Nvidia and Palantir Could Be the “Amazon Stocks” of the AI Era
One company controls the computing infrastructure, and the other aims to become the operating system. Neither is cheap, but the AI cycle may still be in its early stages.
Market figures reflect intraday data available on July 22, 2026
Amazon became a giant not just by selling books online. It built a new technological platform to create infrastructure, retain customers, and continually reinvest while weaker rivals fell away.
This perspective fits Nvidia and Palantir AI stocks today. Neither company is unknown, and neither is inexpensive. However, both hold key positions in the artificial intelligence economy that could grow in value as the initial excitement leads to long-term use.
The opportunity still seems early, even if the prices are high.
The Real Lesson From Amazon in the 1990s
When Amazon first went public, it was a fast-growing online retailer that bore little resemblance to the diverse giant it is today. In its original 1997 shareholder letter, Jeff Bezos highlighted 838% revenue growth to $147.8 million and emphasized that long-term market leadership was more important than immediate profits.
This approach eventually led to a logistics network, a marketplace, an advertising business, and Amazon Web Services.
This comparison matters because Bezos sees a similar pattern in artificial intelligence now. During his 2025 appearance at Italian Tech Week, he described AI as an industrial bubble rather than just a financial one.
“This is real. The benefits to society from AI are going to be gigantic,” Bezos said.
He did not imply that every AI company will succeed. In fact, he pointed out that industrial bubbles can fund both good and bad ideas simultaneously. This can lead to wasted capital, falling valuations, and the disappearance of many businesses. However, the remaining infrastructure and innovations can still transform the economy.
That’s why calling Nvidia or Palantir the “Amazon of AI” shouldn’t be seen as a prediction of similar stock returns. A better question is whether either company can turn today’s growing spending into a lasting platform that customers cannot easily replace.
Nvidia Owns the Toll Road Into AI
Nvidia stands out as the main public-market winner of the AI buildout. Its chips, networking equipment, and software ecosystem lie at the foundation of AI models. Companies may compete over chatbots and applications, but almost all need significant computing power.
Nvidia provides the essential tools needed to create that power.
The company’s first-quarter fiscal 2027 results illustrated how powerful that position has become. Revenue reached a record $81.6 billion, reflecting an 85% increase from a year earlier. Data-center revenue rose 92% to $75.2 billion, and Nvidia projected around $91 billion for the following quarter. Its GAAP gross margin stood at 74.9%.
CEO Jensen Huang stated, “Agentic AI has arrived, doing productive work, generating real value, and scaling rapidly across companies and industries.”
While promotional, the revenue numbers indicate that customers are investing real money to support this claim.
As of July 22, Nvidia traded at about $213.58, with a market value of around $5.21 trillion and a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of about 32.5. This valuation is high but not unreasonable for a company growing at Nvidia’s current pace.
The bigger challenge is scaling up. Achieving another tenfold increase would entail a valuation exceeding $50 trillion.
Analysts remain optimistic about the opportunity. When Nvidia first surpassed the $5 trillion mark, Hargreaves Lansdown senior equity analyst Matt Britzman told Reuters, “Nvidia remains one of the best ways to play the AI theme.”
This assessment holds because Nvidia generates revenue regardless of who ends up being the ultimate winner among companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, a robotics firm, or an enterprise software vendor.
The risk lies in the spending cycle slowing before new AI services can generate enough profit for Nvidia’s large customers. Some investors are preparing for a slowdown in capital spending growth among hyperscalers.
Custom chips from cloud companies, increased competition from AMD, export restrictions, and limits on data-center construction could also hinder growth.
Nvidia can still rise from here; it is simply no longer a hidden opportunity. Investors are paying for an established AI monopoly position rather than purchasing a forgotten chipmaker hoping the market eventually notices.
Palantir Is Trying to Become AI’s Operating System
Palantir represents the riskier and potentially more volatile side of the argument. While Nvidia provides the computing power, Palantir aspires for its software to be central to decisions made by governments, manufacturers, hospitals, airlines, and other complex organizations.
Its Artificial Intelligence Platform, known as AIP, links models to a customer’s private data, security rules, and operational workflows.
This connection is crucial because a useful enterprise AI system needs to do more than answer questions. It also must determine who can access information, trigger approved actions, and produce an auditable record.
Palantir’s first-quarter 2026 business update indicated that adoption is speeding up. Revenue grew 85% to $1.63 billion. U.S. commercial revenue soared 133% to $595 million, while U.S. government revenue climbed 84% to $687 million.
Management raised its full-year revenue guidance to around $7.65 billion to $7.66 billion.
CEO Alex Karp expressed confidence in a shareholder letter quoted by Reuters:
Palantir’s Amazon-like appeal lies in its ability to become deeply integrated. Once a company constructs workflows, data models, and decision systems around Palantir, switching to a different platform can become costly and disruptive.
This creates the switching costs investors look for in a strong software franchise.
The downside is that Palantir’s valuation leaves little room for ordinary performance. On July 22, it traded around $123.69, giving it a market value of about $318 billion and a trailing price-to-earnings ratio near 139.
The stock can drop sharply even after strong results because expectations are already very high.
A Reuters Breakingviews analysis of Palantir’s valuation suggested that the company has a solid path to becoming a leading defense and enterprise software platform, but it also warned that investors have priced the shares close to perfection.
This tension describes Palantir. The business may be in the early stages, but the stock price implies years of exceptional performance.
Why It May Not Be Too Late, but It Is Too Late to Be Careless
The strongest argument for continued growth is that the AI investment cycle is expanding from large model training into inference, autonomous agents, robotics, defense, medicine, manufacturing, and routine business functions.
Nvidia can engage in the computing demand across those markets. Palantir can step in when companies try to turn that computing power into real-world decisions.
Neither stock is risk-free. Amazon’s eventual success did not shield its shareholders from severe volatility during the dot-com bust. A revolutionary technology can be real while the price of a particular company may seem unreasonably high.
For long-term investors, “not too late” suggests there might still be years of business growth ahead, not that the stocks must increase in value next month or next year.
The prudent approach needs a five-to-ten-year outlook, the capacity to endure significant downturns, and position sizes small enough that a valuation adjustment doesn’t impact the entire portfolio.
A gradual buying strategy can lower the risk of investing all funds near a market peak. Diversification is even more crucial.
The emerging AI economy will likely produce multiple winners across chips, cloud infrastructure, software, cybersecurity, power, and robotics. No investor needs to identify a single perfect successor to Amazon.
The Winner Will Need More Than a Story
Amazon didn’t win just because it was linked to the internet. It succeeded because its management turned an emerging technology into a compounding business engine.
Nvidia has built that cash machine. Its challenge lies in maintaining exceptional growth from a $5 trillion foundation.
Palantir has more potential for growth, but it also carries a tougher valuation and execution risk. Its challenge is demonstrating that strong U.S. adoption can evolve into a broad and lasting global software franchise.
Among publicly traded companies, Nvidia and Palantir fit the “Amazon of the AI era” concept better than most. Nvidia controls the infrastructure layer. Palantir is competing for the workflow layer.
Both could significantly increase in value if artificial intelligence becomes as essential as the internet.
It may not be too late to invest, but it is definitely too late to invest blindly.
Disclaimer
This article is for informational and educational purposes only. This is not financial advice, investment advice, legal advice, or tax advice. Stocks can lose value, including the full amount invested. Readers should conduct their own research and consult a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions.
Source: All linked phrases in the article open the underlying company filing, investor release, product page, shareholder letter, Reuters report, or recorded expert remarks.
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