So Nancy Tengler, who runs a $600 million investment firm, just dropped her “six for ’26” stock picks. And honestly? They’re not the usual suspects you’d expect from someone managing that much cash.
Sure, there’s some tech in there (because what self-respecting 2025 stock list doesn’t have tech?), but she’s also throwing curveballs that actually make sense when you think about it.
Walmart – Yeah, the place your mom shops. But here’s the thing: they’re crushing it with 27% e-commerce growth while everyone else is struggling. Plus, they’re serving both broke college students AND people who can afford the fancy organic stuff. Smart.
AMD – The scrappy underdog to Nvidia’s heavyweight champion. Tengler thinks they’re perfectly positioned for the next phase of AI – the “inferencing” part where AI actually does stuff instead of just learning. Lisa Su (AMD’s CEO) has been quietly building an empire while everyone was obsessing over Jensen Huang’s leather jackets.
Tesla – Okay, this one’s pure Elon worship, and Tengler admits it. “This is a stock you own for the vision and execution of CEO Elon Musk,” she says. Translation: logic has left the building, but the robots and self-driving cars might actually work out. Maybe.
CrowdStrike – The cybersecurity company that had that little “oops, we broke the internet” moment earlier this year? Yeah, them. But they bounced back hard with 22% revenue growth. Turns out companies still need someone to keep the hackers out, even if that someone occasionally causes a global IT meltdown.
Quanta Services – Never heard of them? Neither had I. They build electrical infrastructure, which sounds boring until you realize someone has to actually wire up all these AI data centers everyone’s building. They’re up 46% this year while flying completely under the radar.
DR Horton – A homebuilder on a tech-heavy list? Plot twist! Tengler thinks housing is about to have a moment in 2026. With all the talk about first-time buyer tax credits and getting people into homes, someone’s got to build the things.
What’s refreshing about this list is that it’s not just “buy the seven biggest tech stocks and pray.” Tengler’s betting on the infrastructure behind the AI boom, the companies serving real people with real needs, and yeah, some good old-fashioned speculation on Elon’s latest promises.
Will these picks actually “crush the market” in 2026? Who knows. But at least they’re more interesting than another list telling you to buy Apple and Microsoft for the millionth time.
The real takeaway? Sometimes the best investment advice comes from looking at what everyone else is ignoring. Even if one of those things happens to be the place where you buy your groceries.