The stock market has, through geopolitical conflicts and jittery bubble-fearing uncertainties, once more proven its tenacity and resilience. 2026 has been anything but stable, yet the S&P 500 has clocked an almost 9% gain thus far.
Once again, artificial intelligence (AI) stocks are crushing it, with AI spending expected to hit $2.5 trillion — roughly the GDP of Canada
The enthusiasm for AI has helped companies even remotely peripheral to the technology, from nuclear stocks supplying the energy to industrial stocks mining for the metals. Looking ahead over the next 10 or so years, these trends suggest that the following two growth stocks have significant upside potential. 1. A company with enough metals to make 280 million electric vehicle batteries TMC The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC) is on the cusp of unlocking a multi-billion opportunity in the deep sea.
The metal company and deep-sea miner has exploratory rights to the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific Ocean, where a lode of roughly $24 billion sits in the form of polymetallic nodules. Nodules — rocks, bones, fragments of shells that have accumulated the ocean’s natural elements over millions of years — contain four metals crucial for making batteries, including nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese. Although the company has historically positioned itself as a metal supplier for electric vehicles, copper found in these nodules could be used for cables, transformers, and other parts in data center infrastructure.