Adria Cimino, The Motley Fool Tue, November 10, 2026 at 2:30 PM EST 5 min read SPCX -0.69% NVDA -6.58% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Investors who favor Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) clearly prioritize growth. SpaceX soared into the stock market spotlight with its debut in June, the biggest initial public offering on record. Raising more than $85 billion and immediately joining the trillion-dollar club, SpaceX easily captured the attention of investors.
The stock, however, hasn't performed as those investors may have expected: It's declined 16% since it started trading. While investors like SpaceX's growth, they may be less pleased with the company's capital expenditures. In the recent quarter, capex came in at more than $19 billion, surpassing the company's $14 billion in revenue.
Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »
If you're looking for growth, should you forget SpaceX and buy the following two artificial intelligence (AI) stocks instead? Let's find out.
When you think of top AI chips, you may think of market leader Nvidia. But another company is also delivering enormous growth in this area. I'm talking about Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD). For years, this player has been a leader in the central processing unit (CPU) market -- these are the chips found in all computers -- but entered the AI chip market later than Nvidia.
Today, however, AMD is catching up nicely. The company has reported growth quarter after quarter, thanks to its progress in the area of graphics processing units (GPUs), or the chips that power key AI tasks. AMD confirmed this in the recent period, with record sales of AMD Instinct GPUs and AMD EPYC CPUs. And total data center revenue surged 97% to a record $8.5 billion.
This may look slim compared to Nvidia's $89 billion in data center sales, but considering AMD's commitment to AI chip development, I see this as an opportunity. AMD may find it easier from these levels to deliver tremendous growth than a company that already has the revenue levels of Nvidia. On top of this, the era of AI agents is here, and this software relies on both CPUs and GPUs. All of this could supercharge growth at AMD.
Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) once was a software company mainly tied to government contracts. But in recent years, even as government revenue climbed, another source of revenue showed its strength: the commercial customer. And for the first time ever, in the third quarter, Palantir's revenue from U.S. commercial customers surpassed its revenue from the U.S. government. The former rose 148% to $984 million, while the latter advanced 96% to $953 million.
The reason behind this? A few years ago, Palantir launched its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), integrating the power of large language models into its system of aggregating a customer's data and putting it to work for that customer. Companies and organizations are eager to get in on AI and apply it to their needs -- and AIP allows them to do this easily and almost overnight.
All of this has resulted in tremendous revenue gains for Palantir and a fantastic balance between growth and profitability, as we can see through its Rule of 40 score of 158%. A score of 40% or above is positive.
And the future looks bright for Palantir: As AI is used more regularly to address real-world problems, companies and the government may rush to deploy AIP rather than start from scratch to develop an AI platform.
If you're looking for a growth opportunity, AMD and Palantir offer this -- along with profitability. They also present less risk than SpaceX for two clear reasons. They don't have to heavily invest in an AI infrastructure build-out, and they don't depend on technologies that haven't yet been proven to meet future goals.
Their valuations are high, which means they aren't the right choice for every investor. And even some aggressive investors may prefer to keep them on the watch list and buy on the dip.
Also, these stocks aren't risk-free. Any slowdown in the AI story could weigh on earnings and stock performance. But with the long-term AI story intact, they make better buys than SpaceX for the aggressive investor seeking growth.
Before you buy stock in Advanced Micro Devices, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Advanced Micro Devices wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $344,878!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,097,846!*
Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 852% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 208% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.
*Stock Advisor returns as of November 10, 2026.
Adria Cimino has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, and Space Exploration Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Should You Forget SpaceX and Buy These 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Instead? was originally published by The Motley Fool
