Chip stocks have fallen about 20% from their record, dragging the group that led this year's rally toward a bear market, and money is rotating out of expensive technology names into companies whose profits track the real economy. That makes this a moment to own quality rather than a single theme. The best stocks to buy right now include Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Eli Lilly, JPMorgan Chase, Visa, and RTX, picked for durable profits, a strong position in their market, and a clear reason to own them today. We screened the largest US-listed companies and kept the seven below.
How We Picked These Stocks
Thousands of companies trade on US exchanges, so we filtered hard. Each pick had to be profitable, hold a leading position in a market that is still growing, and generate real free cash flow, which is the money left over after a company pays for its operations and equipment. We favored names with a durable edge and a clear catalyst on the calendar. We also wanted balance, so the list reaches beyond technology into healthcare, banking, payments, and defense. The result is seven large companies that can fund their own growth without leaning on debt.
What Changed on This List
We removed Microsoft and Vistra and added Visa and RTX. Both cuts trace back to the same shift: the market has stopped paying for AI spending and started asking when it earns anything back, which we covered when Wall Street stopped paying for the buildout.
Microsoft still runs an excellent business, and Azure grew roughly 40% last quarter. But capital spending on a path toward about $190 billion this fiscal year pulled free cash flow down to $15.8 billion from $20.3 billion a year earlier. We owned it for steady cash generation, and for now the cash is going into data centers instead. The stock is cheaper than it has been in three years, so this is a timing call rather than a verdict on the company.
Vistra was the cleanest way to own AI power demand, and that has become the problem. Roughly half the data centers planned for this year have been delayed or canceled on transformer shortages and grid bottlenecks, and Vistra's Texas fleet earns less each time that forecast comes down. Visa and RTX replace them with profits tied to card swipes and defense budgets rather than AI budgets.
The List
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Nvidia designs the chips that train and run nearly every large artificial intelligence model, and demand from cloud companies still outruns supply. The stock has slipped from its high along with the rest of the chip group, which makes its late-August report the clearest read available on whether record cloud spending plans are still landing in its order book.
Why it made the list: Nvidia sells the most advanced AI accelerators on the market, and the five largest cloud buyers are still on track to spend somewhere between $700 billion and $900 billion on capital projects this year. Roughly three quarters of that goes to AI infrastructure.
The bull case: Each new chip generation arrives faster than the last, and Nvidia now sells full systems rather than single chips. That widens both its lead and its margins.
The risk: Nvidia is the most exposed name here to the exact fear driving the selloff. If cloud buyers trim orders, or cheaper training methods like the one Chinese startup Moonshot just demonstrated take hold, the stock has room to fall.
Key number: The data center segment generates more than 80% of Nvidia's total revenue.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Alphabet owns Google Search, YouTube, and Google Cloud, and it trades at a lower earnings multiple than most of its megacap peers. The P/E ratio, or price-to-earnings ratio, compares the share price to yearly profit per share, and a lower number can signal a cheaper stock.
Why it made the list: Search and YouTube throw off enormous cash, and Alphabet is pouring that cash into AI and its cloud business. Google Cloud has crossed into steady profitability.
The bull case: Alphabet designs its own AI chips and its own models, so it controls its costs better than rivals renting everything. In a market that has turned hostile to AI spending, owning the whole stack is worth more than it was six months ago.
The risk: Regulators in the US and Europe keep challenging Google's search and ad business, and Alphabet is committing $175 billion or more to capital projects this year, so it carries the same spending question that pushed Microsoft off this list.
Key number: Google Cloud has turned the corner to a full-year operating profit while still growing revenue at a double-digit pace.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Amazon runs the largest US online store and the largest cloud platform, Amazon Web Services. Its profit engine keeps strengthening as AWS rides the AI buildout and the retail side gets leaner.
Why it made the list: AWS produces the bulk of Amazon's operating profit and is a prime beneficiary of the AI buildout. The retail side has grown far more efficient as Amazon trims its cost to ship each order.
The bull case: Advertising has quietly become a high-margin business worth tens of billions a year. Add AWS growth and improving retail margins, and profit can climb for years without a single new AI customer.
