Just been doing some research on solid plays for this year, and honestly there's some interesting opportunities if you've got capital to deploy right now.

Broadcom caught my attention first. Their custom AI chips are becoming a real thing - they're working with basically all the major AI players to build their own accelerators. The growth trajectory is insane: they're projecting 50% revenue growth for this year, then 36% next year. That's a massive acceleration from their 24% growth last year. This is the kind of momentum that could really pay off.

Alphabet's another one worth looking at. People wrote them off in the AI race for a bit, but Gemini has genuinely become competitive. What's more interesting though is their core business is still crushing it. Google Search hit 15% YoY growth last quarter - that's solid for something that's supposed to be 'disrupted.' And Google Cloud? 33% growth with margins expanding from 17% to 24%. Everything's clicking.

Amazon's in a similar spot. Commerce side is thriving - 10% online growth, 12% on third-party services, both recent highs. AWS and their ad business both grew 20%+ last quarter. Stock only went up 6% though, which is wild considering how well the business is actually performing. When fundamentals outpace stock performance like that, usually means a correction is coming.

Then there's MercadoLibre - probably the most underrated of the bunch. They basically copied Amazon's playbook in Latin America and added fintech on top. Year after year of incredible growth, and the stock's down about 25% from its peak. That kind of pullback on a company with this track record could be exactly when you want to be buying.

If you're looking at where to put $1,000 or more right now, these are the kinds of names worth researching. The top 10 stocks to buy right now is always subjective, but this group definitely deserves serious consideration for 2026 and beyond.