So I've been thinking about what the next decade of investing could look like, and honestly, the AI narrative is impossible to ignore. The research is pretty clear—the AI market's projected to explode from around $270 billion today to over $5 trillion by the mid-2030s. That's the kind of growth trajectory that creates generational wealth if you pick the right plays.

The thing is, most of the biggest AI winners probably haven't even gone public yet. But that doesn't mean we're stuck waiting. Some of today's top AI companies to invest in already have massive exposure to this opportunity—both through their own AI capabilities and their stakes in private AI firms.

Let me break down five companies that could be core holdings through 2035 and beyond.

First, Nvidia. You can't talk about AI infrastructure without mentioning them. They basically own the GPU market for AI training—we're talking 92% market share in data centers. Their CUDA programming has created a moat that's tough to break. All the major cloud players have already bet heavily on Nvidia's infrastructure, and switching costs are brutal in this arms race. The company's sitting on a $500 billion order backlog, which tells you everything about near-term momentum.

Then there's Alphabet. Google's parent company is playing the AI game from multiple angles. They've got billions of users touching their services daily—search, YouTube, Android. They operate Google Cloud, they're in autonomous ride-hailing, and they own about 7% of SpaceX. But here's what's interesting: they're not just using AI, they're building it. They created their own TPU chip, trained Gemini on it, and are now selling these chips to other AI companies. It's hard to find a more complete tech juggernaut right now.

Microsoft is the stable play. Azure is the world's second-largest cloud platform, and they own roughly 27% of OpenAI—so if you want exposure to ChatGPT without buying OpenAI stock directly, this is how you do it. Azure's positioned to capture massive growth as AI workloads migrate to the cloud. Plus, they've got mature, profitable businesses in Windows and Microsoft 365, plus a dividend they've raised for 23 straight years. If you want some peace of mind alongside your AI exposure, Microsoft checks that box.

Amazon's another way to get exposure to emerging AI companies you can't buy directly. They operate AWS, the world's leading cloud business, and they've invested $8 billion in Anthropic, a major OpenAI competitor. So owning Amazon gives you a stake in that race. Their cloud, e-commerce, and advertising businesses are still in growth mode, and AI is just accelerating those trends.

Finally, Palantir Technologies. This is the pure-play AI software story. They launched their AI-focused platform, AIP, in mid-2023, and growth has been accelerating. They're winning government and corporate contracts at scale. The valuation is admittedly stretched right now, but here's the thing—they have fewer than 1,000 customers. That's an enormous runway for expansion over the next decade. If you're patient, dips in the stock price could be opportunities to add at better prices.

The broader point: these five companies give you exposure to top AI companies to invest in across both hardware and software layers. You're not just betting on AI as a concept—you're owning pieces of the infrastructure, the platforms, and the applications that will power the next decade. Some of the biggest winners will emerge from the private markets, sure, but these five give you a proven way to participate in the AI revolution without waiting for the next IPO.