3 Growth Stocks Worth Buying Through the Volatility and Holding for a Lifetime

The market is still pricing these as simple “AI beneficiaries,” but the more important second-order effect is that they are becoming quasi-duration assets on data-center capex and defense digitization. That makes the earnings stream bigger, but also more convex: when AI buildout accelerates, backlog conversion and pricing power both improve; when hyperscaler budgets pause, these names de-rate like infrastructure proxies rather than pure software growth stocks. GE Vernova and Vertiv are especially sensitive to the sequencing of data-center projects, because power and cooling decisions are front-loaded and can slip faster than the broader AI narrative.

Relative winners are likely to be the picks-and-shovels suppliers with the most constrained supply chains and the longest qualification cycles. That favors Vertiv near term if the buildout stays hot, but it also creates latent margin risk if competitors or OEMs force price competition once capacity catches up. For GE Vernova, the hidden benefit is not just turbine demand but the embedded optionality in utility planning: once large-load interconnects are approved, customers tend to lock in multi-year equipment and service spend, making cancellations expensive and unlikely. BAE’s AI angle is different: it is less about revenue uplift from AI itself and more about procurement credibility, where AI-enabled mission systems can help defend budget share against peers with less differentiated software layers.

The consensus is underestimating how much of the upside is already in the equity momentum, particularly for the infrastructure names. These are now crowded “AI utility” trades, so the risk is not a thesis break but a multiple reset if rates back up, power demand data gets delayed, or hyperscaler capex guides down for even one quarter. On the other hand, if AI spend broadens beyond a few cloud leaders into enterprise and sovereign buildouts, these stocks can keep compounding because the installed base is still small relative to the eventual addressable market.