For the sixth year running, Airbnb is restricting high-risk reservations during Halloween. This Halloween weekend, the company is deploying its anti-party technology across the US and Canada. Party stays generate the same booking fees as regular stays but expose it to additional risks and costs. By blocking them, Airbnb may actually boost its business, even as its stock has delivered little progress over the past five years.

Fewer Parties, Lower Risk

The technology evaluates bookings based on a few factors. Those factors include reservation length, property type, where guests live, and how close the booking is to the stay date. Last Halloween weekend, it blocked more than 23,500 US guests from reserving entire homes. Those unable to book a whole property can opt for a private room or hotel through Airbnb, which helps the company preserve some revenue.

The financial impact of these parties goes beyond booking revenue. The company launched its crackdown after a deadly shooting at a rental during Halloween. In cities like Houston, neighbors blame short-term rentals for house parties. Since Airbnb operates under strict rules in New York and Barcelona, fewer party-related incidents might reduce demands for stricter regulations. Noise sensors and a 24-hour Safety Line provide an added layer of protection.

The Stock Has Gone Nowhere In Five Years

The policy is unlikely to have a significant impact on earnings. Airbnb blocked 23,500 bookings, which is a small number compared to the roughly 533 million nights Airbnb booked last year.

Growth is a more important issue for shareholders. In 2022, nights booked grew 31%, but growth slowed to just 8% in 2025. An investment of $1,000 five years ago was worth about $961 in early October. Still, the stock trades at roughly 32 times forward earnings. That is more than twice the sector median of 15.29 times but approximately 8% below its own five-year average of 35.07 times.

Analysts expect earnings growth of about 31.81% in 2026, and 18% to 20% annually in the following years. This would bring the forward multiple down to roughly 19 times by 2029.

Airbnb’s Halloween restrictions are a small but sensible move toward protecting the company’s reputation, hosts, and neighbors. However, at this valuation, investors need stronger growth to justify the price. Reducing party-related risks won’t be enough to justify the price on its own.

The stock has gained 32% over the past 52 weeks, outperforming the S&P 500’s gain of 11% during the same period. Even in 2026, ABNB stock is up 29%, outperforming the benchmark’s 12% year-to-date (YTD) gain.

Strong Results Support Higher Guidance

Airbnb Inc. reported its second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on August 6. Revenue grew 17% YoY to $3.6 billion, while Gross Booking Value grew 16% YoY to $27.2 billion. CFO Mertz said the company’s capital-light business model helped it generate $1.3 billion in free cash flow in Q2. The company also bought back $1.1 billion worth of its own shares. She added that net income increased from a year earlier due to higher operating income and a $77 million tax benefit.

Looking forward, the company expect to generate revenue of $4.69 billion to $4.77 billion in Q3, representing year-over-year growth of 15% to 17%. It also expects YoY GBV growth to be in the mid-teens. On profitability, the company expects adjusted EBITDA to increase YoY and for adjusted EBITDA margin to be down slightly compared to Q3 2025 due to the timing of investments this year.

What Do Analysts Expect for ABNB Stock?

Airbnb will report Q3 results on November 5. Analysts expect the company to earn $2.72 per share for the September quarter, up 23.08% from $2.21 a year earlier. For full-year 2026, the consensus estimate calls for $4.97 per share, up 23.33% from $4.03 in 2025. Recently, Morgan Stanley maintained a Hold rating and set a price target of $170. In contrast to Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital reiterated a Buy rating on ABNB with a price target of $195.

Overall, 40 analysts rate Airbnb a consensus Moderate Buy. Their average price target is $185.45, representing a modest 8% upside from the current share price.

Airbnb Inc. manages and operates an online marketplace for rooms, which connects hosts and guests online. It is one of the world’s largest travel marketplaces. Its website and mobile app connect hosts with guests seeking to book accommodations, experiences, and services. The company is based in San Francisco, California, and was founded in 2007 by Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joseph Gebbia.

