Where to invest $10,000 as AI-bubble fears mount, according to 8 Wall Street pros

Bubble or no bubble: Absolutely not

Investing ideas: Biotech and industrials stocks

BofA's chief market strategist thinks the idea of a bubble is laughable.

"There is no bubble," Quinlan chuckled. "We still have a lot more demand out there."

Given his bullish outlook, he said he'd put the money into biotech stocks, which he thinks will get a boost from AI's ability to discover new drugs quickly and improve preventative care.

"I think that biotech is just ripe for continued upside," he said.

Then, he said he would barbell that with industrial stocks.

"The picks and shovel guys that have to build out AI infrastructure, build out the data centers, mix the cement," Quinlan said.

The VanEck Biotech ETF (BBH) and the Vanguard Industrials ETF (VIS) are examples of funds that offer exposure to these areas of the market.

Bubble or no bubble: No, but don't go all in

Investing ideas: Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and One Big Beautiful Bill beneficiaries

Kabra is in the "boom camp rather than bubble camp," but he says that while investors should be exposed to AI, they shouldn't be overweight.

His favorite corner of the trade is hyperscalers — like the three mega-cap names listed above — that have strong balance sheets and don't need to pile up a lot of debt to build out hard assets like data centers.

He drew a distinction between cash-rich mega-cap titans and others that have been taking on large amounts of debt to fund their AI ambitions, like Oracle.

"The strong versus weak balance sheet within tech will have a major focus."

On the other side of things, Kabra is bullish on cyclical stocks that will benefit from tax and regulatory breaks contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. He recently published a list of 30 stocks that fall under the financial, industrial, and consumer cyclicals sectors, which he believes are poised to be the big gainers.

A few of the stocks include Deere & Co, Wells Fargo (WFC), and Exxon Mobil Corporation. The full list can be found here.

Bubble or no bubble: Yes — but it's probably smaller and more contained than other bubbles

Investing ideas: Japanese small caps, European value stocks

"It's not as extreme as what we saw in 2000, and it hasn't infected everything," Inker said. "One of the problems that can happen in bubbles is, like in 2008, nothing was as expensive as internet stocks were in 2000, but every risk asset everywhere was overvalued: stocks were overvalued, credit was overvalued, real estate was overvalued, everything was overvalued."

He added: "Today, the AI stocks are overvalued, growth stocks are overvalued, but not really much else."

One place to look instead of AI, Inker said, is Japanese small-cap stocks.

"The yen is the most undervalued currency on earth. That is a lovely thing if you're buying companies whose costs are denominated in yen because they have a huge competitive advantage because everything's really cheap in Japan," he said. "The valuations of small caps in particular are also really low."

Another area he likes is European value stocks — in particular, Inker highlighted the financials, industrials, and healthcare sectors as areas that should offer better long-term returns than US growth stocks.

Bubble or no bubble: No, but the market is expensive

Investing ideas: Taiwan Semiconductor Company, Nvidia, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, 30-year Treasury bonds

Dornbusch doesn't see a bubble, though he acknowledges valuations are high. Still, it's impossible to time a correction, so long-term investors might as well buy now, he said.

As for where they should invest, Dornbusch, who oversees $20 billion in assets, likes the mega-cap AI stocks at the center of the AI trade.

"I do believe AI is real, they are disrupting the economy and the companies that take advantage of this situation are the Googles of the world, the Nvidias of the world, the Taiwan Semiconductors of the world that are providing the network or the applications to take advantage of the disruption of everybody else," he said.

But Dornbusch is also bullish on what could be viewed as a hyper-conservative investment: the 30-year Treasury note.

That's due to a few reasons: first, it yields a robust 5%. Second, Dornbusch thinks the market is overestimating long-term inflation, and long-end yields will eventually come down, yielding investors a profit. And third, if stocks endure a crash, a broader flight to safety should push yields down.

