Peter Thiel Just Spent $420 Million on These 8 Stocks. Should You Buy Them Too?

Peter Thiel just invested nearly $420 million into 8 stocks. And not one of them is a chip company.

Instead, over 70% of that money went into power plants, oil, and electric utilities. The billionaire who backed Facebook and Palantir is now betting on electricity. What does he see that the rest of Wall Street might be missing?

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Today we're revealing all 8 stocks behind Thiel's $420 million bet, including where he's putting the most money and why these companies could be positioned to profit from the next phase of the AI boom.

But just because a billionaire buys a stock doesn't mean you should follow him blindly. So we'll also show you which opportunities look most promising right now.

And we've uncovered one stock Thiel doesn't own that's directly tied to his single biggest investment. It could be an even better way to profit from the same trend. We're saving that one for last.

Note: Prefer to see this breakdown in video form? Get it here.

Who Is Peter Thiel, and What Is He Betting On?

In the rare case that you're not familiar, here's a brief refresher. Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal and Palantir, and famously turned a $500,000 investment in Facebook into billions. Today, Forbes estimates his net worth at around $38 billion.

But his latest moves are especially interesting. Last year, his investment fund dumped Nvidia and slashed its Tesla stake. Then, for two straight quarters, it reported owning no stocks at all.

Now he's back in the market with nearly $420 million spread across eight stocks, and roughly 72% is concentrated in energy and power.

Here's why that matters. For years, the AI boom has been all about chips. But the next big bottleneck could be electricity.

The International Energy Agency projects that global data center electricity consumption will more than double by 2030, reaching about 945 terawatt-hours. That's more electricity than the entire country of Japan uses in a year.

And the US is ground zero. Data centers are expected to account for nearly half of all US electricity demand growth through 2030. Even Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently acknowledged that the company won't have enough capacity to meet all its 2026 demand, despite plans to spend $220 billion this year.

So here's the opportunity Thiel appears to be betting on: if AI keeps growing, the companies supplying electricity could become just as essential as the companies making the chips.

But not every stock positioned to benefit is necessarily a good investment. So let's look at Thiel's eight positions, and which opportunities are most compelling right now.

Thiel's 8 Positions

Let's break them down, with dollar values as of June 30, starting with his biggest investment. You might expect it to be a power plant or utility. But it's actually a company you probably use every day.

• Amazon (AMZN) makes up 28% of the portfolio, about $118 million. It is Thiel's largest holding and his only tech stock. But the reason it fits this portfolio has little to do with online shopping. Its cloud business, AWS, just posted its fastest growth in nearly five years, with sales jumping 39% to $46 billion in Q3. And it has a staggering $578 billion backlog of signed contracts. All that cloud and AI growth requires enormous amounts of electricity. Amazon is creating the demand, and much of the rest of Thiel's portfolio is positioned to supply it…
• Vista Energy (VIST) is 18%, about $76 million. His second-biggest bet is even more surprising. It's not an American utility or nuclear company. It's an Argentine oil producer operating in the massive Vaca Muerta shale region. Thiel initiated the position just months after meeting Argentina's president, Javier Milei.
• Vistra (VST) is 14%, about $59 million. Now we get to the power plants. And yes, Vista and Vistra are two different companies. Thiel owns both. Vistra operates one of the country's largest nuclear fleets and sells electricity at market prices, putting it in a position to benefit from rising demand. Interestingly, Thiel owned it before, sold it, and has now bought back in.
• Then come four regulated utilities, about 39% combined: American Electric Power (AEP) at 10% and $42 million, DTE Energy (DTE) at 9.6% and $40 million, FirstEnergy (FE) at 9.5% and $40 million, and CMS Energy (CMS) at 9.4% and $40 million. These companies own and operate the infrastructure delivering electricity to homes, businesses, and data centers. Their regulated business models generally provide steady, predictable earnings as they invest in expanding the grid.
• Finally, X-Energy (XE), under 1%, about $4 million. His smallest position may be one of the most revealing. X-Energy develops small modular nuclear reactors, and Amazon is one of its biggest backers and customers. So Thiel owns both the company driving electricity demand and a company working on the next generation of nuclear power to help meet it.

The Zen Ratings Verdict

Now here's where it gets interesting. Our Zen Ratings model grades every stock from A to F using 115 factors, then breaks out 7 Component Grades, Value, Growth, Momentum and more, to flag each stock's strengths and weaknesses. A-rated stocks have beaten the S&P 500 by nearly 3 to 1, while stocks rated Sell have lost an average of about 6.5% a year.

Here is how the eight stack up. Amazon, 28% of the portfolio, earns a C, a Hold. Vista Energy, 18%, earns a B, a Buy. Vistra, 14%, earns a C, a Hold. Among the four utilities, American Electric Power, 10%, earns a C, a Hold. DTE Energy, 9.6%, earns a D, a Sell. FirstEnergy, 9.5%, earns a C, a Hold. And CMS Energy, 9.4%, earns a D, a Sell. Finally, X-Energy, 0.9%, earns a D, a Sell.