With the recent AI selloff, everyone’s asking whether AI companies have lost steam or whether the same growth is now available at better prices. I’ve been wondering the same and still not sure if, despite the huge selloff, the stocks are available at attractive prices. That’s what sentiment does to you; the risk looks much bigger when everyone’s talking about it, compared to when the risk is actually higher but a handful of people talk about it.

Following and earnings, we can see that the market is now heavily punishing all companies that are unable to deliver on the lofty promises. The reaction has been witnessed across the board, even in companies that seem to be on track with their AI initiatives. That’s why I think there is an opportunity here, as long as one can identify the companies that are continuing to grow at an incredible pace and are now available at attractive prices.

In my recent article for @insidermonkey newsletter, I look at exactly these types of companies. Here’s how I began my research:

I looked at AI companies that grew their earnings by more than 30% this year and are expected to grow their next year’s earnings by at least 30%. These companies have a market cap of at least $20 billion, so they are established firms that should stay relevant even if AI infrastructure spending slows down. They are also popular among US hedge funds and are listed in ascending order of their next year’s earnings growth rate.

Fastest-Growing AI Stocks to Buy Now

10. Taiwan Semiconductor

EPS This Year: 61.89%

EPS Next Year: 32.41%

Number of Hedge Funds: 249

9. Vertiv

EPS This Year: 60.15%

EPS Next Year: 36.45%

Number of Hedge Funds: 112

8. Palantir

EPS This Year: 113.12%

EPS Next Year: 43.78%

Number of Hedge Funds: 86

7. Credo Technology

EPS This Year: 81.98%

EPS Next Year: 53.19%

Number of Hedge Funds: 86

6. Astera Labs

EPS This Year: 117.03%

EPS Next Year: 62.40%

Number of Hedge Funds: 73

Interestingly, the top stock on my list fell 11% yesterday, for no fault of its own and with next year's earnings growth of 110%! I make these lists exactly to figure out stocks like these. Head over to read the full article at insidermonkey here:

https://www.insidermonkey.com/news/10-fastest-growing-ai-stocks-to-buy-now-1859713/

To come up with the list of the 10 Best Semiconductor Stocks to Buy for the Next 5 Years, I considered US-based companies with a market cap of over $2 billion. These companies are expected to grow earnings by 60% over the next 5 years. I ranked these stocks by their expected 5-year EPS growth. I also used Insider Monkey’s hedge fund data to determine how popular these stocks are among American Hedge Funds.

10. Marvell Technology Inc ($MRVL)

Expected Earnings Growth Next 5 Years: 63.45%

Number of Hedge Funds: 96

9. Astera Labs Inc ($ALAB)

Expected Earnings Growth Next 5 Years: 64.84%

Number of Hedge Funds: 73

8. NVIDIA Corp ($NVDA)

Expected Earnings Growth Next 5 Years: 64.87%

Number of Hedge Funds: 285

7. Broadcom Inc ($AVGO)

Expected Earnings Growth Next 5 Years: 64.99%

Number of Hedge Funds: 170

6. Advanced Micro Devices Inc ($AMD)

Expected Earnings Growth Next 5 Years: 77.81%

Number of Hedge Funds: 164

5. Semtech Corp ($SMTC)

Expected Earnings Growth Next 5 Years: 79.5%

Number of Hedge Funds: 84

4. SiTime Corp ($SITM)

Expected Earnings Growth Next 5 Years: 83.86%

Number of Hedge Funds: 76

3. Diodes Inc ($DIOD)

Expected Earnings Growth Next 5 Years: 94.99%

Number of Hedge Funds: 33

2. Intel Corp ($INTC)

Expected Earnings Growth Next 5 Years: 98.65%

Number of Hedge Funds: 138

1. MaxLinear Inc ($MXL)

Expected Earnings Growth Next 5 Years: 164.32%

Number of Hedge Funds: 39

The US stock market has had a strong 2026 so far. The S&P 500 closed at a record high on October 6. What makes this run impressive is that it came during a tough period. The next day, the interest rate on long-term US government bonds hit a 24-year high, and oil prices briefly topped $100 a barrel. Company profits have kept the market going. Analysts expect S&P 500 third-quarter earnings to grow about 30% from a year ago.

