Missed Out on NVIDIA? My Best AI Stock to Buy and Hold

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) has been the stock everyone wishes they had bought earlier. The numbers tell that story clearly. Notably, shares of the American semiconductor giant have rocketed by nearly 1,080% over the last three years, and its market cap is now measured in trillions, making investors who got in early some of the biggest winners of the decade. This is all because NVIDIA’s chips sit at the heart of today’s artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

But even with that success, new investors are hesitating as NVDA stock already carries a massive valuation with a multi-year rally behind it.

That’s why it makes sense to zoom out a little and look at the broader AI ecosystem. NVIDIA may design the most powerful AI processors, but those chips still need to be deployed inside complex data centre systems at a massive scale. This is exactly where my top AI stock pick starts to matter just as much.

In this article, I’ll discuss Celestica (TSX:CLS), which I consider one of the best AI stocks today. The company benefits directly from NVIDIA-driven demand while offering a unique risk-and-reward setup for long-term investors.

Why Celestica stock fits perfectly into the AI story

To understand why Celestica deserves attention here, let’s first look at what the company actually does within the AI ecosystem. This Toronto-headquartered company mainly designs and manufactures hardware platforms while also providing supply chain and engineering solutions for data centre, cloud, and advanced-technology customers. With this, its offerings play an important role in turning AI chip demand into real, working infrastructure.

Celestica shares now trade at $407 per share, giving it a market cap of roughly $46.8 billion. Over the last year, the stock has surged more than 200%, reflecting rising confidence in its AI-driven business momentum.

This strong performance has been fueled by increasing investments from hyperscalers and enterprise customers that are scaling AI data centres and networking systems at a rapid pace.

AI demand is driving powerful financial momentum

Celestica’s most recent quarterly results clearly show how quickly AI demand is translating into financial growth. In the third quarter, the company’s total revenue jumped 28% YoY (year-over-year) to US$3.2 billion. As a result, its adjusted earnings climbed 52% YoY to US$1.58 per share, while adjusted operating margin improved to 7.6%, marking another company high.

Its connectivity and cloud solutions segment has been the main growth engine lately. The segment’s revenue jumped 43% YoY last quarter with the help of higher shipments of AI-related hardware-platform solutions, an improved product mix, and stronger operating leverage as large programs scaled.

More importantly, Celestica’s hardware platform revenue tied to AI infrastructure expanded sharply, backed by customer demand for high-performance networking and rack-level systems.

Long-term growth drivers that investors should not ignore

What truly strengthens Celestica’s positioning as one of the best AI stocks to buy now is its focus on helping businesses build next-generation AI infrastructure. Its solutions are likely to play an increasingly critical role as AI workloads grow larger and data centres become more complex in the years to come.

Meanwhile, Celestica is also benefiting from deeper relationships with hyperscalers and digital-native customers, many of which are committing to multi-year AI infrastructure investments. As networking intensity rises along with scale, demand for Celestica’s system-level expertise continues to grow.

Given these solid fundamentals, for investors who feel they missed NVIDIA’s early surge, Celestica stock offers a different way to participate in the same AI megatrend.

The post Missed Out on NVIDIA? My Best AI Stock to Buy and Hold appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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More reading

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• The 3 Most Popular Stocks on the TSX Today: Do You Own Them?
• If I Could Only Buy 3 Stocks in the Last Month of 2025, I’d Pick These

Fool contributor Jitendra Parashar has positions in Celestica and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Celestica and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.