It's no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) is on target to create tremendous returns for investors that invest in the right stocks. If you have extra cash you don't need for paying bills or reducing debt, investing in companies serving the growing data center market could pay off in the next five years. Here are two stocks to buy now.

1. Micron Technology

To handle greater AI workloads, data centers require more memory and storage capacity. Micron Technology (MU -4.21%) is one of the leading suppliers of high-performance dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and non-volatile memory (NAND) products, which positions it well for this opportunity. The stock has doubled since 2022 but still trades around 15 times this year's earnings estimate.

Micron supplies technology for several markets. Despite mixed results in automotive and smartphones, revenue increased by 84% year over year in the most recent quarter, with data center sales up 400% year over year and 40% over the previous quarter. 

Data center sales now comprise over half of Micron's business, which positions it well for another year of strong growth. Management expects strong demand for high-performance memory products to drive record revenue and positive free cash flow in fiscal 2025.

A $5,000 investment in the stock five years ago would be worth about $8,500 right now, but Micron could be entering a high-growth phase that could double the value of its shares by 2030. The stock's forward price-to-earnings multiple drops to around 9 using the fiscal 2026 consensus earnings estimate.

The stock's recent dip is a great opportunity to buy shares. Micron should see growing revenue and profits over the next five years as data centers invest in additional memory and storage capacity for training AI agents and other enterprise use cases.

2. Applied Digital

Applied Digital (APLD 4.62%) is a relatively small company that focuses on building, designing, and operating data centers, and it's seeing explosive growth. The growing demand for data center capacity has fueled the stock up more than 88% over the last year, following massive gains over the last few years.

The company reported a 51% year-over-year increase in revenue last quarter, driven by its cloud services business, where customers can lease graphics processing unit (GPU) clusters and other equipment for their high-performance computing needs.

The company is continuing to work on bringing more facilities online to meet growing demand. Management referenced a Morgan Stanley report that says there could be a significant shortage of power for data centers by 2028. This could position Applied Digital for substantial growth over the next few years, as companies rush to secure more power and data center capacity for their operations.

Applied Digital has secured strategic investments with Macquarie Asset Management and AI chip leader Nvidia, which validates its opportunity and could help the company accelerate the development of new facilities to meet demand.

Since 2012, annual spending on data centers increased from $140 billion to $260 billion, according to Statista. Dell'Oro Group expects this spending to reach $1 trillion by 2029. That is a massive amount of spending for a company with just a $2.1 billion market cap. It's certainly possible the stock could double in value in five years, if not sooner at the rate the business is growing.