Not everyone expects the good times to last, though. On October 13, billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones told CNBC:

2027 is going to be really, really challenging for the stock market. You’ve probably got the most negative flow picture for the U.S. stock market that we’ve had, say, since 2002.

His concern is about supply. For most of this rally, companies have been buying back their own shares, which takes shares off the market. Jones expects that to reverse as big AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic go public and other firms sell new shares to fund AI spending. More shares for sale could weigh on prices.

I agree with Jones that next year could be rough. Stock prices are high, borrowing costs are rising, and a lot of new shares are on the way. A drop in prices wouldn’t surprise me. But a five-year view changes the question. Over that time, what matters most is whether a company can keep growing its profits. If the market dips along the way, I’d see that as a chance to buy more of the stocks on this list.

Methodology

To come up with our list of the 10 Best American Stocks to Buy for the Next 5 Years, we considered US-based companies with a market cap of at least $2 billion. These companies have a next 3-year expected revenue growth rate of more than 20% and an earnings growth rate for the same period of more than 50%. They are also extremely popular among hedge funds and are listed in ascending order of the number of hedge funds holding them in their portfolio.

10. Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:)

Expected Revenue Growth Next 3 Years: 55.83%

Expected Earnings Growth Next 3 Years: 63.46%

Number of Hedge Funds: 96

Read More: Google’s Next AI Chip Is Running Late. Why Marvell May Be Fine

9. Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:)

Expected Revenue Growth Next 3 Years: 34.53%

Expected Earnings Growth Next 3 Years: 61.37%

Number of Hedge Funds: 98

Read More: Google’s Free AI Video Push Is a Boost for Storage. Have WDC and STX Already Priced It In?

8. Rocket Companies, Inc. (NYSE: )

Expected Revenue Growth Next 3 Years: 20.64%

Expected Earnings Growth Next 3 Years: 51.48%

Number of Hedge Funds: 99

Read More: Why Does Rocket Companies (RKT) Earn Just 3% on Equity After Doubling Revenue?

7. Snowflake Inc. (NYSE: )

Expected Revenue Growth Next 3 Years: 30.50%

Expected Earnings Growth Next 3 Years: 50.27%

Number of Hedge Funds:103

Read More: Snowflake (SNOW) Grows Revenue 35% and Still Loses Money on Every Dollar

6. Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: )

Expected Revenue Growth Next 3 Years: 66.09%

Expected Earnings Growth Next 3 Years: 76.76%

Number of Hedge Funds: 111

Read about how Lumentum (LITE) Can’t Meet Demand. Can Its Valuation Hold Up?

5. Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE: )

Expected Revenue Growth Next 3 Years: 69.90%

Expected Earnings Growth Next 3 Years: 117.32%

Number of Hedge Funds: 116

Read More: Bloom Energy Is Building Like Demand Is About to Explode. Investors Need to Pay Attention.

4. SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: )

Expected Revenue Growth Next 3 Years: 40.95%

Expected Earnings Growth Next 3 Years: 53.58%

Number of Hedge Funds: 128

Read More: SanDisk (SNDK) Posted an 84.6% Margin Quarter. Is its P/E a Bargain or a Peak?

3. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: )

Expected Revenue Growth Next 3 Years: 52.88%

Expected Earnings Growth Next 3 Years: 76.22%

Number of Hedge Funds: 164

Read More: AMD Is Paying $8.2 Billion to Bring In the ‘Godmother of AI.’ Here’s Why It Makes Sense.

2. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: )

Expected Revenue Growth Next 3 Years: 62.08%

Expected Earnings Growth Next 3 Years: 64.57%

Number of Hedge Funds: 170

Read More: Meta Tested Broadcom’s CPO for 1 Million Port-Hours. What It Found

1. Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: )

Expected Revenue Growth Next 3 Years: 61.12%

Expected Earnings Growth Next 3 Years: 64.78%

Number of Hedge Funds: 285

Read More: Nvidia Has $62 Billion in Cash and a Lower P/E. Is It a Buy?