The risk: Amazon is on track for roughly $200 billion in capital spending this year, the largest figure of any hyperscaler. It stays on this list because retail and advertising fund that bill, but a cloud slowdown would sting.
Key number: AWS generates the majority of Amazon's total operating profit.
Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY)
Eli Lilly makes Mounjaro and Zepbound, two of the fastest-selling weight-loss and diabetes drugs ever launched, and in April it added Foundayo, a once-daily GLP-1 pill for weight loss. It is the one healthcare name on this list, and it adds growth that has nothing to do with the AI trade.
Why it made the list: Demand for Lilly's obesity drugs still outstrips what it can make, and all three major US pharmacy managers now cover its full obesity lineup, as we reported when CVS reversed course. A pill reaches patients who were never going to inject themselves.
The bull case: In the trial behind its approval, patients on the highest dose of Foundayo lost more than 12% of their body weight against about 1% on placebo. Self-pay pricing starts low enough to sell to people whose insurance covers nothing, which is a far larger group than the insured market. Lilly is also buying its way into new categories, including a psychedelics company this year.
The risk: Competition from Novo Nordisk and new entrants could squeeze prices, and Lilly trades near its 52-week high, so the market already credits the pill with a lot.
Key number: Foundayo self-pay pricing starts at $149 per month for the lowest dose.
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM)
JPMorgan Chase is the largest US bank by assets, and on July 14 it opened bank earnings season with $16.9 billion in quarterly net income, the biggest profit in the history of American banking. It gives the list a business that gains when interest rates stay higher for longer.
Why it made the list: JPMorgan earns money across lending, trading, and wealth management, so no single business has to carry it. Its corporate and investment bank made $9.7 billion last quarter on revenue that rose 27%, with equities revenue up 86% and investment banking fees up 30%.
The bull case: Management raised full-year guidance to about $105.5 billion in net interest income and signaled a dividend increase to $1.65 per share starting this quarter. With the Fed holding its target range at 3.5% to 3.75%, banks keep earning healthy interest income, and JPMorgan's scale lets it take share when smaller banks pull back.
The risk: A bank's fortunes track the economy, so a recession or a jump in loan defaults would cut into profit. A trading quarter that good is also hard to repeat, which sets a high bar for the next one.
Key number: Return on tangible common equity reached 23% last quarter.
Visa (NYSE:V)
Visa runs a toll booth on global spending. It does not lend money and it does not carry credit risk, it simply takes a small cut of nearly every card transaction crossing its network. We put it against its closest rival in our Visa vs Mastercard breakdown.
Why it made the list: Revenue grew 17% last quarter, the fastest pace since 2013, on payments volume of $3.7 trillion. Visa earns nothing from AI budgets, which is exactly the point of adding it now.
The bull case: The company guides to low-teens revenue growth and mid-teens adjusted earnings growth this fiscal year, with buybacks on top. Operating margins sit among the highest in the S&P 500, and Visa has no data centers to build to keep them there.
The risk: Visa's volumes track consumer spending, so a recession hits it directly. Regulators and merchants keep pushing on swipe fees, and bank-to-bank payment rails are a slow-moving long-term threat.
Key number: Visa processed 66 billion transactions and $3.7 trillion in payments volume last quarter.
RTX (NYSE:RTX)
RTX builds jet engines at Pratt & Whitney, aircraft systems at Collins Aerospace, and missiles and air defense at Raytheon. Its order book runs years out, which is rare for a company on a list like this.
Why it made the list: The backlog reached $271 billion, up 25% in a year, split between $162 billion commercial and $109 billion defense. That is revenue already booked, and none of it depends on the AI trade. We cover more names like it in our best defense stocks guide.
The bull case: RTX raised its full-year outlook to $92.5 billion to $93.5 billion in sales and $6.70 to $6.90 in adjusted earnings per share. Munitions deliveries grew more than 40% in a year, Raytheon is ramping toward 2,500 missiles annually, and the commercial aftermarket keeps growing as airlines fly older planes longer.
The risk: Defense revenue depends on government budgets and program timing. RTX has also been burned before by engine problems and supply chain delays, and tariffs add cost it cannot always pass along.
