With shares up 78% year to date, BigBear.ai (BBAI -3.35%) is catching the attention of investors looking for a small, fast-growing company with millionaire-maker potential. But is the rally based on hype or real substance?

Let’s dig deeper into the pros and cons of this artificial intelligence (AI) software stock to see if it can maintain its epic rally.

What is BigBear.ai?

BigBear.ai was formed by the roll-up of several AI and big data analytics companies held by the private equity firm AEI Industrial Partners. And despite hitting public markets relatively recently through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in 2021, BigBear.ai is older than you might expect, with some of its components tracing back to 1988.

BigBear.ai’s offerings include biometrics software like facial recognition and contactless identity screening, which is currently deployed at major U.S. airports like Dallas-Fort Worth International and Los Angeles International. It also offers a wide range of big data analytics software solutions designed to help clients glean actionable insights from vast amounts of information. These systems target industries ranging from shipbuilding to cybersecurity and healthcare resource planning.

How is the business performing?

Despite operating in what sounds like a cutting-edge industry, BigBear.ai’s actual results are surprisingly lackluster. First-quarter revenue rose just 5% year over year to $34.8 billion. And while the company’s operating losses technically narrowed from $98.1 million to $21.2 million, this decline was because of a one-time $85 million goodwill impairment charge (related to its recent acquisition of Pangiam) that occurred last year. It doesn’t reflect a sustainable positive trend in the bottom line.

BigBear.ai’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) removes nonrecurring outflows like goodwill impairment and restructuring. And it shows that the company’s losses have actually increased more than fourfold, from $1.6 million to $7 million.

Despite the challenges, management seems optimistic, with CEO Kevin McAleenan claiming to see early and encouraging signs that his company’s strategic focus is resonating. In 2025, Big Bear.ai aims to “strengthen its core” by focusing on opportunities like border security, trade, and shipbuilding. These efforts seem to mirror the priorities of the Trump administration, and it is unclear if the company is just chasing headlines instead of learning into actual competitive advantages.

Image source: Getty Images.

Is BigBear.ai an alternative to Palantir?

On the surface, BigBear.ai looks quite similar to its rival Palantir Technologies. Both offer big data analytics and operate AI-enabled software-as-a-service (SaaS) business models with significant exposure to the national security sector. That said, that’s where most similarities end.

While BigBear.ai’s sales grew by just 5% year over year, Palantir’s surged by 39% as it snagged high-profile contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Granted, with a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 122 (BigBear.ai trades for a P/S of 12), Palantir is overvalued despite its high growth rate. But the much lower price tag doesn’t necessarily make BigBear.ai a good alternative when considering its challenges with growth and worsening cash burn.

Is BigBear.ai a millionaire-maker stock?

Markets aren’t always rational. And the hype that caused BigBear.ai’s stock price to rally 78% this year may continue as investors scramble to maximize their exposure to the AI and big data analytics industries.

However, long term, the company’s fundamental weakness may become too glaring to ignore. Investors who want to build sustainable wealth in the stock market should look elsewhere for now.

Everyone loves investing in the hottest new technology. The problem is, investing in cutting-edge technology can be risky, as there is constant disruption peeking around the corner that could kill your business model. Just ask investors in software companies today how they feel about the risk of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated programing and what it could mean for their competition.

If you are going to invest in technology, you need to focus on finding companies with competitive advantages, or competitive moats around their operations. This can come in the form of economies of scale, a classic competitive advantage that can lead to durable leadership for a company in a sector. Here are two millionaire-maker technology stocks with wide economies of scale that should help them grow for years to come.

Coupang’s meteoric rise

Everything that Amazon has done in the United States, Coupang (CPNG -0.97%) is replicating in South Korea. At least, that is what it can seem like sometimes when following the company. Coupang is an e-commerce marketplace in South Korea with first- and third-party sales, its own delivery and warehouse network, and a burgeoning advertising and streaming video operation.

In fact, I would argue that Coupang has improved on the Amazon delivery model, if you thought that was even possible. Customers who subscribe to Coupang’s Rocket Wow membership get free delivery that can arrive by 7 a.m. the next morning if ordered before midnight. It has rapid fresh grocery delivery, as well as technicians that will install appliances and car parts ordered on the Coupang marketplace.

All of these services are possible because of Coupang’s immense investments in infrastructure in South Korea. Last quarter, Coupang’s revenue grew 21% year over year in constant currency, while gross profit grew even faster at a 31% year-over-year rate. The company is investing heavily to grow but still generated operating income of $154 million last quarter compared to $7.9 billion in revenue.