Here's something worth flagging: two ratings have moved since we first ran these numbers. Vista Energy has upgraded from a Hold to a Buy, and FirstEnergy has moved up from a Sell to a Hold. That leaves just one of Thiel's 8 stocks with a Buy. 4 are Holds, and 3 are Sells.

Vista's Buy rating rests on a top 7% Value grade and a top 4% Artificial Intelligence grade, which measures the likely future timeliness of shares, not how much AI the company sells. The soft spot is Safety, which grades a D, in the bottom 18% of the market.

The weakest sector is utilities. Our model grades the entire regulated electric utility industry an F, among the weakest industries in the market, and not a single one of the 43 utilities in that group is rated an A right now. Only 2 even earn a B.

So is Thiel wrong? Not necessarily. We think his thesis is right, and in fact we're closely watching one of his picks. But we also found some under-the-radar picks poised to benefit from the same trends Thiel sees, with better entry points right now. Here are the 3 stocks.

The first is the strongest of Thiel's own power plays and one we're watching closely. The other two aren't in his portfolio, but our model rates both of them higher. The last one earns the model's top grade, and it's the one we're most excited about.

Vistra (VST)

Of the power stocks in Thiel's portfolio, Vistra (VST) is the one we'd put on our watchlist. To be clear up front, this is a watch-only stock for now, and not a buy yet. But it fits the theme perfectly, so here's what we like and what would need to change for us to become more bullish.

Here's what's good. AI data centers run 24 hours a day, so they need power that never shuts off. Nuclear plants do exactly that, and Vistra runs one of the biggest nuclear fleets in the country.

Vistra has been growing right along with that demand. Over the past 3 years, its earnings have grown about 85% a year on average, more than double the industry average. It has also raised its dividend every year for the last 8 years. And Fitch upgraded Vistra to investment grade for the first time this year, which lowers its cost to borrow as it builds.

The stock is also about 30% off its high, which is the kind of dip we like to watch closely. And signs point to value. The PEG ratio, which adjusts the price-to-earnings ratio for growth, is under 0.9. The average stock is about 1.5, so Vistra could rally around 70% and still be no more expensive than the average stock.

Perhaps more telling, the insiders are still believers. CEO Jim Burke bought more than $1 million worth of shares in late August, at around $135 a share.

And the analyst picture is strong, with all 10 analysts covering Vistra recommending it as a Buy or Strong Buy, with not a single Hold. Stephen Byrd at Morgan Stanley, who ranks in the top 2% of analysts we track, has a price target that suggests roughly 60% upside in the coming year. James Thalacker at BMO Capital, a top 6% analyst, sees roughly 50% upside.

So it's not hard to see why we like the setup. But here's why we're staying cautious. Vistra earns an overall C from our Zen Ratings, amounting to a Hold, in the top 24% of all stocks. Our quant model is noticeably more cautious than Wall Street on this one.

The reasons are the two weakest Component Grades. Momentum grades a D, in the bottom 16% of the market, because the stock has been weak lately. And Sentiment also grades a D, in the bottom 13%, a sign the Smart Money crowd has not come back yet. On the plus side, Vistra ranks in the top 20% of stocks for Safety, a sign of a financially stable company, in the top 17% for Value, and in the top 16% for Growth, which points to more earnings beats ahead. But for now, a Hold is a Hold.

So what would it take for Vistra to become a solid long-term pick? We'd want to see the stock's momentum turn and the Smart Money come back. If our model upgrades it, it moves from our watchlist to our buy list. The Zen Ratings are updated daily, so keep this one on watch.

Pampa Energy (PAM)

Thiel's second-biggest bet is an Argentine oil company, so we went looking in Argentina too and found Pampa Energy (PAM). Pampa is one of Argentina's biggest power producers, generating about 5,000 megawatts from gas, hydro, and wind. But it's also become a fast-growing oil producer in Vaca Muerta, the same shale region as Thiel's Vista bet. So you get both halves of his thesis, power and Argentine energy, in one stock.

Here's what we like. Last quarter, Pampa hit an all-time record for oil and gas production, with crude output nearly tripling from a year earlier while operating profit surged about 75%. Most of the growth originated from one field, Rincón de Aranda, which went from under 1,000 barrels a day in early 2025 to over 20,000 today. And management is targeting about 45,000 barrels a day in 2027, once a new processing plant and export pipeline come online.

Yet the stock is about 20% below its high, and the founder and chairman, Marcos Mindlin, clearly sees a bargain. In mid-October, he bought about $35 million worth of shares at around $81, roughly 10% above today's price.

Pampa is also a true Hidden Gem. Only 1 Wall Street analyst covers it, and even that target suggests about 40% upside.

