Getting a big, fat bonus from your work is a nice feeling. And while it’s tempting to treat yourself with a splurge on a family vacation, luxury goods, or some other nice-to-have, given the hard work you’ve put in all year, putting it aside in a retirement account is the best, albeit most boring move to make with your latest windfall.

Undoubtedly, saving and investing can be fun, though, especially when picking between shares of companies like Google-owner Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) or high-tech networking firm Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET). Of course, you don’t want to have too much fun when picking stocks.

The following names, which have been quite hot in recent years, could give you a realistic shot of doubling your $20,000 bonus in seven or fewer years. Of course, there’s always a chance it could take 10 years or more to achieve a double if the stock market slogs through the next 10 years. Either way, these growth companies stand out as long-term winners for those without plans to spend their bonus until retirement.

Let’s check the two names to determine the more attractive bet this February.

Alphabet

Alphabet remains the most affordable stock in the Mag Seven, currently trading at 21.0 times forward price-to-earnings (P/E). Despite being a mature cash cow of a business, there’s a lot of AI innovation that could open new growth opportunities.

Indeed, Google Cloud has gained traction in recent years. And with the rise of Gemini, Waymo, and other behind-the-scenes AI and quantum AI projects that could pay off significantly over the next decade, there’s no shortage of drivers as Google looks to diversify beyond search and the cloud. Google sent a shockwave through the quantum scene late last year when it unveiled its Willow chip.

Just how significant a breakthrough was Willow? And does Google Quantum AI have the keys to the next big growth leap? Only time will tell, but I do think the excitement behind Willow and quantum stocks as a whole has faded way too quickly.

Indeed, it didn’t take too long for investors to shift from Willow and quantum to DeepSeek and low-cost reasoning models. That’s just how fast-paced technological innovation is in the modern era. In any case, Alphabet, the parent of Google, Waymo, and the fascinating Isomorphic Labs, which is in the business of AI drug discovery, is packed with profound innovation despite its very modest P/E multiple.

With Google’s head of AI recently coming out and saying it has “all the ingredients” to stay ahead of DeepSeek, I think it’s a mistake to pass up the firm if you seek AI at a reasonable price.

Sure, the $75 billion in AI-related capex may be viewed as excessive by some, especially if DeepSeek is leading the AI market in a race to the bottom on costs. Additionally, the threat of search models, like Perplexity, on Google’s bread-and-butter search engine is still out there.

Either way, I’m a fan of GOOG stock despite the heavy spending and rise of rivals in search. The latest quarter saw some encouraging metrics from its new AI Overviews. To this day, Google Search remains a very “moaty” business.

Arista Networks

Arista Networks stock has been red-hot, more than tripled (up 202%) in the past two years, while GOOG stock gained a relatively modest 92%. Undoubtedly, the $135 billion networking stock has gotten a nice lift from the AI boom. And as spending on next-generation AI data centers stays hot in 2025, Arista could remain a winner as it attempts to add to its impressive gains.

The company has been winning big deals in the data center of late. As the deals get bigger, perhaps there’s room for the high-multiple momentum play to fly even higher. Though many analysts remain upbeat on the name for 2025, I’m inclined to be cautious, primarily due to the lofty valuation (43.5 times forward P/E) and DeepSeek’s impact on data center growth moving forward.

If more efficient models like DeepSeek arise, the hyperscalers could be overinvesting in the data center. Such a downward revision to future spending (especially in the data center) could weigh heavily on the back-end networking companies. 

The bottom line

If I had a fat bonus to put to work, I’d go for GOOG over ANET at these levels.

In my view, Arista stock’s two-year run seems a tad overheated, whereas GOOG stock remains the Mag Seven’s best value option. Furthermore, the DeepSeek impact is one that investors should be at top of mind regarding the firms benefiting from intense spend in data centers. 

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