Two Must-Have Trillion-Dollar Tech Stocks for Long-Term Growth

Key Points

• Investing in an S&P 500 index fund is a reliable method for building long-term wealth.

• However, younger investors possess a significant advantage: time, which allows them to endure higher volatility in exchange for potentially greater returns.

• Constructing a diversified portfolio of roughly 50 individual stocks can yield substantial long-term results, and I will highlight two prime candidates to begin with.

The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) comprises 500 companies across 11 sectors of the U.S. economy. Since its inception in 1957, it has delivered a compound annual return of 10.7%, weathering every downturn and bear market. Consequently, purchasing an S&P 500 index fund remains one of the most dependable strategies for building wealth. That said, young investors have the luxury of time, allowing them to assume greater risk for higher rewards. A portfolio of roughly 50 individual stocks will typically exhibit more volatility than the S&P 500, yet this trade-off can be worthwhile given the historical performance of tech giants like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which have vastly outpaced the index since their IPOs:

• Amazon has appreciated by 338,180% since its 1997 IPO, representing a compound annual return of 32.3%.
• Microsoft has surged by 676,310% since its 1986 IPO, translating to a compound annual return of 24.7%.

Driven by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), both Amazon and Microsoft likely have significant growth ahead. If I were a young investor today, here is why I would purchase both stocks and hold them indefinitely.

Image source: Getty Images.

The First Stock I Would Buy: Amazon

Amazon initially revolutionized commerce in the 1990s by selling books online. Today, its flagship e-commerce platform hosts over 600 million products and remains its largest revenue source. Over the past decade, however, investor focus has shifted to Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud platform offering hundreds of tools to help businesses thrive digitally.

In recent years, AWS has become the cornerstone of Amazon’s AI strategy. The platform operates global data centers housing thousands of specialized AI chips from suppliers like Nvidia, while also designing its own chips, such as Trainium3, which offer superior price-performance.

Amazon’s chip business already generates over $25 billion in annualized revenue, but hardware represents only a fraction of the AWS ecosystem. Developers also require access to ready-made models to accelerate AI software projects; the AWS Bedrock platform provides hundreds of these, including offerings from labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. Furthermore, AWS features its own AI coding assistant, Kiro, whose usage tripled sequentially in the second quarter of 2026.

As Amazon’s fastest-growing segment, AWS revenue increased by 37% in the second quarter. The platform has generated $148 billion in revenue over the last four quarters, and CEO Andy Jassy believes it could eventually reach $1 trillion annually. This projection is supported by a staggering $496 billion order backlog from customers awaiting additional data center capacity.

Given these factors, Amazon presents a compelling long-term investment. With a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.4 based on 2027 estimates, it trades in line with the Nasdaq-100 index, which has a forward P/E of 24.2, indicating that investors are acquiring an excellent business at a fair valuation.

The Second Stock I Would Buy: Microsoft

Microsoft developed the AI assistant Copilot and integrated it into legacy software like Windows, Bing, and Edge at no cost. Businesses can also add Copilot to the 365 productivity suite for a subscription fee, accelerating workflows across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

As of June 30, organizations worldwide were paying for 30 million Copilot for 365 licenses, a 50% increase from March 31. However, this represents only a fraction of the 400 million active 365 licenses, suggesting Copilot could eventually generate billions in annual recurring revenue from this single product suite.

Selling Copilot to such a vast existing customer base gives Microsoft a distinct advantage over AI start-ups like OpenAI and Anthropic, which must build their customer bases from the ground up.

Microsoft also operates Azure, a rapidly expanding cloud platform that competes directly with AWS by offering a comparable portfolio of AI services. The company constructed 88 new data centers over the past year as part of a two-year plan to double its global infrastructure. Continued aggressive expansion will be necessary, as Azure held a massive $678 billion order backlog from AI customers awaiting additional computing capacity as of June 30.

Azure is Microsoft’s fastest-growing business, with revenue increasing 43% in the June quarter, and this growth rate could accelerate as the platform fulfills its backlog.

Similar to Amazon, Microsoft trades at an attractive valuation with a forward P/E ratio of 25, making it an excellent entry point for a long-term investment.

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