3 Stocks Worth Owning No Matter What the Market Does for the Next 20 Years

The article highlights three long-term growth ideas: NuScale Power, Rivian, and Nu Holdings, tied to nuclear power demand from AI data centers, robotaxis, and digital banking expansion. NuScale is positioned as a $4.2B market-cap high-risk nuclear SMR play, Rivian’s R2 launch and Uber’s order for up to 50,000 units boost its robotaxi case, and Nu Holdings is growing to 135 million users with shares at 19.6x earnings. The piece is broadly bullish on the three stocks, but it is commentary rather than a new catalyst, so near-term market impact should be limited.

Analysis

The common thread here is not three isolated stock stories; it is capital chasing scarcity premiums in infrastructure, autonomy, and financial intermediation. The second-order effect is that these themes tend to reward the “picks-and-shovels” layer before the ultimate end markets prove out, so the better risk-adjusted expression may be in suppliers, integrators, and platforms with nearer-term revenue visibility than the headline names. SMR is the most convex but also the most fragile: if deployment timetables slip, the equity can de-rate hard because the market is paying for option value, not cash flow.

RIVN’s asymmetry is more interesting than the article suggests because the Uber order creates a potential de-risking event for financing and utilization, not just brand validation. The key question is whether this becomes a fleet-as-a-service template that reduces Rivian’s dependence on consumer demand and improves factory absorption over the next 12–24 months. If the R2 hits scale, the market will likely re-rate Rivian on contribution margin and platform optionality, but if autonomous economics disappoint, the stock remains trapped in a capital-intensive auto multiple.

NU is the highest-quality business in the set, but the underappreciated issue is saturation in its best markets and rising promo intensity from incumbents. That means the next leg of growth has to come from monetization per user, product depth, and credit quality rather than just account growth. In a slower macro backdrop, NU can still compound, but the multiple may stay capped unless investors see sustained operating leverage and clean loss normalization.

The contrarian takeaway is that the market may be underpricing execution risk in the more speculative names while over-discounting the durable compounder. The right frame is to own the businesses with visible earnings power and use optionality names as smaller, time-bounded trades around catalysts rather than long-duration core positions.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Overweight NU on a 6-12 month horizon: buy on any pullback toward the low-20s P/E equivalent, targeting a re-rating if user monetization and credit losses stay stable; downside is limited to multiple compression, upside is a durable compounder rerate.
• Take a tactical long SMR only as a small position or call spread for 3-9 months; the trade works if permitting and deployment milestones stay on track, but exit quickly on any schedule slippage because the stock is priced for future adoption.
• Long RIVN / short legacy OEM basket for 6-12 months: RIVN benefits if the R2 and fleet demand improve utilization, while traditional automakers face slower EV mix and weaker narrative support; keep size modest because financing risk remains high.
• Pair long UBER vs short TSLA on robotaxi monetization expectations over 12-18 months: UBER has more immediate platform optionality and less binary capital intensity, while TSLA’s valuation is more exposed to perfect execution.
• If expressing the AI power-demand theme, prefer names with contracted cash flows over SMR equity for now; the market is likely to pay up for visible infrastructure revenue before it rewards long-dated reactor optionality.