If you think stocks are likely to fall in 2026, buying growth stocks may seem counterintuitive. In times of uncertainty, investors tend to gravitate toward income and value stocks because these companies’ existing earnings are priced higher than their potential earnings.
But if you’re a long-term investor who plans to hold stocks for three, five or even decades, a market selloff can still provide impeccable buying opportunities despite the pain of volatility. The key is to find companies with the fundamentals needed to withstand an economic downturn. A good place to start is with industry leaders like the Big 7, the top seven tech-focused companies S&P 500 Index Companies by market capitalization.
Where should I invest $1,000 now? Our team of analysts just revealed what they think 10 Best Stocks Buy now when you join Stock Advisor. View stocks »
meta platform(NASDAQ: META) and Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) These two Big Seven names are likely to pull back amid the broader market selloff, especially if it’s related to artificial intelligence (AI). But over the long term, these companies can stand out as worthy buys, even in today’s high-priced market.
Here’s why you can feel comfortable owning these stocks no matter what the markets do in 2026, along with the key takeaways from their most recent earnings reports.
Image source: Getty Images.
Meta Platforms reported blowout fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results on January 28.
As expected, costs and expenses soared 40%, outpacing revenue growth of 24%, as Meta ramped up capital expenditures on AI investments (building its own data centers, improving search algorithms to drive curated ads and user content, expanding its large language models to support Meta AI assistants, etc.).
Meta continues to lose billions of dollars at its Reality Labs unit, which is responsible for research and development and augmented reality and virtual reality products like Ray-Ban Meta glasses and Meta Quest headsets. Reality Labs’ goal is to connect the physical and digital worlds by expanding the virtual world, but this strategy is far from profitable. Reality Labs’ revenue is only $2.2 billion, and its operating loss in 2025 is $19.19 billion.
Wall Street tolerated Reality Labs’ poor performance because Meta’s family of apps (Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp) achieved record operating revenue of $102.5 billion in 2025. To put this number into practical context, consider that the Apps family’s operating revenue will increase by $15.4 billion in 2025, or 17.6% year-over-year growth. One year’s growth in the app family was almost enough to offset Reality Labs’ losses for the entire year.
Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings report said Reality Labs’ operating losses in 2026 will be similar to 2025 levels, which relieved investors. This would end their streak of annual losses and build on news last December that Meta was scaling back spending on the Metaverse. Instead, Meta is turning the focus of its efforts to Meta Superintelligence Labs, which creates artificial intelligence systems and products for consumers based on its artificial intelligence models.
If Meta Platforms is going to bet on a moonshot, investors might prefer Meta Superintelligence Labs to Reality Labs. As the Apps family continues to pour out free cash flow, the stock remains a buy at just 22.5 times forward earnings.
In the early stages of the AI boom in 2023 and 2024, investors were quick to cheer rising AI spending. But as the theme matures, excitement fades and investors want to see tangible results from higher spending.
This dynamic was on display on January 28, when Meta Platforms surged 11.2% in after-hours trading despite its heavy investment in artificial intelligence. Microsoft’s stock price has fallen 10% since the release of its earnings report, mainly due to concerns about artificial intelligence spending.
The technology is already benefiting Meta’s family of apps through content creation tools and aligning user interests with relevant advertisers. Its family of applications will benefit from Meta’s bold bet on personal superintelligence.
In contrast, Microsoft is betting big on AI by building out its data center infrastructure NVIDIA and AMD chip, as well as its in-house designed artificial intelligence chip Maia 200 accelerator.
Capital expenditures in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 were US$37.5 billion, an increase of 65.9% compared with the same period last year. By comparison, Microsoft’s revenue increased 17% and operating income increased 21%. These are great results, but whenever a company’s spending significantly exceeds sales and earnings, investors naturally become skeptical.
The company is a highly profitable cash cow and can afford to take risks. Even with higher spending, Microsoft had $89.55 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments in the most recent quarter, compared with $35.4 billion in long-term debt.
Its share repurchases and dividends increased 32% compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2025. As a result, Microsoft is nowhere near the point where it has to suspend buybacks or slow dividend growth. In fact, the company pays the largest dividend of any S&P 500 company by far.
All in all, Microsoft’s sell-off is a buying opportunity because the company can afford some delayed gratification when it comes to its AI spending. However, its order backlog is heavily dependent on OpenAI, so investors should continue to monitor management’s ability to translate orders into real results, especially if OpenAI goes public later this year.
Before buying Yuan Platform stock, consider the following factors:
this Motley Fool Stock Advisor The analytics team has just identified what they believe is 10 Best Stocks Investors can buy now… and Meta Platforms isn’t one of them. The 10 stocks selected could generate huge returns in the coming years.
consider when Netflix This list was created on December 17, 2004… If you invested $1,000 when we recommended, You will have $450,256!* or when NVIDIA This list was created on April 15, 2005… If you invested $1,000 when we recommended, You will have $1,171,666!*
Now, it’s worth noting stock advisor The overall average return is 942% — outperformed the market compared to the S&P 500’s 196%. Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available via stock advisorand join an investment community built by individual investors for individual investors.
See 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returned on February 2, 2026.
Daniel Foelber works at Nvidia. The Motley Fool owns and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
2 unstoppable ‘7’ growth stocks to buy even if stocks sell off in 2026 originally published by The Motley Fool