And the Zen Ratings align nicely with the picture we have painted. Pampa earns an overall B, a Buy recommendation, in the top 6% of all stocks. This is the second-highest tier of stocks we rate, with the historical average return for B-rated stocks higher than the S&P. It also ranks as the number 1 stock out of 8 in its industry, Independent Power Producer.

The Component Grades underlying that overall B are strong, too. Pampa ranks in the top 7% for Value, based on 21 value measures, so you're not overpaying for the growth. Growth lands in the top 17%, which points to more earnings beats ahead, and Sentiment in the top 14%, a sign the Smart Money is on board. Its best grades are Value and our proprietary Artificial Intelligence rating, which looks for subtle patterns that come before strong stock performance and measures likely future timeliness, not how much AI the company sells. There, Pampa also ranks in the top 7%.

The soft spots are worth knowing about. Momentum and Safety both sit in the bottom third of the market, at the top 71%, so shares have yet to turn the corner and the ride may be bumpy.

The risk is the one every emerging-market stock carries, which includes currency fluctuations and geopolitics. If you like Thiel's Argentina angle, Pampa gives you a way in: our model rates a Buy, with oil production that's still ramping and a founder who keeps putting his own money in.

OK, now the one we saved for last. This one our model rates an A, and Thiel's biggest holding is its biggest new customer.

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Generac (GNRC)

Generac (GNRC) is the stock we're most excited about on this list, and it may be the most direct way to play Thiel's thesis.

Generac is known for producing home backup generators. But in September, Generac signed a deal to supply backup generators for Amazon's data centers, Thiel's biggest holding. It starts with about $2.4 billion of deliveries in 2027 and 2028, which could reach $8 billion over time. Amazon also got the right to buy up to 1.69 million Generac shares. That means Thiel's biggest holding could end up as a Generac shareholder.

So let's look under the hood. Last quarter, Generac posted record sales of about $1.3 billion, up 16%. And its backlog of data center orders nearly tripled in just 3 months, from $1.6 billion to about $4.5 billion. The backlog gives Generac visibility well into 2027 and 2028.

And the growth is just ramping up. Analysts expect Generac's earnings to grow about 55% a year over the next few years, more than double the industry average. Revenue is expected to grow about 20% a year, also outpacing industry averages. Yet the stock is about a third below its 52-week high.

It appears to be undervalued, too. Its PEG ratio is about 0.85, compared with about 1.5 for the average stock, so Generac could rise more than 75% and still only trade in line with the average stock.

The Wall Street support is strong. 11 of the 14 analysts covering Generac have a Buy or Strong Buy recommendation. Stephen Gengaro at Stifel, a top 4% analyst, has a price target that suggests roughly 65% upside in the coming year. Tommy Moll at Stephens, a top 7% analyst, sees roughly 70% upside.

Generac earns an overall A from our Zen Ratings, amounting to a Strong Buy, and ranks in the top 3% of all stocks we track. It is also the number 4 stock out of 71 in the Specialty Industrial Machinery group. And yes, this elite tier of A-rated stocks has averaged returns of about 28.5% a year.

The Component Grades tell a compelling story as well. Safety lands in the top 30% and Value in the top 19%. Financials come in at the top 7%, the mark of a well-run business. And its best grade is Growth, where it ranks in the top 4% of all stocks, which points to more earnings beats ahead. The one soft spot is Momentum, which grades in the bottom 24% of the market, which fits a stock still trading well below its highs.

The risk is the one every AI stock faces: if AI spending cools, data center orders could slow. But with $4.5 billion of orders already in hand, Generac has plenty of work lined up.

So Generac is our top pick from this list. It plays Thiel's exact thesis: power for AI. It's tied directly to his biggest holding. And unlike any of Thiel's 8 stocks, our model rates it a Strong Buy.

Follow the Thesis, Not Every Stock

So what's the lesson from Peter Thiel's $420 million bet? AI needs power, and the demand numbers back him up. But agreeing with his idea doesn't mean you should buy every stock he owns.

Only 1 of his 8 picks earns a Buy in our model today, 3 rate a Sell, and most of the utilities he owns sit in an industry our model grades an F.

Here's how we'd play it instead. Watch Vistra. It's the best of Thiel's power plays, and Wall Street is unanimous, but it's a Hold until our model says otherwise. Consider Pampa Energy if you want Thiel's Argentina angle with a Buy rating and a founder who keeps buying. And start with Generac if you want the strongest way to play AI's power problem. It's rated a Strong Buy, and Thiel's biggest holding is its newest big customer.

One more thing to watch: Thiel's fund reports its next quarter by mid-November, and it's gone from Nvidia to cash to power plants in about a year. We'll be watching what he does next.

The bigger lesson: let the thesis guide you, and let the data pick the stock. The Zen Ratings are updated daily, so check them before any buy, hold, or sell decision, and bookmark wallstreetzen.com, since you're sure to return often.

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