Coupang still has a long runway to gain market share in South Korea. But it is beginning to expand its services as a full-fledged technology provider. This includes expansion geographically into Taiwan, which is seeing rapid revenue growth as the company replicates its e-commerce model. It just announced for the first time its Intelligent Cloud computing service, which is taking a page out of the Amazon playbook. It is unclear how large Coupang’s cloud business is today, but with so much spending going to cloud companies when it comes to AI, there is a ton of potential here.

Today, Coupang trades at a market cap of $55 billion. With huge potential to expand its e-commerce and subscription platform across East Asia, there is room for the company to reach $100 billion or more in annual revenue in the near future compared to $31 billion over the last twelve months. With expanding profit margins, this makes Coupang a great stock to buy today and a millionaire maker for those looking to hold for the long haul.

Image source: Getty Images.

Manufacturing prowess for AI

The second stock on my list has even larger economies of scale than Coupang: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM -2.38%). The semiconductor and computer chip manufacturer — otherwise just called TSMC — dominates advanced systems that are being utilized for AI. Its largest customers include the likes of Nvidia, Apple, and Qualcomm.

TSMC spends around $35 billion annually building factories to produce computer chips, including over $100 billion in committed investments in the United States. Along with its large contracts with suppliers and customers, this capital spending gives TSMC a huge competitive advantage in scale versus the competition. In fact, no other company can match its advanced semiconductor making at such a large scale, giving TSMC little competition to be afraid of.

As you might expect, TSMC’s revenue has begun to soar because of the insatiable demand for AI computer chips. Net revenue grew 35% year over year last quarter to $25.5 billion, with operating margins approaching 50%. These are unheard-of profit margins for a heavy manufacturer, which shows TSMC’s immense pricing power in the industry.

In the years ahead, spending on AI is expected to keep growing at an insatiable rate, fueling semiconductor demand. This will lead the dollars to flow to TSMC’s factories as it will need to pump out more and more computer chips for customers. In turn, this will lead to higher revenue and profit for the company.

At a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 30 today, TSMC is at a reasonable price for a monopoly provider in an industry seeing a rapid surge in demand. TSMC has been a millionaire maker for investors in the past and can still be a millionaire maker for investors in the future.

In the fledgling field of quantum computing, IonQ (IONQ -2.16%) has emerged as one of the leading start-up investment options. It holds key contracts with top players in the quantum computing field, like the Air Force Research Lab, and offers top-notch technology.

Although it’s far from a surefire bet, is this quantum computing start-up the best chance at transforming a meager investment into $1 million? After all, quantum computing has the potential to transform high-powered computing. Let’s take a closer look.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. IonQ’s error correction is among the best

Quantum computing can potentially be an absolute game changer in the high-powered computing world. It lets users tackle problems they’ve never been able to fully model before (like weather patterns and logistics networks), but it also could have massive implications for artificial intelligence (AI). Quantum computing could deliver huge value for whichever company can win the quantum computing arms race, but each competitor must solve a key problem first: errors.

Unlike traditional computing, quantum computing doesn’t have a clear black-and-white answer. While traditional computers use bits to transmit information, which can only be in the form of a 0 or a 1, quantum computing uses qubits. While qubits collapse down to a 0 or a 1 when measured, they can exist in a state between 0 and 1 during the calculation process. This opens up many possibilities within a calculation, which is why quantum computers could perform better at workloads with thousands of possibilities.

The best way most companies have found to deal with this error issue is to let the qubits interact with each other to reduce errors. While many competitors have placed their qubits in a grid-like system to let the qubits interact with their neighbors, IonQ has taken it a step further. They use all-to-all connectivity, which lets every qubit interact with every other qubit. This leads to unparalleled 2-qubit gate fidelity, and IonQ’s process already has greater than 99.9% fidelity.

This shows that IonQ has already made a fantastic start on the most critical problem with quantum computing, which is why it has several key partnerships.

2. IonQ holds several critical contracts

IonQ holds one of the largest contracts in quantum computing with the U.S. Air Force Research Lab, a facility known for testing cutting-edge technologies. This indicates that quantum computing is not just a future technology; it can be used in its current state.

To further support this option, IonQ hardware is available for use on the three major cloud computing providers: Microsoft Azure, Alphabet‘s Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services. With IonQ’s hardware becoming more widely available, it’s making key progress in this race. If it can differentiate itself from its competitors and start to capture a customer base, it could create a foothold that would be hard to disrupt.

