Important Note:
This is pure curiosity at play. Neither Gemini nor I are financial advisors, professional traders, or stock whisperers. Do not invest based on robots (or personal blogs) unless you are prepared to lose 100% of your money and gain nothing but a sad story.
On July 1st, 2025, I did a little experiment. I asked Gemini to pick a handful of “moonshot” stocks, the kind of companies that could theoretically grow 1,000% in five years. I didn’t actually buy them, mostly because I didn’t fully trust a robot to manage my money.
But…
While the S&P 500 has crawled up by about 4% since last summer, that robot-picked basket is sitting at a 90% gain. One of the picks, Planet Labs, did a whopping +426%. Even with three of them losing money (looking at you, Recursion Pharma dropping 38%), the basket was lucky.
The Moonshot Update, on March 27, 2026
(Based on a hypothetical investment on July 1, 2025)
- Planet Labs (PL): $6.16 to $32.42 (+426.3%)
- Aehr Test Systems (AEHR): $14.11 to $34.57 (+145.0%)
- Krystal Biotech (KRYS): $139.01 to $251.40 (+80.9%)
- 10x Genomics (TXG): $12.06 to $20.43 (+69.4%)
- Symbotic (SYM): $38.50 to $50.80 (+31.9%)
- Palantir (PLTR): $130.68 to $147.56 (+12.9%)
- ESS Tech (GWH): $1.33 to $1.20 (-9.8%)
- Recursion Pharma (RXRX): $5.13 to $3.15 (-38.6%)
Total Gain: +89.7%
Seeing those numbers made me bash my head against the wall wonder what the newer, smarter AI models would find in 2026. This time, I just asked Gemini (my current favorite) for the stocks with the highest potential for the next five years, including the ultimate survivors that might weather any new advancement thrown at them. I am writing this today, March 27, 2026, as a snapshot of where the silicon-brain thinks the world is going.
The Great Tug-of-War (Inflation, Deflation, all at once)
Here is what Gemini told me about the physical bottlenecks that might be the best bets for this technological revolution and the strange economic tug-of-war, where we might see massive deflation and massive inflation happen at the exact same time.
- Deflation (Things getting cheaper): Because AI can write code, draft legal documents, or create a Hollywood-level video in seconds, the cost of the digital world is dropping to near zero.
- Inflation (Things getting more expensive): You cannot ask a computer to magically print a copper wire or spawn a nuclear power plant. Data centers are drinking up massive amounts of electricity, water, and raw metals right now.
The logic is that we might be walking into a world where having a personal lawyer or producing a hit song on your laptop costs absolutely nothing, but paying your electric bill or buying basic appliances makes you want to cry.
Because the software side is getting cheaper to make, Gemini went looking for the companies that own the hardware and the raw physical materials the world is currently desperate for.
The 2026 Snapshot: The Physical Backbone of AI
Part 1: The Power Grid & Materials
You cannot keep everything running as the world gets more automated without a massive physical grid.
- CCJ (Uranium): Nuclear is a major way to get constant, clean power for giant data centers 24 hours a day.
- FCX (US) & ANTO.L (UK): Currently, you cannot build a data center or power line without miles of copper.
- CEIX (Coal) & CNQ (Safe Energy): Even though we want clean energy, for now we also need coal to keep the lights on when the sun is not out. CNQ produces oil and gas in Canada, one of the safest places to do business.
Part 2: The Factory – Hardware & Power
These companies build the actual engines and plumbing of the tech revolution.
- NVDA (AI Chips) & TSM (The Factory): Nvidia designs the “brains” (GPUs) that power almost all AI, acting as the engine, but TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is the factory that produces these advanced chips. Without TSMC, Nvidia’s designs cannot be built.
- ARM (The Blueprints): They design the instructions for chips that use very little battery. This is crucial for anything portable.
- ETN (Power Switches): They make the massive electrical switches and transformers that keep data centers from melting.
- MOD (Heat Reuse): They take the massive amount of hot air produced by data centers and repurpose it to heat nearby homes, offices, or greenhouses instead of letting it go to waste.
Part 3: Life After Screens
People are getting tired of staring at phones. The next stage is technology you talk to or wear on your body.
- META (Smart Glasses): Their Ray-Ban glasses are already a hit. They are leading the race to replace the screen with eyes on real life.
- The OpenAI Device (The Jony Ive Factor): OpenAI is working with Jony Ive on a pocket assistant that sees and hears the world with you (expected early 2027). While you can’t invest in this private project, you can own the builders: TSM (manufacturing), ARM (chip design), and MSFT (software).
- MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL (The Cloud Giants): Whether you talk to an earpiece or use a phone, the heavy lifting happens on massive servers owned by Microsoft, Amazon, and Google (unless you live in China).
Part 4: Global Bets & Future Energy
- EPI (India Profits): A fund that only buys Indian companies actually making money, which is safer than buying the whole market.
- CYB (Chinese Money): A way to bet that the Chinese currency will get stronger without picking individual Chinese companies.
- IONQ (Quantum): Building computers that think using atoms. It is the next step after the chips we use today.
- BKR & ORA (Geothermal): Using oil-drilling tools to drill miles into the earth to find heat. It is like plugging into the center of the earth for infinite energy. ORA is the only major company already making money from this today.
- ACM (The Builders): The engineering firm hired to build the structures for the first Fusion power plants.
Bargains vs. Expensive Winners
I asked Gemini which of these are actually a deal right now. But to understand the answers, you have to understand why good companies go on sale:
- Replacement Cost: If the stock market says a company is worth $50 billion, but it would cost you $100 billion to rebuild their mines and factories from scratch today, they are fundamentally undervalued.
- The Boring Discount: Investors love shiny new software. They ignore the boring companies that make it possible (like power switches or copper mines), keeping those stock prices artificially low.
- Geopolitical Fear: Sometimes a company is brilliant, but people are scared of where it is located (like Taiwan). This fear creates a discount for those brave enough to hold it.
1. The Bargains (Undervalued)
- TSM: A world-class tech leader trading at a discount simply because of its location. If it were a US company, it would likely cost 50% more.
- FCX: The market still treats this like a boring mining company, but it is the physical backbone of the AI grid.
- BKR: An oil-services firm with a secret superpower in geothermal energy the market has not fully realized yet.
- CEIX & CNQ: Tech investors find coal and traditional energy boring, but the grid is desperate for the reliable power they provide.
2. Fair Value – You are not getting a deal, but you are paying a fair price for a rock-solid foundation.
- MSFT: The world’s Chief Technology Officer. You pay for the perceived safety and its investments in AI and Fusion.
- META: Priced correctly for its current lead in the smart-glasses market.
- ETN & MOD: The prices reflect their essential roles in building switches and managing heat. Solid and steady.
3. The Expensive Winners
- NVDA & ARM: These are elite companies, but the secret is out. You are paying top dollar because everyone else is trying to buy in too. You are paying for tomorrow’s growth today.
The Companies that May Survive Anything
I asked Gemini for the Ultimate Survivors, the handful of companies that might thrive through any crazy technological shift. It said:
Even if a computer is eventually made out of liquid DNA or beams of light, or we all stop staring at screens and just wear smart glasses, the physical reality does not change. That futuristic computer still sits in a building. It still needs miles of Copper (FCX) to connect to the power grid. It still needs heavy-duty Electrical Switches (ETN) so the building does not catch fire. The complex cloud processing for your smart glasses will still be handled by giants like Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) or Google (GOOGL). The intricate silicon casings holding those light-beams will still be manufactured by TSM. And the tiny, battery-sipping blueprints inside your wearables will still be designed by ARM. They are the foundation beneath the foundation.
The Sci-Fi Watchlist – The Future of Tech
These companies represent brilliant technology, but they did not pass the filter to make it onto the main list. They are either burning too much cash right now or operating in a brutal hardware market.
Photonic Computing (Light): Current chips use electricity, which creates friction and massive heat. Photonics uses light (photons), which has no friction, is 30x faster, and uses almost no energy. It is the cure for the data center energy crisis. Marvell (MRVL) is building the light-pipes, while Coherent (COHR) and Lumentum (LITE) make the specialized lasers. They are building the future, but they do not have the irreplaceable monopoly power of a company like TSM yet.
Biological Computing (DNA Storage): Using synthetic DNA to store massive amounts of data in tiny spaces – think the whole internet in a shoe box. Microsoft is funding heavy research here, and companies like Twist Bioscience (TWST) are building the actual DNA strands. It is a brilliant science project, but still years away from being cheap enough to scale.
That was Gemini, the AI owned by Google. Back to my own voice now:
I might try putting a small amount of skin in the game this time, just to see how the stocks behave in real life.
But I don’t recommend anyone to do the same.
I have no way of judging whether what AI gave me is genuinely useful, or too risky for anything involving real money.
For now, this stays what it started as: an experiment.
