signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia.\u00a0For the first time in years, that same “Total Conviction” signal is flashing for a company 1\/100th the size of Nvidia.\u00a0Continue \u00bb<\/a> <\/p>\n Key quotes from Mastercard’s CEO On cybersecurity <\/p>\n “By 2030, the amount of fraud and cyber risk-driven damage is going to amount to $15.6 trillion. If cyber risk were a country, that would be the third largest economy in the world.” <\/p>\n “What we essentially need to do is move from defense to offense. And that’s where our last investments have been in threat intelligence.” <\/p>\n On Mastercard’s role in the global market <\/p>\n “We’re the operating system of the digital economy. An operating system should have a security layer. That’s exactly what we do. But it also has a money movement layer–across stablecoins and account-to-account and cards. We move value, your hard-earned money.” <\/p>\n On stablecoins <\/p>\n “You’re company A, I’m company B, and we just want to do machine-to-machine payments with each other. But your choice is stablecoin A and my choice is stablecoin B. Who sits in the middle and drives interoperability, makes sure all of this connects and is not a plate full of spaghetti? Mastercard’s.” <\/p>\n “It is really not needed for anybody to go and buy their coffee at the local coffee shop with a stablecoin. So why would you do that? There is no problem to solve…It’s never about the technology, it’s about whose problem can we solve.” <\/p>\n On agentic commerce <\/p>\n “Agent pay, stablecoins, agentic commerce — this is a whole new way of doing commerce going forward.” <\/p>\n “The underlying rails and infrastructure are likely to be different than card rails. It could be stablecoin, it could be other rails. That is essentially going to come down to the choices of companies and what they want to use. We’re pretty agnostic about that — but the protocol to keep the trust, an interoperable layer on top, is critical.” <\/p>\n “Imagine the digital content that a company is buying. That could be APIs, digital content, data, compute power. Why would you send an invoice and do that? You will want to do this as you use your compute power. I need 10% more, you dial it up, you dial it down, and you pay as you need. If you pay as you need, your working capital efficiency is going to dramatically increase.” <\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n Your Take <\/p>\n Will Mastercard beat the market over the next five years? Why, why not? <\/p>\n Debate with friends and family, or become a member<\/a> to hear what your fellow Fools are saying! <\/p>\n Should you buy stock in Mastercard right now? <\/p>\n Before you buy stock in\u00a0Mastercard, consider this: <\/p>\n The Motley Fool\u00a0Stock Advisor\u00a0analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a>\u00a0for investors to buy now\u2026 and\u00a0Mastercard\u00a0wasn’t one of them.\u00a0The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the coming years. <\/p>\n Consider when\u00a0Netflix\u00a0made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you’d have $421,943!*\u00a0Or\u00a0when\u00a0Nvidia\u00a0made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you’d have $1,382,819!* <\/p>\n That performance is why people listen. With a track record of\u00a0beating the S&P 500 by nearly 5x,\u00a0Stock Advisor\u00a0offers a distinct advantage. Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built for the long haul. <\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/a> <\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of August 15, 2026. <\/p>\n The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Mastercard. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>. <\/p>\n