By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool
Publication Date: 2026-03-15 00:35:00
If I had $1,000 to invest right now — or $100 or $100,000 — two stocks that would be very high on my consideration list are Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO).
Both are specialists in semiconductors, and semiconductors have been on a tear in recent years, in large part because of the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) and the buildout of gobs of data centers to facilitate AI processing.
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Check out the average annual returns of these stocks:
|
Time period |
Nvidia |
Broadcom |
|---|---|---|
|
Past 1 year |
72.75% |
87.04% |
|
Past 3 years |
100.41% |
78.40% |
|
Past 5 years |
71.48% |
51.76% |
|
Past 10 years |
72.52% |
37.79% |
|
Past 15 years |
49.41% |
37.21% |
Data source: Morningstar. Data as of March 10, 2026.
Nvidia has become a very popular stock for good reason. It has switched its main focus from gaming chips to chips used in data centers for AI. It’s also broadening its offerings these days via software, networking, and related services — such as its recent move into AI agents.
The company, a prodigious producer of cash, is also buying back shares at a rapid clip, deploying $41 billion in its last fiscal year and aiming to spend another $58 billion at least. This is another way to reward…