By George Budwell

Image source: Getty Images.

U.S. stocks have recently come under pressure following President Trump's pivot toward more protectionist economic policies. However, seasoned long-term investors recognize that these sharp market pullbacks often present compelling buying opportunities.

With this principle in mind, I'm strategically leveraging the current marketwide weakness to accumulate shares of two ultra-high-growth stocks. What follows is a concise overview of their investment theses and key risk factors to consider.

AI-powered decision making

Palantir Technologies (PLTR -0.29%) is a leading provider of decision optimization software through its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. While the stock has retreated 27% from its 52-week high, Wall Street anticipates approximately 58% revenue growth over 2025 and 2026, helping explain the stock's lofty 169 times forward earnings multiple.

What differentiates Palantir is its ontology framework that establishes undiscovered relationships within complex datasets, enabling advanced decision-making for both government agencies and commercial enterprises. The company's platforms, Gotham for government clients and Foundry for commercial customers, create a closed read-write loop that engages with all stakeholders and continuously improves through machine learning.

Though primarily focused on Western markets and facing potential competitive threats as AI inference costs decrease, Palantir's innovative boot camp sales approach and AI orchestration capabilities position the company for continued expansion in what appears to be the early stages of a broad-based enterprise AI adoption cycle.

Long story short, you might want to ignore this stock's enormous premium, and instead keep in mind its long-tailed growth trajectory, world-class execution, and deepening importance in the U.S. military ecosystem.

AI-powered nuclear energy

Oklo (OKLO -7.02%) represents a unique angle on the AI investment thesis as a developer of advanced fast fission power plants designed to provide clean, reliable energy at scale. With AI data centers consuming unprecedented amounts of electricity, major tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are scrambling for new power sources.

Despite being down 51% from its 52-week high and currently operating cash flow negative, Oklo stock offers exposure to the AI-powered future through energy infrastructure. In short, this next-generation energy producer is targeting a market that could be worth hundreds of billions by the end of the decade, and even more in the decade to come.

Where do things stand now? Oklo recently achieved significant milestones toward deploying its first commercial powerhouse in Idaho, finalizing agreements with the U.S. Department of Energy and Idaho National Laboratory. Its Aurora powerhouses aim to address the exponentially growing energy demands of AI infrastructure with carbon-free nuclear power.

While certainly a higher-risk investment than the established tech giants, Oklo's specialized focus on next-generation fission technology provides strategic positioning at the intersection of clean energy and AI computing needs. A key risk factor to consider, however, is the notoriously lengthy and uncertain regulatory approval process for nuclear projects, which could significantly impact deployment timelines and capital requirements.

What's the key takeaway? For investors seeking exposure to the underlying infrastructure required to power the AI revolution, Oklo represents a speculative but potentially transformative addition to a comprehensive growth portfolio.

Capitalizing on market weakness

Market pullbacks have historically presented exceptional opportunities for long-term investors willing to embrace volatility. Palantir and Oklo represent two distinct approaches to capturing outsized growth in the coming decade -- one through software that transforms decision-making across enterprises and government agencies, the other through next-generation energy infrastructure positioned to power the digital economy's insatiable demand.

While these stocks carry significantly different risk profiles -- Palantir with its premium valuation, and Oklo with its pre-revenue status and regulatory hurdles -- both offer significant upside potential that may justify their sizable risks for growth-oriented portfolios. So, as with any high-growth investment, substantial risks remain, but for those with conviction in these companies' competitive advantages and long-term visions, the current share prices and valuations may represent attractive entry points for the buy-and-hold crowd.