A person holding a light bulb near a clear rectangle with "metaverse" printed on it / Getty Images. Think long term. I know, those...
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| A person holding a light bulb near a clear rectangle with "metaverse" printed on it / Getty Images. |
Regardless of how stocks perform next week or next month, there are some areas that should be huge winners over the long term. I think that the metaverse is one of them. If you're a long-term investor, here are five unstoppable metaverse stocks to buy in 2022.
1. Nvidia
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) ranks as a top artificial intelligence (AI) stock. It's a top gaming stock. And it's a top metaverse stock -- both for the present and the future. While many companies are scrambling to carve out their part of the metaverse, Nvidia is already marketing a successful product. Its Omniverse platform supports virtual 3D design collaboration and simulation. Customers including manufacturers, engineering firms, and game developers are using Omniverse.
Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) should enjoy tremendous demand over the long term as well as the metaverse is built. Few companies can compete at the same level as Nvidia in powering virtual reality apps.
2. Unity Software
Unity Software (NYSE: U) is a metaverse stock that I think could realistically double in 2022. Its software has been used to develop more than 70% of the top 1,000 mobile games. Unity believes that a similar level of metaverse content will be created with its platform.
It won't just be programmers that build the metaverse, though. Artists will be heavily involved as well. Unity is now better positioned to meet their needs thanks to its acquisition of Weta Digital.
You might not have heard of Weta, but you've probably seen its work. The company's platform has been used in the creation of visual effects for numerous TV shows and movies, including Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings.
3. Meta Platforms
The metaverse is so important to the future for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB) that the company changed its name from Facebook. While advertising on its social media apps pays the bills for now, Meta is investing heavily in building the metaverse.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly stated that his company's goal is to help bring the metaverse to at least 1 billion people. He thinks that this will "unlock a massively larger creative economy of both digital and physical goods."
Meta is one of only a handful of companies that have the resources to focus on the entire metaverse ecosystem. It's developing an operating system, e-commerce architecture, social platform, and augmented reality/virtual reality devices to make the metaverse a reality.
4. Adobe
Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) currently stands as a giant in digital media. Although the company is probably best known for its Acrobat, Photoshop, and Creative Cloud products, it also offers a great product for developing augmented reality experiences called Aero.
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill even thinks that "Adobe is the best software play for the metaverse." Unsurprisingly, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen appears to be on the same page. Narayen stated in Adobe's fourth-quarter conference call in December:
As I think about web 3D and as I think about the metaverse, what it really means and implies is that, things that you are accustomed to doing in the physical world, increasingly more and more of that you're going to do in the virtual world. And so if you think about it that way, whether you're doing shopping, whether you're playing games, whether you're creating, co-creating with other people, whether you're expanding it, the aspect of creating all of that metaverse was, what better company in the planet than Adobe to be able to do that.
You don't have to agree with Thill or Narayen to appreciate the huge opportunity that Adobe has in the metaverse.
5. Matterport
Smaller companies could also play a key role in the development of the metaverse. Matterport (NASDAQ: MTTR) stands out as one great example. The company's technology enables the creation of "digital twins" of physical assets, including homes, office buildings, boats, and more.
Matterport's market cap is only around $4 billion right now. However, the company reigns as the 800-pound gorilla in the spatial data market, which it pioneered. Matterport has 6.2 million spaces under management on its platform, roughly 100 times the rest of the market combined.
But the company still has captured just a tiny fraction of its $240 billion total addressable market. With the rise of the metaverse, Matterport seems likely to grow tremendously in the coming years.