2 Canadian AI Stocks Quietly Positioning for Big Gains

WELL Health and OpenText are two Canadian AI stocks quietly building serious competitive moats. Here is why both could be big winners for long-term investors.

| More on:
Key Points
  • WELL Health Technologies crossed $1.4 billion in annual revenue in 2025, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization margins jumping from 5.1% to 14.5% in a single year.
  • OpenText is converting its massive on-premise customer base to the cloud, a shift that mirrors the SAP and Oracle playbook and could unlock multi-year revenue growth.
  • Both companies have strong competitive moats rooted in regulation, data, and deeply embedded customer relationships, making them harder to disrupt than most AI plays.

If you are looking for the next big AI winners on the TSX, you no longer need to look south of the border. Two Canadian companies are quietly building the kind of infrastructure that tends to produce serious, long-term gains for patient investors.

I think WELL Health Technologies (TSX:WELL) and Open Text (TSX:OTEX) are worth buying now, before the broader market catches on.

Here is why.

The virtual button with the letters AI in a circle hovering above a keyboard, about to be clicked by a cursor.

Source: Getty Images

Is Well Health an AI stock

WELL Health is not just a clinic operator, but is also assembling an end-to-end healthcare technology ecosystem. Valued at a market cap of $1.1 billion, WELL reported $1.4 billion in annual sales last year.

Priced at less than 1 times trailing revenue, WELL is among the cheapest AI stocks on the TSX, given that the top line rose 52% year over year in 2025.

It reported adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) of $203.7 million, with margins expanding from 5.1% to 14.5% over the past 12 months.

On a normalized basis, stripping out one-time items tied to Circle Medical and a cybersecurity incident at billing partner CRH, revenue was $1.4 billion, up 34%.

  • Normalized adjusted EBITDA was $148.6 million, up 17%, while free cash flow (FCF) attributable to shareholders grew 19% to $58.2 million.
  • WELL now operates 252 clinics across Canada. About 70% of Canadians live within 20 kilometres of a WELL location.
  • Its WELLSTAR platform handles scheduling, billing, and clinical documentation for over 43,000 healthcare providers nationally.
  • The company estimates that more than 40% of all physicians in Canada interact with WELLSTAR in some capacity.
  • More importantly, EBITDA is now growing faster than revenue in Canada, which indicates operating leverage.

New AI platform

The company also recently launched WELLTRUST, a consent-based platform that uses artificial intelligence to connect patients to clinical trials.

Clinical trial recruitment is a massive bottleneck in pharmaceutical research, and WELL’s clinic network gives it a unique distribution advantage here that a pure software company cannot replicate.

WELL is guiding for $1.55 to $1.65 billion in revenue for 2026 and targeting $100 million in adjusted EBITDA from its Canadian operations alone within 18 months.

Analysts forecast FCF to expand to $177.5 million in 2028. If the TSX stock is priced at 10 times forward FCF, it could surge 70% within the next three years.

Is this TSX tech stock a good buy?

Open Text does not get the same attention as other AI names. However, Open Text Executive Chair Tom Jenkins made the company’s thesis clear at the 29th Annual Scotiabank Telecom, Media and Technology Conference in March.

Open Text provides the content that feeds both enterprise applications and, increasingly, artificial intelligence agents. Contracts, emails, and compliance documents are regulated data that is managed behind the firewall by Open Text.

As businesses prepare to deploy AI agents across their organizations, they need to move decades of on-premise content to the cloud, and Open Text is their partner for that migration.

Jenkins compared this transition to what SAP accomplished over the past decade, converting maintenance revenue into cloud subscriptions at a multiple of 3 to 5 times.

Open Text’s installed base carries roughly US$2 billion in maintenance contracts. At even a 3 times conversion multiple, that migration could add US$400 million in net new annual cloud revenue over time.

The company is also cutting costs aggressively. Jenkins noted some internal job categories are now being handled by five times fewer people as a result of AI-driven efficiencies.

Open Text trades at a fraction of its US software peers’ valuations despite having sticky enterprise clients, an ongoing US$500 million buyback program, and a clear multi-year growth catalyst in the AI content migration wave.

If the TSX tech stock is priced at 10 times forward earnings, it could more than double over the next 30 months.

The Foolish takeaway

Both WELL Health and OpenText have something rare among AI stocks: defensible infrastructure that gets more valuable as AI adoption grows.

Neither is a speculative bet, given that both are well-managed businesses with real cash flow, a widening customer base, and competitive advantages.

For investors seeking exposure to the Canadian AI story, these two deserve a close look.

Fool contributor Aditya Raghunath has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

More on Tech Stocks

a sign flashes global stock data
Tech Stocks

If the TSX Rally Continues, These Are 2 Stocks You’ll Wish You Bought

Two TSX stocks could turn a record-setting market rally into profits from trading activity and jet deliveries.

Read more »

Person holding a smartphone with a stock chart on screen
Tech Stocks

How a $20,000 TFSA Could Grow Into $100,000 by 2030

Aiming to turn $20,000 into $100,000 by 2030 likely requires extreme returns, and one Canadian space stock is positioned for…

Read more »

warehouse worker takes inventory in storage room
Tech Stocks

I’m Doubling Down on This AI Stock Before It Doubles Again

A Canadian AI leader is quietly optimizing over US$200 billion in inventory, and its stock is still well off highs.

Read more »

The letters AI glowing on a circuit board processor.
Tech Stocks

Billionaires Are Unloading Amazon and Piling Into This TSX Stock

Get insights into the recent sell-offs of Amazon stock by billionaires and how it impacts the investment landscape after Buffett.

Read more »

woman looks out at horizon
Tech Stocks

This Is the TFSA Balance You’ll Likely Need to Retire Comfortably in Canada

Wondering how much you need in your TFSA to retire well? Here's the target number and how a small-cap stock…

Read more »

Financial analyst reviews numbers and charts on a screen
Dividend Stocks

Dip Buyers Could Win Big: 2 of the Best Canadian Stocks to Buy Now

A 31% drop has made Shopify and Nutrien look cheaper, even as both companies are still putting up strong operating…

Read more »

a person watches a downward arrow crash through the floor
Tech Stocks

1 Magnificent Canadian Tech Stock Down 46% to Buy and Hold Forever

A 46% drop has made Constellation Software far cheaper, even as its cash-flow-driven acquisition machine keeps humming.

Read more »

data center server racks glow with light
Tech Stocks

3 TSX Stocks That Could Turn $30,000 Into $300,000

A $30,000 portfolio split across three Canadian growth stocks could have the ingredients to compound into $300,000 over time.

Read more »