Key number: The $271 billion backlog is roughly three times annual sales.
What Is Driving the Market Right Now
Two forces set the tone. First, the AI trade is being repriced. The chip gauge has dropped about 20% from its record, and the reason is not weak results, because Nvidia and its peers keep beating estimates. The problem is that hyperscaler spending is growing roughly 50% faster than the revenue it produces, so the payback date slides further out with every quarter. A breakthrough from Chinese AI startup Moonshot sharpened the worry that frontier models could get cheaper to train rather than more expensive.
Second, the Federal Reserve meets July 28 and 29 with its target range at 3.5% to 3.75%, and futures markets put the odds of a hold near 89%. Chair Kevin Warsh has been blunt that cooling inflation is not the same as finished inflation, a tension we unpacked when inflation cooled but the Fed stayed put. Higher-for-longer rates make future profits worth less today, which weighs most on the fastest-growing technology stocks.
That backdrop is why this list is built the way it is. Three picks still ride the AI and data center buildout, the same force behind the swings in AI stocks and semiconductors, because the spending is real even where the stocks ran ahead of it. The other four earn their money from prescriptions, interest rates, card swipes, and defense budgets. When one theme cools, the others can hold the line. For investors who want a single list of strong businesses across the market, that spread matters more than chasing any one trend.
What to watch:
- The Fed on July 28 and 29: The decision lands July 29. Markets expect a hold, so the tone from Chair Warsh will move stocks more than the number itself.
- Alphabet and Amazon in late July: Both report in the final week of the month, and their capital spending guidance now matters as much as their earnings.
- Visa on July 28: The first clean read on whether consumer spending is holding up as money rotates toward economically sensitive names.
- Nvidia in late August: The single biggest test of whether cloud order books are still growing.
- Foundayo's first full quarters: Lilly's next report shows how fast the obesity pill is actually selling.
Bottom Line
This list is built for investors who want to own large, profitable companies across the market. Each pick leads its market and funds its own growth. Nvidia, Alphabet, and Amazon still offer the most upside if the AI buildout keeps going, while Lilly, JPMorgan, Visa, and RTX spread the risk into healthcare, banking, payments, and defense. The rotation out of AI names is exactly why that balance is worth having right now. Buy the businesses you understand, and size each position to your own comfort.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best stocks to buy right now?
Seven large, profitable companies stand out today: Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Eli Lilly, JPMorgan Chase, Visa, and RTX. The three technology names benefit from heavy AI and data center spending, while Eli Lilly, JPMorgan, Visa, and RTX add exposure to healthcare, banking, payments, and defense. All seven generate strong free cash flow and lead their markets.
Is now a good time to buy stocks?
Owning strong companies over the long run tends to reward patience more than trying to time the market. Chip stocks have fallen about 20% from their record while the broader market has held up better, which can create entry points in quality names. No one can call the exact bottom, so many investors buy in stages rather than all at once.
Why did Microsoft come off this list?
Microsoft's capital spending is on a path toward roughly $190 billion this fiscal year, which cut free cash flow to $15.8 billion from $20.3 billion a year earlier. We held it for steady cash generation, and that cash is now funding data centers. Azure still grew about 40% last quarter and the stock is cheaper than it has been in three years, so this is a timing decision rather than a judgment on the business.
What is the safest stock on this list?
JPMorgan Chase, Visa, and Eli Lilly carry the steadiest businesses. JPMorgan is the largest US bank with a strong balance sheet, Visa takes a cut of spending without carrying credit risk, and Eli Lilly sells drugs that patients keep refilling. The technology names offer more upside but also swing more when the market moves.
How many stocks should I own?
Many financial educators suggest holding at least 15 to 20 stocks across different sectors to spread risk, so a single bad pick does not sink your portfolio. A list like this one can serve as a starting point across technology, healthcare, banking, payments, and defense. How much you put into each is a personal decision based on your goals and timeline.
Why is RTX on a best stocks list?
RTX holds a $271 billion backlog, roughly three times its annual sales, split between commercial aerospace and defense. That is revenue already booked years in advance, and it does not depend on AI spending or on where interest rates go. It gives the list an anchor when technology stocks swing.