3. There’s a huge market opportunity for quantum computing

To circle back to the original question, can IonQ be a millionaire-maker stock? I’m not sure. There’s a huge market for quantum computing in the future, but it’s not that large right now. IonQ estimates that the market opportunity will reach $87 billion by 2035, but it’s unlikely that one company will capture that complete market share.

Even if IonQ captures 50% of it and generates around $40 billion in annual revenue, that’s still less than another key quantum computing competitor, IBM. IBM is about a $270 billion company — about 27 times the size of IonQ.

So, can IonQ transform $10,000 into $1 million? Likely not. But can IonQ deliver strong stock performance if it wins the quantum computing arms race? Absolutely. However, this is far from a surefire bet, as the field is ripe with potent competition, and IonQ still has years to go before proving commercial relevancy.

If you’d bought $10,000 worth of XRP (XRP 0.90%) back in 2021, your position would be worth a jaw-dropping $118,000 today, highlighting the life-changing potential of cryptocurrency investing. The S&P 500 would have returned a comparably measly $20,000 during that same time frame.

However, with its market cap now exceeding $138 billion, XRP will find it more challenging to maintain the same explosive momentum as in the past. Let’s explore whether recent regulatory wins and increasing institutional adoption could be the key to the cryptocurrency’s long-term success.

Investors are getting optimistic again

While XRP is still down roughly 38% from its all-time high of $3.84 (reached in 2018), momentum is picking up — with the token’s price up more than double during the past six months. It isn’t hard to see why investors are getting optimistic again. Under the Trump administration, the U.S. government has demonstrated a much softer stance toward the industry.

In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile to store cryptocurrencies, which the government typically seizes in civil or criminal asset forfeitures. This move would not only help to legitimize these assets, but it could also reduce selling pressure; both the Reserve and the Stockpile would holding the cryptos rather than liquidate them for cash. The cryptocurrency industry has also enjoyed recent wins on the regulatory front.

In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided to drop its appeal against a favorable ruling for XRP’s developer, Ripple Labs, which established that its tokens are not securities when sold to retail investors on public exchanges. While Ripple still faces fines related to its sales of XRP to institutional investors, this decision removes a significant overhang for XRP.

XRP’s path to mainstream adoption

XRP’s long-term success will depend on its mainstream adoption, both as a financial asset and in real-world use cases. The good news is that it has some advantages over its biggest rivals. While Bitcoin was created to function as a store of value and medium of exchange, XRP targets the potentially lucrative market of international payments, currently served by arguably archaic platforms such as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which was established in 1973.

Although Ripple and XRP are unlikely to replace SWIFT anytime soon, they could provide an alternative for small companies and individuals who prioritize speed and low costs.

According to Business Insider, an outgoing international wire transfer currently costs about $15 to $30 (settling in as long as five days). Using different currencies could add further costs and complexities. XRP solves this problem by acting as a bridge. If someone in the U.S. wants to transfer dollars to Japan (where the yen is used), they could convert their dollars to XRP and use that XRP to buy the Japanese yen.

Image source: Getty Images.

To be fair, pretty much all cryptocurrencies can fill this role, but XRP sets itself apart with its extremely low fee of 0.00001 XRP per transaction, which is a fraction of a cent. For context, Bitcoin currently costs about $1.50 per transaction, while Ethereum costs $0.25 per transaction. These numbers can spike dramatically depending on network traffic.

Is XRP a millionaire-maker cryptocurrency?

With a token price of just $2.38 each at the time of writing, XRP looks extremely cheap compared to other leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which trade for $105,500 and $2,520, respectively. But this tells only half the story. With a market cap of $138 billion, XRP is already the world’s fourth-largest crypto.

The asset’s immense size means it is unlikely to repeat the explosive multibagger returns it enjoyed during the past five years. The larger something is, the harder it is to grow. That said, XRP’s recent regulatory wins and potential for mainstream adoption in the international payments industry could set it up for continued market-beating success.

If one thinks of companies most affected by the Trump administration’s tariff policy, it would probably be retail consumer goods companies that have a large part of their manufacturing in China. However, SharkNinja (SN 0.68%), which had sold off on the back of those very tariff fears, just posted an impressive first-quarter report, even raising its revenue and profit guidance for the full year.

The company’s resilience and adaptability in the face of a near-worst-case scenario were impressive and show why this emerging consumer goods juggernaut could be a millionaire-maker stock.

Image source: Getty Images.

How SharkNinja sets itself apart

Consumer appliance companies aren’t generally thought of as exciting. However, SharkNinja, which just went public in mid-2023, has taken an aggressive approach that seeks to disrupt the industry.

