In this article, we will take a detailed look at 10 AI Stocks Analysts Are Focusing On These Days.
Dennis Unkovic, a partner at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott, said in a latest program on CNBC that DeepSeek is the result of President Xi Jinping’s policy of prioritizing AI and tech research over the past few years. The analyst believes DeepSeek is the response of China to American tariffs.
“Today, if you take technology, maybe two-thirds of it is Western and one-third of it is Chinese. It’s clear to me that what the Chinese want to do is move the needle so they’re at least 50/50. What this means…. in the future, is you’re going to have a country that’s going to have to say, what kind of technology do I want to adopt? Is it technology from the West, or is it technology from China? So I think this is a strong opening salvo of the Chinese to the U.S., saying, if you want to put tariffs on me, this is the way we’re going to go.”
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For this article, we picked 10 AI stocks that are trending amid the DeepSeek-triggered selloff that rocked the markets. With each stock, we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
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10. Tempus AI Inc (NASDAQ:TEM)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 7
Cathie Wood is piling into little-known AI stock Tempus AI, Inc (NASDAQ:TEM), amassing about 600,000 shares across multiple funds since early 2025. Tempus AI, Inc (NASDAQ:TEM) now accounts for 3.2% of ARKK’s assets, with a market value topping $265 million.
Tempus AI, Inc (NASDAQ:TEM) uses AI for precision medicine and diagnostics. The company works with 2,500 institutions to gather real-time clinical data from millions of cancer patients. Its products are broadly divided into three segments: Genomics, Data, and Applications. The Genomics segment focuses on conducting diagnostic tests to match therapies and compare treatments for similar patients, with billing handled directly through insurance or payers. Tempus AI, Inc (NASDAQ:TEM) has a significant revenue base. Recently, Tempus AI acquired Ambry Genetics, which specializes in hereditary cancer testing, allowing the company to expand into new areas such as rare disorders, pediatrics, and cardiology.
Tempus AI, Inc (NASDAQ:TEM) recently provided preliminary guidance for fourth-quarter revenues of approximately $200 million, bringing total revenues for the year to around $693 million. While consensus estimates had projected slightly over $206 million for the quarter to meet the original $700 million target for 2024, revenues still rose 30% year over year for the quarter.
Baron Discovery Fund stated the following regarding Tempus AI, Inc (NASDAQ:TEM) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Shares of Tempus AI, Inc (NASDAQ:TEM) contributed to performance. Tempus is a cancer diagnostics company that provides genomic testing results. Tempus has also amassed an over 200 petabyte proprietary multimodal dataset that combines clinical patient data with genomic testing data. In addition to using this data to empower more intelligent diagnostics for its own tests, Tempus also licenses this data to biopharmaceutical companies which use it to design smarter clinical trials and identify potential new drug targets. We think this proprietary dataset is unique with meaningful barriers to entry, and brings meaningful value to biopharmaceutical R&D. As we mentioned in the letter from last quarter, shares have been incredibly volatile. We took advantage of this volatility to buy a meaningful position when shares sold off into the low $20’s per share from an IPO price of $37. When shares spiked into the mid-$70’s (likely due to short sellers covering losses as shares rose), we took profits on a meaningful portion of the investment as we believed valuation had become stretched (shares now trade in the high $40’s to low $50’s level). We like our position sizing now, and would add to the position at lower valuations. We believe that Tempus has significant growth ahead of it and we are excited about its unique business model.”
9. Marvell Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MRVL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 70
Barclays analysts led by Tom O’Malley said in a latest note that Marvell Tech Inc (NASDAQ:MRVL) is one of the top semiconductor stocks in 2025. They increased their price target on MRVL to $150 from $115.
“Custom silicon is just starting to become more significant and should grow at a faster compounded rate over the next 3-years (55%). We think the AI TAM is big enough to support both through 2026,” they said in a note.
