If you have some extra cash you’re looking to commit to a long-term investment plan, there’s never been a better time to start investing. Artificial intelligence (AI) is improving at an exponential rate, and investors stand to profit handsomely from holding the right AI stocks.

The following companies are leaders in cloud services and data management that could deliver excellent returns.

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1. Microsoft

Microsoft (MSFT 1.82%) has been the dominant leader in software for decades, and it has translated that advantage to the cloud services market. Its impressive 39% year-over-year increase in Azure cloud revenue last quarter was faster than competitors, indicating significant market share gains.

Microsoft is second in market share behind cloud leader Amazon Web Services (AWS), but it’s growing more than twice as fast as AWS. Azure hauled in $75 billion of revenue in fiscal 2025 (ending in June). This indicates that Azure is winning large deals, as businesses increasingly turn to cloud services for building, deploying, and managing AI applications.

Microsoft’s lucrative software business gushes profits that it can spend on cloud and AI infrastructure. It logged $65 billion in capital expenditures last year, partly to expand its data center footprint across 70 regions worldwide. This puts Microsoft in a great position to provide cloud services globally with high-speed performance and low latency.

Moreover, the integration of cloud services through Microsfot Office software is also driving solid growth in its flagship software products. Its productivity software business reported revenue of $33 billion last quarter, representing a year-over-year increase of 16%.

Microsoft has multiple revenue streams from software, cloud, gaming, and advertising that make it a resilient buy-and-hold investment. Analysts expect the company’s earnings to grow at an annualized rate of 12%, which should send the stock to new highs in the coming years.

2. Snowflake

Growing AI demand is fueling robust investment in data infrastructure. This is benefiting several data intelligence companies like MongoDB, Datadog, and Databricks, which are reporting strong growth. Snowflake (SNOW -1.43%) has been reporting over 30% year-over-year quarterly revenue growth, as it continues to see strong demand for AI-driven tools on its platform.

Snowflake offers a cloud-based platform that helps companies analyze, store, and manage their data. It has rolled out a lot of new products to help businesses distill insights from data using AI. It now has more than 6,100 accounts out of more than 12,000 using the company’s AI tools on a weekly basis.

Snowflake offers tools like Cortex Analyst and Cortex Search that provide AI-powered search capabilities across a company’s applications and data. Strong AI adoption on the platform is helping Snowflake build a sticky ecosystem of services that could sustain strong growth.

Product revenue grew 32% year over year last quarter to nearly $1.1 billion. The company maintained a net revenue retention rate of 125%, indicating that customers continue to spend more on additional services. It also continues to see more customers sign deals, with total customer count up 19% year over year.

Snowflake is converting this revenue into healthy amounts of free cash flow. Over the last year, its free cash flow totaled $734 million on revenue of $4.1 billion. Strong profitability and demand for its cloud services should support new highs for the stock. Analysts expect Snowflake to grow earnings at an annualized rate of 47% in the coming years.