In every category, SharkNinja always aims for five-star-rated products developed with deep input around customer pain points and perspectives, which have the potential to generate intense brand loyalty and go viral. SharkNinja then puts its intensive marketing research to its 1,000 cross-functional engineers and designers to build the highest-quality product it can to solve those problems. The company describes itself not as a consumer products company as much as a “problem-solving engine.”

That engine can be applied to a number of household goods and products. So, while the Shark brand began in vacuum cleaners, and Ninja began with blenders, SharkNinja has since expanded to 36 total subcategories across cleaning products, cooking and beverage products, food preparation, and beauty products.

The consistent innovation of existing products and the determination to enter new product categories each year have enabled 21% average revenue growth since 2008.

SharkNinja produces goods in Asia, but raised guidance anyway

While SharkNinja has an impressive history, the stock sold off this year on the announcement of the Trump administration’s tariffs. At first glance, this would seem like a death knell for the company, given that it has a large part of its manufacturing in China. While SharkNinja has diversified outside of China in recent years, it still has a lot of operations there. It has expanded only to other low-cost countries in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Despite all that, SharkNinja posted 14.7% revenue growth in the first quarter and actually increased its guidance not only for revenue, which management now sees growing at 12% this year, but also for adjusted earnings per share, which SharkNinja now sees at $4.95, versus $4.85 previously — good for 13% growth.

How management is mitigating tariffs

Make no mistake: The Trump tariffs are a big headwind for SharkNinja. But the company has made great efforts to overcome them.

First, SharkNinja has been able to shift a large part of its U.S. volume from China to these other countries, which currently have only the minimum 10% tariff attached for now. The diversification and dual-source strategy began back in 2018, so the company was better prepared for this scenario than it was five years ago.

In addition, SharkNinja has close partnerships with contract manufacturers and has been able to secure cost-downs and discounts on materials, all while shifting production of certain goods to the lowest-cost bidder when there is more than one manufacturing option.

SharkNinja also undertook a deep-dive effort on its value engineering processes, and management said it identified 1,500 opportunities to save costs. These include changes to configurations, finishes, features, and other elements, in a wide-ranging cost-saving effort.

Finally, SharkNinja has selectively raised prices on certain items sold in the U.S., largely without seeing decreases in volume. Management provided an example: It raised the price on its Ninja Luxe Café premium Espresso machine from $499 to $549, with no identifiable loss in demand.

That type of relentless execution and pricing power is a great sign of SharkNinja’s competitive advantage and brand power, which bodes really well for the company’s long-term growth and profitability.

A long-term compounder at a reasonable price

Although SharkNinja rallied hard after last week’s earnings, the stock is still about 25% off its highs and trades at a reasonable 18.5 times this year’s earnings guidance. However, SharkNinja still has a long runway for growth.

This includes not only expanding into new categories — with the company targeting two new subcategories annually — but also geographically. Management expects about one-third of its revenue to come from international markets in Europe and Latin America this year. It sees a long runway for growth in these new regions.

SharkNinja also has an excellent return on equity — a measure of how efficiently a company generates profits — of over 25%. Warren Buffett’s late partner, Charlie Munger, observed that over the long term, a stock’s returns tend to equal its return on capital, somewhat regardless of the price at which one buys a stock.

So, today, with a top-quality business like SharkNinja trading at a submarket multiple, it certainly has the ingredients of a millionaire-maker stock if bought and held for the long term.

There’s no doubt that investors can make millions of dollars by investing in electric car stocks. Just ask long-term holders of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA). Despite heavy ups and downs over the years, shares are up by more than 22,000% since 2010.

Looking for the next Tesla? The two EV stocks below are for you.

This EV maker should double its sales in 2025

If you’re looking for EV stocks with huge growth potential, start with Lucid Group (LCID -2.15%). Compared to the other stocks on this list, Lucid is growing the fastest today, and there’s reason to believe high growth could be achievable for several more years to come.

Last year, Lucid only had one EV on the market: The Lucid Air. This model came in several variants, but all essentially came down to a luxury electric sedan priced between $70,000 and $250,000, depending on options. The Air was an impressive initial vehicle for Lucid, helping grow the company’s sales to nearly $1 billion. But the Lucid Air had severe limitations. Its high cost priced out most of the market, while its sedan form factor deterred anyone looking for something roomier, like an SUV.

Earlier this year, Lucid solved half of that challenge with the launch of its Gravity SUV platform — essentially doubling its lineup. Analysts expect sales to grow by 82% this year, and another 91% next year, due to demand for Lucid’s SUV platform. But with a start price of nearly $100,000, the Gravity still prevents Lucid from tapping the mass market. That could all change in 2026, however, when the company expects to launch several new vehicles, all priced under $50,000.