Goldman Sachs recently upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy, setting a $230 price target. The brokerage sees further growth opportunities in customized AI applications and sovereign AI. Barclays is also bullish, with an Overweight rating and a $265 price target. However, the company’s forward non-GAAP P/E of 114.92x suggests investors are still paying a high price for its growth. I think the key question is whether the company can grow its earnings fast enough to justify that valuation.

Why I Remain Bullish on Palantir

I think Palantir has a strong opportunity to benefit as more businesses adopt AI. Goldman Sachs’ upgrade supports my view. In Q2, revenue rose 93% year-over-year to $1.94 billion, while the company also raised its full-year revenue growth outlook to 82%. Last quarter, Palantir also secured a record $2.13 billion in US commercial contract bookings, up 153% YoY. In my view, these results show demand for PLTR’s AI software is translating into stronger business performance, despite the recent pullback.

Cheaper on Earnings, Expensive on Sales

Palantir’s forward non-GAAP P/E of 114.92x is about 8% below its five-year average of 125.34x. Its forward P/S of 54.42x is 51% above its historical average of 36.16x. This suggests that while the stock is cheaper relative to its history, investors are still paying a premium for its sales. Analysts expect EPS to grow 115.83% in 2026 and 45.21% in 2027. This could support the valuation if Palantir meets those expectations.

On October 7, Rosenblatt analyst John McPeake initiated coverage of Nebius (NBIS) with a Buy rating and a $304 price target. He places Nebius just below CoreWeave (CRWV) at the top of the neocloud market. I’d go a step further. I’ve argued before that Nebius may be the best neocloud stock, even with Michael Burry betting against it.

One detail in Rosenblatt’s note stood out to me. Nebius doesn’t disclose how much power it has running, but the firm estimates it is roughly a sixth of CoreWeave’s 1.5 gigawatts. That gap explains a lot. As I covered earlier, Nebius has said it has four customers lined up for every GPU and turns away about 75% of demand. So the demand is clearly strong, and the limiting factor for Nebius has been how much capacity it can bring online.

That’s why a quiet deal from October 1 deserves more attention. Nebius acquired Inferize, a startup founded in January whose technology cuts the time AI models need to load and scale. While models load, the GPUs assigned to them sit idle, and platforms often keep spare chips running just to handle demand spikes. Nebius calls that wasted capacity the “idle GPU tax.” Inferize’s CEO said the team’s one goal is to serve more customer demand from every GPU.

When a company is turning away customers, every idle GPU is revenue lost. Building new data centers takes time, but getting more work out of the chips Nebius already owns can happen much faster. The deal won’t fix Nebius’ capacity shortage on its own, but it lets Nebius serve more customers while new data centers come online.

What Investors Are Really Paying For

Nebius’ stock is difficult to value on traditional measures. The forward non-GAAP P/E isn’t meaningful since Nebius isn’t profitable yet. The forward Price-to-sales ratio of 20.53x is steep, though it has no multi-year average to compare against. Analysts expect losses to widen in 2026 and 2027 as Nebius keeps spending to build capacity. Earnings should start improving in 2028.

The contracts make the case stronger for Nebius. The company holds about $37.5 billion in contracted future revenue, more than half its $68.49 billion market value. The balance sheet is not much of a concern. Nebius carries roughly $2 billion in net debt, far more manageable than CoreWeave’s net debt of around $46 billion.

Still, I think the price makes sense only if Nebius keeps adding capacity fast enough to serve the customers it’s turning away. The Inferize acquisition looks like a step in the right direction to help fix that.

