3 No-Brainer Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy With $500 Right Now

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the biggest trend driving gains in the stock market since the start of the current bull market in October 2022. Companies have collectively added trillions of dollars to their market caps thanks to massive growth in AI spending and the opportunities generative artificial intelligence unlocks. But the AI boom may still have a long way to go.

Generative AI cloud infrastructure could grow to a $470 billion market by 2032, growing at an average rate of 30% from 2022, according to forecasts from Bloomberg Intelligence. Meanwhile, the analysts expect software spending for things like specialized AI assistants and workflow improvements to grow 71% per year to reach a combined $318 billion.

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High expectations for growth throughout the tech industry have led some stocks to soar in price, but there are still plenty of opportunities left for investors. With just $500, you could buy any one of the following stocks at a price that's more than fair. As AI spending continues to climb, these stocks should all benefit.

Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) early investment in generative AI pioneer OpenAI put it in a great position to capitalize on the growth of AI spending for both its cloud infrastructure and its enterprise software.

The company's Azure AI service provides developers access to leading large language models, including GPT-4o, on its cloud infrastructure. It counts over 60,000 customers for the service, up 60% year over year in the most recent quarter.

Management also notes that the average customer is spending more as well. That helped push Azure revenue to 33% year-over-year revenue growth.

Management thinks it has a lot more growth ahead of it. It forecasts accelerating Azure revenue growth as more of its 2024 capital investments come online, and it adds more capacity to meet the growing demand for its AI cloud infrastructure services.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's AI agent, Copilot, is seeing strong adoption across its enterprise software suite. Its Github Copilot, which helps software developers write code and improve workflows, is the most widely adopted AI development tool. It pushed Github to a $2 billion revenue run rate last quarter.

Microsoft has since adapted Copilot for general knowledge work in Microsoft 365, and it's seen rapid adoption. The number of people using it daily doubled sequentially last quarter.

Microsoft stock trades around 32 times analysts' estimates for 2025 earnings, as of this writing. That's certainly a premium price, but Microsoft has several factors supporting that level. Not only is it a leading AI company on two fronts, but it uses billions of dollars in free cash flow every quarter to repurchase shares, making future earnings more valuable for long-term shareholders. With the share price currently sitting around $420, there's still time to buy this AI giant.