The stock market broadly has had an excellent year so far -- the S 500 is up 17%. Naturally, some hot stocks have outpaced that growth, and while it might seem counter-intuitive, some of the stocks with big gains already behind them could still be among the best places for investors to deploy their investing dollars now.

Here are three growth stocks that have outpaced the market year to date, but that also have strong competitive positions that make them worth buying today and holding well into the future.

Since artificial intelligence (AI) has become the hottest topic on Wall Street, much of the attention has been on high-end semiconductor companies like Nvidia, which have been putting up eye-popping results quarter after quarter. However, investors shouldn't forget that (NASDAQ: MSFT) is at the forefront of the AI boom due in large part to its investment in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

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Source Fool.com