It’s hard to escape the chatter about a stock market crash these days. Why? Since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, AI-related chip stocks have absolutely surged in value, sending the S&P 500 to lofty new heights.

As such, some investors are getting nervous about the US index’s valuation. Especially when tech giants like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft are forking out eye-watering sums to build huge data centres to support the AI revolution.

Were a crash to take place, this obviously wouldn’t be a pleasant experience, especially for those new to the stock market. But even for more experienced investors, it’s horrible to see one’s portfolio suddenly in a sea of red.

However, I plan to use any significant volatility or crash in 2026 as an opportunity to potentially increase my wealth significantly. Here’s what I would buy.

Past crashes

Since I started investing, there have been a handful of bear markets and a couple of crashes. In early 2020, the global pandemic triggered the fastest market crash in history, followed by a quite staggering recovery.

The last meltdown was in April 2025, when President Trump’s global tariffs announcement also caused a massive sell-off.

Again though, the recovery was swift, making this a flash crash rather than a deep downturn. On both occasions, anyone who loaded up on high-quality shares likely did very well.

To give an idea, here are the three shares that I bought in April and how they’ve performed since.

• Nvidia +94%
• Shopify + 79%
• BlackRock World Mining Trust +145%

As we can see, these are juicy market-beating gains. Even if one stock had fallen and another went nowhere, I would still be up from the third one.

High-quality stock

If the market crashes again in 2026, I plan to buy a couple of high-quality stocks.

One I would pile into if it lost 30%-40% of its value is Amazon. This isn’t pie-in-the-sky thinking because the stock crashed 50% during the 2022 bear market.

Why Amazon? Well, it’s one of the highest-quality companies about, with multiple avenues of potential future growth.

For example, global e-commerce still has decades of steady projected growth ahead, while management expects its market-leading cloud computing business (AWS) to grow by double digits for many years to come.

Then there’s digital advertising, which is Amazon’s fastest-growing business. Throw in the million robots automating its warehouse operations — and millions more to come in future — as well as delivery drones, and I just see Amazon’s competitive advantages getting stronger.

Having said that, it’s not immune to an economic downturn. Were this to happen, e-commerce sales could fall, alongside slowing business adoption of its cloud computing solutions.

Nevertheless, this is a stock that I would load up on during a crash.

Going against instincts

Warren Buffett famously said: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful“.

While I was greedy in April, this wasn’t easy at the time because the pain of losing is psychologically twice as powerful as the joy of a gain, according to academic research. It goes against instincts to buy when stocks are tumbling.

But if the market crashes in 2026, I will channel my greedy side again. It might pay off bigger next time, and possibly even help me retire early.