Nebius reported its second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on August 12. Revenue climbed to $582.3 million from about $104.9 million a year earlier. This increase reflects rapid demand for AI infrastructure. Adjusted EBITDA reached $236 million, up from a loss of $21 million a year ago, showing a sharp turn in operating performance. This was one of the strongest quarters since becoming a public market story tied to AI infrastructure demand. The adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter improved to 41% from 32% in the prior quarter. The company benefited from higher utilization, better infrastructure efficiency, new high-margin revenue streams and recent acquisitions.

Looking forward, Nebius reaffirmed its full-year 2026 guidance for group revenue of $3 billion to $3.4 billion, annualized run-rate revenue of $7 billion to $9 billion and adjusted EBITDA margin of about 40%. It also kept its capital spending guidance at $20 billion to $25 billion for 2026. The company expects year-end connected power of 800 megawatts to 1 gigawatt and raised its contracted power target to 5 gigawatts by the end of 2026.

About Nebius Stock

Nebius Group NV is a technology company that engages in building full-stack infrastructure to service the global AI industry in the US, UK and internationally. It provides cloud computing services, large-scale GPU clusters, and developer tools for AI applications. The company also owns TripleTen, an online technology education platform, and Avride, a developer of autonomous driving and delivery robot technology. Moreover, it has a strategic alliance with Nvidia to support the expansion of the company’s AI cloud infrastructure. Founded in 1989, the company is based in Schiphol, the Netherlands.

The Wall Street Journal reported on October 7 that Broadcom is arranging more than $50 billion in financing for OpenAI. The funding would help OpenAI buy the custom AI chips the two companies are jointly developing. I believe that makes the company’s demand picture easier to trust over the long run, since the chip program runs through 2029.

Why Funding the Customer Strengthens Broadcom’s Hands

OpenAI and Broadcom aim to deploy 10 gigawatts of custom accelerators by the end of 2029. However, newer AI buyers may struggle to pay for that much hardware upfront. Broadcom’s financing plan would help address that challenge by bridging the gap between chip payments and the revenue generated from using the hardware. I think this could strengthen customer ties, since walking away becomes more complicated when financing is part of the arrangement. The uncertainty is that discussions are still in the early stages, terms could change, and the report did not identify the borrower. Even so, the deal shows how far Broadcom is willing to go to secure demand.

A Small Premium for Outsized Growth

AVGO trades at a forward P/E of 29.54x, around 8% above its most recent historical average of 27.39x. The stock’s forward price-to-sales ratio is also elevated at 15.51x, compared with a five-year average of 13.10x, a premium of roughly 18%. These premiums appear modest given that analysts expect EPS to grow 71% this fiscal year and 66% next year. If those forecasts materialize, the P/E would decline to approximately 17x on fiscal 2027 earnings. However, growth is projected to ease to 34% by fiscal 2029. Net debt of about $35 billion represents about 2% of the company’s $1.64 trillion market capitalization.

In my view, Broadcom’s valuation premium could be justified if the OpenAI financing moves forward and demand for custom chips remains strong through 2029.

Your take:

Does financing its customers make Broadcom’s demand safer or riskier?

The company closed fiscal 2026 with a strong fourth quarter, as revenue climbed 5% year over year to $898.2 million, topping the consensus estimate of $877.6 million. ARR also grew 25% to $3.77 billion, including $246 million in net new ARR. Adjusted earnings came in at $1.19 per share, while the non-GAAP operating margin reached a record 24%.

Going forward, Zscaler’s fiscal 2027 guidance came in above consensus, with revenue projected at $3.9 billion to $3.93 billion against $ 3.89 billion consensus. Adjusted EPS is expected to range from $4.86 to $4.90, compared with the analysts’ expectations of $4.58.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the chipmaking giant behind Apple, Nvidia, and many other US firms. The company has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons lately. As if Donald Trump’s tariff threats weren’t enough, the firm now has to deal with stolen tech, that too at the hands of a 3-year-old startup.

An employee of the semiconductor company used his work laptop to remotely access designs related to the latest 2nm technology. He used multiple three-minute sessions to access files and took pictures using a smartphone. By the time the company detected this suspicious access, potentially thousands of files had already been leaked.

