Why These Two Tech Giants Could Deliver Strong Returns to 2031

The Long-Term Thesis Behind Meta and Intuitive Surgical

Beating the broader market over an extended decade is notoriously difficult, yet certain companies possess the structural advantages and growth catalysts to achieve it. Two candidates worth considering through 2031 are Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG), each facing near-term skepticism while potentially harboring significant upside driven by fundamental innovation and market expansion.

Meta’s AI Wager: Risk and Resilience

Meta Platforms has faced recent stock pressure following quarterly earnings, with investors increasingly questioning whether the company’s massive artificial intelligence expenditures—set to increase further—will generate proportional returns. Yet the evidence suggests these concerns may be overblown.

The company’s AI infrastructure has already demonstrated tangible contributions to financial performance. AI-driven recommendation algorithms have meaningfully enhanced engagement across its family of apps and websites, while AI-powered advertising automation has accelerated revenue growth and margin expansion. Management’s ambition to fully automate ad campaign deployment by the end of 2026 represents another potential inflection point, particularly given Meta’s access to over 3 billion daily active users—a user base that could compound the value of increasingly sophisticated AI systems.

What distinguishes Meta from pure-play AI speculation is its operational flexibility. The company has faced comparable challenges before: its metaverse bet consumed enormous resources without materializing meaningful commercial returns. When market conditions tightened and revenue growth decelerated, management successfully redeployed capital, cutting costs and refocusing on its high-margin advertising business. This track record of strategic pivot, combined with fortress-like cash generation from its core platform, suggests the corporation possesses sufficient latitude to navigate even if AI ROI disappoints investors through 2031.

Intuitive Surgical: Competitive Durability in a Growing Market

Intuitive Surgical navigates near-term headwinds from tariff exposure and intensifying competition, yet several factors support optimism regarding its trajectory into the next decade.

The company maintains market leadership in robotic-assisted surgery (RAS), a technology that has demonstrably improved patient outcomes. Its latest da Vinci system iteration—the fifth generation—incorporates Force Feedback Technology, enabling surgeons to modulate pressure exerted on tissue with greater precision and reduce iatrogenic trauma. Market reception has been favorable since the platform’s launch, and the adoption cycle remains nascent.

Beyond hardware innovation, procedure volume expansion through additional regulatory approvals creates a secondary growth vector. Recent approvals for specialized da Vinci applications illustrate the company’s capacity to broaden its addressable market within existing geographies. Critically, the RAS market remains significantly underpenetrated globally, meaning room exists for multiple competitors without cannibalizing overall growth.

Regarding tariff-related margin compression, Intuitive Surgical possesses meaningful pricing power derived from its best-in-class product efficacy and large installed base. Strategic price increases—even modest across the portfolio—could offset input cost inflation without materially dampening demand. Medtronic’s recent FDA approval for its Hugo system in urologic procedures represents a competitive milestone, yet industry observers widely acknowledge years of development remain before meaningful share capture occurs.

Structural Advantages Supporting 2031 Outperformance

Both companies benefit from secular tailwinds unlikely to reverse. Meta rides the perpetual expansion of digital advertising while pioneering AI monetization at scale. Intuitive Surgical benefits from aging demographics, rising surgical procedure volumes globally, and the surgical community’s demonstrated preference for technology that improves patient outcomes and reduces complications.

The market’s current skepticism regarding Meta’s AI spending and Intuitive Surgical’s tariff exposure presents opportunity for investors with sufficient conviction and time horizon. For those planning to hold through 2031, both equities offer asymmetric risk-reward profiles supported by fundamental business resilience.