By Keithen Drury, The Motley Fool
Publication Date: 2026-10-11 20:14:00
Key Points
Apple’s AI investments have been relatively small.
Alphabet and Amazon are spending every dollar they can find to build AI infrastructure.
Microsoft is taking a more measured approach to its data center build-out.
When big tech is mentioned, most of the time, the discussion is centered around four stocks: Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL), Alphabet(NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL), Microsoft(NASDAQ: MSFT), and Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN). These four are the stalwarts that always seem to stick around, but that aren’t so influenced by AI computing that they can be considered purely AI stocks, as a company like Nvidia may be.
These four stocks have gained reputations for being pricey, mainly due to their popularity and success. However, which is the cheapest? It’s obviously not Apple, as it has a reputation (that it has earned) for being a very expensive stock. As of now, Microsoft is the cheapest stock of this cohort, and there’s an interesting reason for that.
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