Most companies worth $1 trillion or more are leaders in their industries and have excellent long-term growth prospects. Almost none of them are known for their dividends, but a few do offer competitive income plans, which arguably makes them more attractive. this is the case Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) and Eli Lilly and Company(NYSE: LLY). These two companies have excellent long-term prospects and could deliver market-beating returns over the next decade. They’re also solid dividend stocks. This is the summary.
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Microsoft joined an even more exclusive group earlier this year when its market cap hit $4 trillion. The company has experienced a correction since then, but not because of anything wrong with its underlying business. Microsoft is a great business with strong growth prospects, especially in cloud computing. The company’s revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which ended on September 30, rose 18% year-over-year to $77.7 billion. Sales of Microsoft Azure, the company’s cloud computing unit, grew 40% year over year.
Investors can expect Azure’s momentum to continue for the foreseeable future, in part due to growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related services. As of the first quarter of 2026, Microsoft’s cloud division’s contractual obligations reached $392 billion, a year-on-year increase of 51%.
Microsoft’s deep relationship with OpenAI should also be beneficial. Not only did OpenAI recently sign a $250 billion Azure service contract, but Microsoft retains the intellectual property rights to OpenAI models until 2032, giving the tech giant the opportunity to offer these models through Azure.
This is an important selling point for Microsoft. The company’s cloud and AI ambitions provide a huge boost for the technology leader’s growth over the next 10 years, and possibly beyond. Microsoft is a good choice for growth investors, but its dividend plan shouldn’t be ignored. Microsoft’s forward yield of 0.8% may not be that impressive — S&P 500 IndexThe average is 1.2% (which in itself is nothing to brag about).
However, Microsoft often boosts spending, increasing 152.8% over the past decade. Dividend growth investors should also seriously consider buying shares of this company.
Eli Lilly and Company is a new member of the trillion-dollar club. The drugmaker achieved this success thanks to major medical breakthroughs that helped it achieve incredible sales and earnings growth. Eli Lilly developed a highly effective drug called tirzepatide, sold under the trade names Mounjaro and Zepbound, which was first approved in 2022 and recently replaced Keytruda as the best-selling drug in the world.
Although Eli Lilly’s market capitalization has now fallen back below $1 trillion, the momentum for tisipatin remains strong. The drug’s success in obstructive sleep apnea and continued development in other areas, including Alzheimer’s disease, are expanding its already broad market. Granted, tisipatide’s biggest competitor in the GLP-1 market, semaglutide, recently failed in a clinical trial as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. However, this does not mean that tilsiparatide will suffer the same fate, and it has already shown higher efficacy than similar products in approved markets, including weight management.
In addition to this single compound, Eli Lilly expects to make significant clinical advances over the next few years, further boosting its already impressive sales growth. In the rapidly growing field of weight management, no drugmaker has a more impressive product pipeline. Eli Lilly is well aware that other pharmaceutical giants want to steal its market share, perhaps by developing an anti-obesity therapy that is administered less frequently, or one that can be administered orally, or one that targets a hormone other than GLP-1 or GIP, or one that targets three hormone pathways (one more than tezepatide).
However, Eli Lilly is developing drug candidates targeting all of these potential approaches, some of which have shown excellent results in mid- or late-stage clinical trials. Eli Lilly appears poised to remain the leader in the weight management market over the next decade, and the company should reap significant financial benefits, as it has recently. This should allow the pharmaceutical giant to maintain its excellent dividend plan. Despite a forward yield of 0.6%, Eli Lilly has increased its dividend payments by 194% over the past decade.
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Prosper Junior Bakiny works for Eli Lilly. The Motley Fool has positions and recommendations for Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: Long January 2026 Microsoft calls at $395 and short January 2026 Microsoft calls at $405. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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