Bubble or no bubble: Not broadly

Investing ideas: Microsoft, ServiceNow, Clorox, Mondelez

"There are a lot of individual stocks that are probably overvalued and overextended at this point in time," Sekera said, but "there's still a number of stocks that are undervalued, and in fact, the technology sector overall is trading at a discount to our fair value."

Two of those undervalued tech stocks are Microsoft and ServiceNow, Sekera said. Both have large competitive advantages, and trade at 20% and 25% discounts, respectively. Microsoft should benefit from diversified earnings drivers, and ServiceNow should get a boost as investors start looking to software firms that allow smaller businesses to take advantage of AI.

Sekera also highlighted two value stocks that trade at "substantial discounts": Clorox and Mondelez.

Both stocks "also still pay relatively high dividend yields, which would also help cushion your portfolio in a highly volatile market that I expect for 2026," he said.

Bubble or no bubble: Concerns are overblown

Investing ideas: Walmart, Salesforce, and Alphabet

Hare said that bubble concerns are "a little bit overblown," and that he's still positive on the AI trade.

That said, he shared three AI plays for investors to consider, assuming one already has a diversified portfolio: Walmart, Salesforce, and Alphabet.

In Walmart's case, the company has been an early adopter of AI, benefiting from its implementation for supply chain automation.

Salesforce, meanwhile, is sitting on a gold mine in its proprietary data.

"AI is only as good as the data used to create the model. Salesforce has the client data, so they can create an AI model using clients' existing data," he said. "So it's kind of a new level of AI solution where it's based on the client's version of data instead of all public."

And Alphabet's Gemini chatbot beats its top competitors, Hare thinks.

"Google has now come out with an AI model, Gemini, and they've also added AI in their search engine," Hare said. "So Google went from not having a solution, the market was anticipating that they would lose all of this ad revenue as people stopped Googling searches, to offering a solution — a better version of Google with AI."

Bubble or no bubble: No bubble, and it's still early in the adoption cycle

Investing ideas: International stocks, small caps, energy, industrials, infrastructure

Peterson said he didn't believe the market was in an AI bubble. In fact, the US looks to be in the early stages of AI adoption and development, and much of the cash being poured into the technology has been financed with free cash flow, not debt, he said.

"We understand the concerns that are out there, but we think it's robust technology and early in adoption," he added.

Peterson says investors looking to deploy $10,000 in the market should consider international equities, an area where valuations appear more attractive and many investors are underexposed. International stocks are also expected to be supported by a weaker US dollar, which favors companies abroad.

Other areas to invest in will depend on what an investor's portfolio already looks like. However, those looking for opportunities outside of the AI trade should look at small-caps, which are also more cheaply valued compared to mega-cap tech, Peterson said. AI-adjacent sectors like energy, industrials, and infrastructure also look more attractive from a valuation standpoint.

Funds that offer exposure to these areas include the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK), the Vanguard Industrials ETF, Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE), and the Global X MLP & Energy Infrastructure ETF (MLPX).

Bubble or no bubble: No signs of trouble yet

Investing ideas: Mega-caps, utilities, and industrials

Curtis said he didn't believe the market was in an AI bubble. The structural components holding up the AI trade look sound, he said, pointing to healthy balance sheets, strong cash flow, and large existing user bases at firms spending big on AI.

"Is there sufficient financing? Is there sufficient power? Will it get deployed as quickly? And those are all real things that we have to navigate as investors, but they're not structural problems over the long run," he said.

Curtis said he would split the $10,000 between two groups of investments.

The first group consists of nine of the largest mega-cap tech stocks — the Magnificent Seven, plus Oracle and Broadcom.

The second group consists of select companies from the rest of the S&P 500, particularly firms with a strong competitive advantage, a strong management team, and a strong profit outlook.

"There is real opportunity in the S&P 491 for stock pickers to buy stuff," he said, adding that he would deploy more of the capital in this area, particularly in companies that can apply AI or support the AI infrastructure buildout. Sectors like utilities and industrials, in particular, are areas where he believes there are good opportunities.

Funds that offer exposure to these areas include the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS), the Vanguard Utilities ETF, and the iShares US Industrials ETF (VIS).