The Stock Market Is Near All-Time Highs Again. Here Are the 3 Best Stocks to Buy Now.

The stock market was fairly weak throughout most of November, but recovered leading into Thanksgiving. The S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.54%) is around its all-time highs, which may give investors some pause, wondering if this is the right time to buy or not. I still think it’s a great time to be buying stocks, though, and some of the biggest names in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector look like great picks headed into 2026.

At the top of my shopping list for the best stocks to scoop up now are Nvidia (NVDA 1.83%), Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM +0.54%), and Alphabet (GOOG 0.05%) (GOOGL +0.06%) — even though the latter two are actually right near their own peaks.

1. Nvidia

Nvidia has been the poster child of the AI megatrend since it began to gain traction in 2023. The company’s graphics processing units (GPUs) are the world’s most popular accelerated computing unit technology stack, and they have risen to the top thanks to both their hardware strengths and the company’s best-in-class supporting technology. Nvidia’s products are powering a large fraction of the world’s AI workloads, and I don’t see that changing much in the future.

Over the past 12 months, Nvidia has generated about $187 billion in revenue. Management stated that they have contracts that will result in another $307 billion in sales of Blackwell and Rubin chips from the final quarter of 2025 through the end of 2026. Considering that not all the $187 billion came from AI-related revenue sources and there are other lineups of AI chips besides Blackwell and Rubin, this indicates that Nvidia could significantly grow revenues again in 2026.

If the AI hyperscalers keep spending as they’ve already told investors they’re going to, we’re likely to look back on Nvidia stock at today’s prices as a great buying opportunity.

2. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Nvidia and most of its chief rivals are “fabless” chipmakers. They don’t maintain factories to produce their own chips, but instead outsource that work to third-party chip foundry operators like Taiwan Semiconductor. There are relatively few chip foundries that have the cutting-edge technology necessary to produce chips required for AI, and TSMC ranks at the top of the list. It is a constant innovator, and with a new process node entering use, its clients will reap the rewards.

Taiwan Semiconductor’s next-generation 2-nanometer (nm) chip node offers several key performance improvements. However, the one that its clients may be most excited about is its lower energy consumption. When configured to run at the same speeds as previous-generation 3nm chips, the 2nm chips will consume 25% to 30% less power. Considering that providing sufficient electricity to power data centers has become a huge bottleneck in the efforts to build out AI computing capacity, this is a huge deal.

Given that TSMC’s foundries sit at the heart of all this AI spending, and that it should be able to charge a premium for its newest technology, TSMC looks like a great stock to buy now and hold throughout 2026 and beyond.

3. Alphabet

With Alphabet in reach of its peak price, this may seem like an odd time to recommend buying it. However, the market is still adjusting Alphabet’s valuation to recognize the company’s place among the AI leaders. Although its stock was left for dead at the start of 2025, the market has come around to seeing that Alphabet will be just fine.

Alphabet’s primary profit driver, its Google Search business, continues to post incredible results relative to its maturity. In Q3, its revenue rose 15% year over year — not bad for a segment that was viewed as being at risk of being made obsolete by generative AI chatbots. Companywide, Alphabet’s revenue rose 16% year over year, with diluted earnings per share (EPS) increasing by 35%.

That places Alphabet among the fastest-growing trillion-dollar companies. However, smart investors must also ask whether its valuation has gotten out of hand. With the stock trading for 29 times next year’s earnings, it certainly isn’t cheap.

GOOGL PE Ratio (Forward 1y) data by YCharts.

However, I don’t think investors should anchor too much to its prior prices, as the market has been bearish on Alphabet’s AI prospects since widespread AI adoption began in 2023.

With the sentiment about its prospects changing, Alphabet is a new stock, and I think it’s still worth buying today, as it continues to post incredible results quarter after quarter.