The Best AI Infrastructure Stocks for Growth Investors to Buy in 2026

Key Points

• AWS revenue accelerated to 28% growth in Q1 — its fastest pace in 15 quarters.

• Google Cloud’s first-quarter revenue surged 63%, with operating income more than tripling year over year.

• Amazon and Alphabet make a strong pair, though both stocks have rallied sharply.

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The frenzy around artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure has reshaped the financial profile of the handful of companies sitting at the center of it. Hyperscaler capital spending has ballooned to levels that would have sounded absurd two years ago. And so far, demand keeps showing up to absorb the build-out.

That dynamic was on full display when Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG) each reported first-quarter results on April 29. Both posted some of their best cloud numbers in years, and both raised their capital spending plans to keep pace with what management is describing as a multi-year tailwind. For growth investors looking for AI infrastructure exposure in 2026, these may be the two most compelling names to consider today.

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Amazon

The cloud and e-commerce giant’s first-quarter revenue rose 17% year over year to $181.5 billion. But the cloud segment’s story, specifically, is more impressive.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue grew 28% to $37.6 billion — its fastest pace in 15 quarters. Even more encouraging, AWS growth has steadily climbed over the past four quarters: from 17% to 20% to 24% to 28%. AWS operating income, meanwhile, rose to $14.2 billion, good for an operating margin of about 38%.

Underpinning this momentum is Amazon’s increasingly important custom silicon business.

The company’s chips group — anchored by its Trainium, Graviton, and Nitro chips — has crossed a $20 billion annual revenue run rate while still growing at triple-digit percentage rates. AWS also disclosed a backlog of $364 billion, with more than $225 billion in revenue commitments for Traininum chips.

All of this will require big spending, but Amazon CEO Andy Jassy indicated he’s confident the company’s soaring capital expenditures will be worth it, noting that it already has “customer commitments for a substantial portion of it.”

Amazon plans to commit around $200 billion to capital spending in 2026 — about 56% more than in 2025. And this builds on an already substantial spending ramp that has caused the company’s trailing-12-month free cash flow to come down from about $25.9 billion to $1.2 billion.

Alphabet

Alphabet’s first-quarter results echoed many of the same themes. The online search giant’s consolidated revenue rose 22% (19% in constant currency) to $109.9 billion, marking the company’s 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

And, like Amazon, Alphabet’s Google Cloud segment stood out the most. The company’s cloud revenue jumped 63% to $20.0 billion — a sharp acceleration from the prior several quarters. Further, cloud operating income tripled year over year to $6.6 billion, lifting the segment’s operating margin from 17.8% to 32.9%.

Additionally, Alphabet’s cloud backlog nearly doubled quarter over quarter to more than $460 billion.

Further, CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged during the company’s first-quarterearnings callthat “we are compute constrained in the near term,” adding that cloud revenue would have been higher had Alphabet been able to meet customer demand.

Management responded by raising Alphabet’s 2026 capital spending guidance to a range of $180 billion to $190 billion — up from a previous range of $175 billion to $185 billion.

Alphabet chief financial officer Anat Ashkenazi added that 2027 spending should “significantly increase” compared to this year.

Search, meanwhile, remains the bedrock underneath everything else. Search and other advertising revenue rose 19% year over year, with queries hitting an all-time high — a trend Pichai attributed largely to AI features like AI Mode and AI Overviews drawing users back to the platform.

A pair worth considering — carefully

Both Amazon and Alphabet are executing about as well as growth investors could reasonably hope. Each is monetizing the AI infrastructure build-out in real time, and each has the financial firepower to extend its lead. For investors with a long enough horizon, both look like compelling ways to play this theme.

But the market has clearly noticed. Alphabet shares are up about 22% year to date, and Amazon stock has rallied sharply over the past month, reaching an all-time high in early May. Further, neither stock’s valuation leaves much room for error. Amazon trades at about 32 times earnings, and Alphabet’s price-to-earnings ratio is 29.

Overall, I think these stocks are buys today. But given their recent run-ups, for those starting positions today, it may make sense to begin small and leave room to add on pullbacks.

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Daniel Sparks and his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.