My 1 Top AI Healthcare Stock to Buy and Hold Forever

The information that, per Fidelity, a 65-year-old idiosyncratic retiring successful 2025 could expect to walk $172,500, connected average, connected aesculapian and healthcare expenses passim their status makes wide what astir of america know: Healthcare is costly. That's not large quality for america arsenic patients, but for investors, it suggests that there's a batch of wealth to beryllium made successful healthcare.

One of the astir palmy companies successful the healthcare realm is Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG), the elephantine successful robotic surgeries. It's besides a institution embracing artificial quality (AI). I'm a shareholder, and I program to clasp connected to my shares for a precise agelong time. Here's why.

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The Intuitive Surgical website announces that "we judge minimally invasive attraction is life-enhancing care." And it shares immoderate awesome numbers:

• 16 million-plus procedures performed worldwide done 2024 utilizing the company's da Vinci systems.

• 72 countries with da Vinci systems successful use.

• 11,106-plus da Vinci systems astir the world.

• Every 11.75 seconds a surgeon commences a process with a da Vinci system.

Its occurrence with the da Vinci strategy has been remarkable, and the institution present has different strategy -- the Ion, for robotic bronchoscopies and lung biopsies.

The icing connected the barroom with this institution is that lone astir a 4th of its gross comes from selling its highly costly systems. The remainder is from servicing and supplies -- and that's dependable, recurring revenue.

Intuitive is inactive posting awesome numbers. In its coagulated 4th quarter, it reported worldwide procedures up 18% twelvemonth implicit twelvemonth and 532 da Vinci systems installed (up from 493 a twelvemonth prior). Revenue was up 19% twelvemonth implicit year. Check retired the stock's performance, too:

Source: Data from Morningstar.com arsenic of Feb. 10, 2026.

The institution is increasing not lone by adding machines, but besides by expanding their use. The da Vinci 5 system, for example, was precocious approved for definite cardiac procedures.

Intuitive is sitting connected a wealthiness of information from much than 10 cardinal procedures that person been performed with its systems, and it's utilizing AI to gully insights from that information that tin amended the strategy adjacent more. With respect to the Ion system, Intuitive notes that: