The Monk 2026 Short List
Great businesses, ready for growth this year.
As an intro into the new year, I would like to highlight the top 4 companies I’m bullish on and the reasons behind it. These are conceptual case studies, not recommendations; I’m not even invested in all of them. That being said, these companies are set up to run well in 2026, and all for different reasons. What makes this a ‘short list’ is the way it’s structured: a one liner of what the company does, why it’s normally loved, and what I believe sets it up for growth in 2026. Let’s dive in!
Nvidia (NVDA) - The Coal to the AI Furnace
Designs high-performance chips and platforms for complex computing workloads, including, AI, data centers, and bitcoin mining.
People love Nvidia for its massive upward trend seen the last 5 years, but also its cash generator, CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), giving the company exceptional margins with growing revenue.
Despite its rapid growth, I believe Nvidia is set up for even more success. Many others agree, such as Wall Street outlooks seeing the strong (and growing) AI market being fed by the computer hardware Nvidia provides. I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this simile, but Nvidia is selling picks and shovels in the AI goldmine—indispensable hardware that everyone needs to achieve anything AI related.
Amazon (AMZN) - One Word, AWS
Everything. Global e-commerce platform, logistics, cloud services, ads, streaming services, I’m missing more.
Amazon is a stock that just makes sense. A. We can’t imagine our life without Amazon. B. If you can imagine a company with it, Amazon most likely owns it. More than this, Amazon has unbeatable aspects such as its logistics moat, the e-commerce at your front door every day, but most importantly, Amazon Web Services.
AWS is what sets up Amazon for success in 2026. If we look at the chart below, it’s clear that Amazon is the chosen web provider for a large majority of software focused businesses. With the exception of the growing Google (which is also on this short list), Amazon’s equity in the web services space is growing rapidly with no competition. This is without a doubt Amazon’s current bread and butter, and it will only grow more rapidly as we see more and more AI startups launching. If you want to see more number focused metrics for Amazon, I recommend checking out a prior post I made breaking it down.
Bitfarms (BITF) - Bitcoin Gone AI
Bitfarms is a bitcoin mining company operating its facilities by low-cost energy, (currently) earning revenue through block rewards and transaction fees from the bitcoin mined.
Bitfarms has been shown some love recently for a few reasons: people are getting more bullish on bitcoin and the access to cheap energy Bitfarms has makes it a more scaleable facility compared to most.
With all this being said, I believe the most important part (that I haven’t mentioned) about Bitfarms is their active transition from mining facilities to HPC/AI data centers; ‘winding down’ their crypto mining by 2027 to focus on this AI infrastructure. I think this sets this company up for massive success—as we’ve already seen there’s a high demand for data centers from all cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle, etc.), Social Media (Meta, Apple), and of course the AI giants (Nvidia, AMD). Many of the mentioned companies have plans to build the infrastructure needed, but nothing can ever be built fast enough, so the likely hood of Bitfarms outsourcing, selling off assets, or even being bought are extremely high as infrastructure demand increases.
Alphabet (GOOG) - The Mother of all Moats
Operates your preferred search engine, owns your favorite entertainment site (YouTube), Android, Cloud Services, and the newest kid on the block: Gemini.
People love Google for its massive data and distribution moat, with crazy amounts of cash flow from the miscellaneous cash producing income streams Alphabet has. What people are very excited about is the ongoing investment in AI and Alphabets other new AI driven products; Gemini has been such a hit that we’ve seen a pretty major decline in the amount of ChatGPT users, as they’ve switched to Gemini as their preferred LLM.
It’s a large statement to say that Alphabet stock will continue to rally upward with it already up around 85% the past 6 months, but I’m willing to make that statement. I would be surprised if the rapid momentum itself continues, but it’s almost a no brainer that Google will continue in the green through 2026. My reasoning behind its 2026 set up is driven by Alphabets terrific ability to monetize almost everything—and I think an upgrade in the monetization for Gemini is due. But as their AI powered tools continue to mature, GOOG has much in its favor with growing demand, smarter tools, and terrific margins.
There’s my short list for 2026. If you want to see me break down what my personal entry and exit points I’m planning for some of these positions are, further thoughts on my convictions/thesis for the businesses, etc. make sure to upgrade to the paid subscription for only $6.99/month and a newsletter with such will hit your inbox soon.
Nice overview.
Long AMZN and GOOGL as no-brainer investments.
No individual NVDA position personally, but I have lots of index exposure, so I have no choice there. Very easy to own 3/4th of this list and not think about it. Most people do if they index.
Long IREN as a very small speculative position, similar to BITF narratively. Feels out of place in the middle of the article, among true titans. Interesting to call it out specifically. Will be adding BITF to my watchlist.
Cheers!