Those leaked files ended up in the hands of an employee at Tokyo Electron (TEL), a company that works closely with TSMC, especially when it comes to R&D. But the story doesn’t end here. There’s a third company that is raising eyebrows, a Japanese startup by the name Rapidus, formed just 3 years ago.

On July 18th, Rapidus announced that it had begun prototyping for its 2nm technology. The timeline of this announcement in the context of TSMC leaks is causing suspicion. More so because TEL is closely connected with Rapidus. The former TEL CEO Tetsuro Higashi is currently leading the startup with the backing of the Japanese government.

Why this isn’t a simple heist

The rapid rise of Rapidus in manufacturing 2nm nodes makes for a great success story. The TSMC leaks add just the right amount of drama for a Hollywood movie. But is it really that simple to steal chip designs and start making your own?

Not even close. Chip manufacturing is a highly specialized field. There’s a good reason why global tech companies bow down to TSMC when it comes to manufacturing their designs: it’s bloody hard!

What exactly is the 2nm technology?

A chip(also called a Microchip or an Integrated Circuit) is a tiny piece of silicon containing billions of transistors. Think of these transistors as switches that rapidly turn on and off to perform operations that power our computers.

Think of 2nm as the size of each of these transistors on a chip(that’s not exactly true, but this isn’t a scientific paper either, so we’ll let that slide for now). For context, a human hair is about 100,000 nm in diameter!

Currently, companies like Apple and Nvidia design chips for the 3nm node. A move to 2nm would mean more transistors packed on the same chip, which would mean more compute for approximately the same amount of power. This reduced power would, in turn, reduce the cost of AI training. Hence all the fuss around it.

Designing the 2nm chips isn’t the hard part. The real deal is manufacturing them. So let’s dig into that.

The manufacturing challenge

It all starts with a flat, round piece of silicon( called a wafer). Tiny transistor patterns are etched onto the surface of this wafer in multiple layers, forming a 3D transistor structure at the nanometer scale. There’s only one company in the world that can do this: ASML Holdings.

The wafer is then sliced into individual pieces called chips, just like a potato is cut into fries (yes, that’s where the name comes from)

Each chip is then tested to see if all the transistors on it are working correctly. The billions of transistors aren’t individually checked. Instead, tests are conducted to catch any defects. There are companies dedicated to only this part of the process(Teradyne, FormFactor etc.)

Once this process is completed, the chips with the best testing performance(usually in the center of the original wafer) are presented to the buyer. If the buyer is satisfied with the yield(the percentage of transistors that are defect-free on a chip), large-scale manufacturing can begin.

This is exactly where TSMC stands today, expecting to ramp up 2nm production in the second half of 2025. Rapidus, the firm that allegedly got its hands on the 2nm designs, is nowhere close. It is unlikely to start manufacturing before 2027, though the latest developments could shrink that timeline.

And that’s how it could well stay for the near future. Stealing trade secrets is one thing. Stealing market share is another. You could hand over the same designs to China, and China won’t be anywhere close to manufacturing 2nm chips. China is still working on older 14nm chips since it does not have access to the cutting-edge tools needed to manufacture these chips.

The geopolitical angle

In the backdrop of all this, there are geopolitical considerations. Japan is pouring billions into Rapidus in the hope that it can regain the dominance it held from the 1960s to the 1980s. Taiwan is a flashpoint in US-China relations, and the AI dominance race has everyone carefully looking after their own interests.

Interestingly, this would have been a perfect story to pin on China were it not for the fact that these designs are useless for them in the grand scheme of things. Japan and Korea, two countries connected to this theft, have much more to gain. But it will take them years to come even close to TSMC. Companies like Intel and Samsung have been competing with TSMC for decades, and even they haven’t come close to taking TSMC’s market share.

For now, the world still bows down to Taiwan to manufacture cutting-edge chips. For this theft to change things, it would still take years, if not decades.