There’s a lot of risk to this story. Ramping production of several new models over the next 12 to 24 months will put a strain on Lucid’s already constrained financial position. When it comes to raw growth potential, Lucid tops the list of “next Tesla” candidates. But for balancing growth and value, the next stock is actually my favorite right now.

RIVN PS Ratio data by YCharts. PS = price-to-sales.

My favorite electric car stock this decade

Despite Lucid’s rapid expected growth rates in 2025, Rivian (RIVN 2.71%) remains my top electric vehicle stock this decade. This story is a bit more complicated, but if you dig in, it’s clear that Rivian shares provide a huge opportunity for patient shareholders.

Like Lucid, Rivian only has two luxury models on the market, with high initial price points: The R1S and the R1T. But in roughly 12 months, the company expects to start production on three new affordable vehicles — the R2, R3, and R3X. By all accounts, Rivian is further along in getting its lower-priced vehicles to market than Lucid. Plus, the company has billions in additional cash with a current sales base more than five times that of Lucid. So which company is more likely to see its new affordable models get to market? I believe Rivian is better positioned.

Right now, Rivian’s valuation is far below Lucid’s, largely due to lackluster expected sales growth this year. But when you look beyond the next 12 months, I expect these growth rates to pick up considerably when its new models hit the roads. While more patience will be required for Rivian, this business has the best long-term growth potential at a reasonable valuation today.

Historically, few companies have demonstrated more millionaire-maker potential than Nvidia (NVDA 0.90%). The tech giant’s shares have soared by more than 22,000% over the last decade, generating plenty of shareholder wealth in the process.

That said, with a market cap of $3 trillion, Nvidia is already the third-largest company in the world. Growing concerns about the sustainability of AI hardware spending raise questions about how much more it can realistically rise. Let’s dig deeper to find out what the future may hold.

The AI hype cycle is getting long in the tooth

Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, tech giants have been scrambling to stay competitive in the market for large language models (LLMs), a type of AI algorithm that can create conversational responses based on a trained dataset. To this end, they have poured billions of dollars into purchasing Nvidia’s cutting-edge graphics processing units (GPUs) to train and run these complex programs.

For so-called hyperscalers like Alphabet and Amazon, this spending makes clear business sense because they can “rent out” their AI computing power to start-ups via their cloud computing platforms. However, for other major clients like Meta Platforms (which plans to spend $60 billion to $65 billion largely on AI-related capital expenditures), the potential returns for pouring so much money into Nvidia hardware look weaker.

Meta seems to be trying to stay relevant in an opportunity it has no clear way to monetize. And it might only be a matter of time before the company’s shareholders push back against all this speculative spending, which could have otherwise been used for dividends or share buybacks.

Nvidia’s operational momentum remains strong

While current AI spending may prove unsustainable in the long run, this challenge has yet to manifest itself in Nvidia’s operational results. Third-quarter revenue jumped 94% to $35.1 billion based on massive demand for its high-end data center chips to train LLMs.

Despite selling hardware, its gross margin of almost 75% rivals that of many software companies, helping operating income roughly double to $21.9 billion in the third quarter.

Over the coming quarters, products based on Nvidia’s new Blackwell GPU architecture promise to support continued growth and profitability. And so far, there is little evidence that the emergence of low-cost Chinese rival DeepSeek (which claims to have trained an industry-leading LLM on “primitive” H800 chips) is hurting demand for Nvidia’s newest chips.

Some industry experts argue that DeepSeek may have inappropriately copied technology from U.S. rivals like OpenAI through distillation — a process that involves transferring knowledge from a more advanced model to a smaller one. If true, this would suggest that Nvidia’s cutting-edge GPUs still help create the most advanced LLMs, even if others later copy these models using cheaper chips.

Image source: Getty Images.

Its valuation is still attractive, but the upside looks limited

With a forward price-to-earnings multiple (P/E) of just 29, the stock is still surprisingly affordable, considering its incredible growth rate. For context, the Nasdaq-100 has an average forward P/E of 31 even though few, if any, of its members rival Nvidia’s business expansion.

That said, with a market cap of $3 trillion, it is hard to see Nvidia generating multibagger returns from here, especially considering that current AI hardware spending may begin to diminish over time.

The stock’s millionaire-maker days seem to be far behind it. And return-hungry investors should probably look for more under-the-radar ways to bet on the AI opportunity.