Two Powerhouses Worth Holding Until 2035: A Contrarian Take on Long-Term Value

The Case for Extended Holding Periods in Volatile Markets

Long-term investors often make a critical mistake: they panic-sell during short-term turbulence and miss the bigger picture. The reality is simple—regardless of market conditions in the near term, building wealth comes down to one formula: acquiring stakes in enterprises with durable competitive advantages, resilient business models, and genuine expansion potential.

Two corporations exemplifying this principle are MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Both delivered stellar first-half performances but faced headwinds in recent months. Yet both remain compelling for investors with a decade-plus time horizon.

MercadoLibre: Navigating Regional Competition While Seizing Advertising Gold

MercadoLibre commands a significant position in Latin America’s e-commerce landscape, but competitive pressures from players like Shopee (operated by Sea Limited) have begun eroding investor confidence. The challenge is real: Shopee leverages aggressive pricing strategies in markets including Brazil, the region’s economic powerhouse.

However, dismissing MercadoLibre on these grounds alone misses the fuller narrative. The company is actively countermeasures through strategic initiatives. It has slashed minimum order thresholds for complimentary shipping, dramatically expanding order eligibility and customer stickiness. More importantly, Latin America remains vastly underpenetrated for digital commerce—one of the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce regions still has tremendous runway.

Beyond the core marketplace, a more intriguing opportunity lies in advertising. As the dominant regional platform, MercadoLibre commands an expansive user base ripe for monetization. Advertising services generate substantially higher margins than marketplace transactions. Even if near-term competitive pressures compress profitability, the long-term margin expansion from advertising scaling should materially offset these headwinds.

Microsoft: Cloud Dominance and AI-Fueled Expansion Through 2035

Microsoft presents a different flavor of opportunity. Despite second-half softness, the company’s fundamentals remain formidable. Its cloud and artificial intelligence operations are performing exceptionally.

Skeptics raise a valid concern: mounting capital expenditures in AI infrastructure could ultimately fail to generate adequate returns, leaving expenses elevated while revenue growth stalls. Fair point. But the numbers tell another story.

Azure’s performance validates this. Holding the number-two position in cloud market share, Azure is expanding roughly twice as fast as Amazon Web Services (AWS). In Microsoft’s fiscal Q1 2026 (ending September 30, 2025), Azure revenue accelerated 40% year-over-year, compared to AWS’s more modest expansion. The company concluded the quarter with $392 billion in contracted cloud backlog—a staggering 51% year-over-year increase that signals durable demand visibility.

Microsoft’s strategic alliance with OpenAI creates a powerful moat. By integrating industry-leading AI models into its cloud platform, Microsoft offers customers proprietary access. This partnership, combined with high customer switching costs embedded in its enterprise software ecosystem, positions the company to capture disproportionate value from AI’s secular expansion.

The Income Angle: Often Overlooked but Meaningful

While growth dominates the narrative, Microsoft shareholders also benefit from consistent capital returns. The dividend yield appears modest at 0.8%, but management has nearly tripled payouts over the past decade—a testament to confidence and capital strength.

Verdict: A Balanced Portfolio Approach Through 2035

For investors constructing a decade-long portfolio, both MercadoLibre and Microsoft offer compelling asymmetric risk-reward profiles. MercadoLibre provides geographic diversification and exposure to emerging-market e-commerce tailwinds. Microsoft delivers exposure to secular themes—cloud infrastructure proliferation and artificial intelligence adoption—that should accelerate through 2035 and beyond.

The key is recognizing that short-term volatility is precisely when truly great companies reveal themselves as exceptional long-term holds.