Marvell Tech Inc (NASDAQ:MRVL) is rapidly positioning itself as an AI-first company, with its custom silicon business accounting for 73% of Q3 revenues, up from 39% during the same period last year. Marvell has a five-year agreement with Amazon (AMZN) AWS, helping Amazon design its Trainium and Inferentia ASICs, and providing a range of optical interconnect products.
Marvell Tech Inc (NASDAQ:MRVL) is now focusing on the AI opportunity, as evidenced by the recent restructuring charges, and is progressing through the design phase of its 2nm platform.
8. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 99
Dan Niles, Niles Investment Management founder & portfolio manager, recently said in a latest program on CNBC that he is not considering Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) because of valuation concerns.
“Then you have Tesla, obviously in its own little world because of the relationship of Elon Musk with Donald Trump. But, you know, that’s not a name I’m really looking at right now as a growth-at-a-reasonable-price investor that I am. Though we did buy—you know, we were focused on that after the election. …we’ll see.”
There is a lot of hype around Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) robo taxis but many believe they will not be enough to fix the company’s long-term challenges.
What are these challenges?
Tesla Inc’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) product lineup is showing signs of stagnation, with over 95% of sales still coming from the Model 3 and Model Y. Meanwhile, competitors are rolling out more advanced models. Even Rivian’s CEO suggested Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) could be nearing market saturation for these models. According to Reuters, Tesla’s market share in Europe is slipping as legacy automakers like BMW post stronger sales. Chinese competitor BYD is also gaining ground in Europe, despite talk of tariffs.
Infuse Asset Management stated the following regarding Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“I’ve been very patient with Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA). Frankly, I’m a big believer in Elon but I also hate investing in companies where the narrative far outweighs any financial evidence. I do see a path to Tesla being one of the world’s largest companies but slight growth in a cyclical industry with very little pricing power is not a recipe for strong forward returns. Though the AI/robotics narrative is strong, I’m not adding at current prices since we haven’t seen much of the narrative translate into the earnings yet. This cognitive dissonance can be an uncomfortable tension but I’m trying to look at the big picture here. So while I fully admit that Tesla may be overvalued in the short run, the long-term destination of the company should not be underestimated.”
7. Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 121
Mark Douglas, MNTN CEO, recently explained on CNBC why he believes Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares can keep soaring.
“I think of Netflix, what I think of is they have three big advantages. So, one is they’re the first place most consumers go to when they want to watch TV, period. And that’s why they’re able to take, like, a Jake Paul fight and Mike Tyson fight and turn it into Super Bowl-level numbers, because everyone is going there to decide what they want to watch, and if that’s what’s on, that’s what they’re going to watch.
And then they also have, like, this—they’re so profitable now, and they can create more content, and more content drives new subscribers. This is the last thing I think is what’s most important: those new subscribers, more than half of them, are signing up for ad-supported service, and that is barely monetized. So, the same way they had, like, this password backlog of revenue, they’re building this advertising backlog of revenue. And I think their stock is just going to keep soaring.”
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Finally, we trimmed Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) mostly due to valuation but also as a source of funds to add to the new position in Shopify. As a reminder, we added to our position in August 2022 amid broad concerns about the company’s ability to grow and monetize shared passwords. We expected Netflix to show progress in monetizing shared passwords, leading to robust free cash flow generation. This is now playing out and is appreciated by the market. Hence, given the balance of growth and valuation, we felt it was appropriate to reduce our exposure to a more normal weight.”
6. Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 128
Barclays analysts led by Tom O’Malley in a latest report gave bullish comments on Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) and called the stock one of the top semiconductor plays in 2025.
“We see this shift translating to ~$21B flowing to AVGO custom chips in their FY26 and nearly $4B in ASIC in CY26 to MRVL and only expect this to scale to support what we identify as a >$1T TAM by the end of the decade.”
Barclays boosted Broadcom’s price target to $260 from $205.
Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) continues to be a leader in the AI ASCI and networking chips market. Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) has 3nm AI ASIC chip deals with Alphabet and Meta in addition to many other tech giants aiming massive spending for AI hyperscaling.
However, the stock could face the impact of what Nvidia is facing today: too high expectations.
In the last reported quarter, Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) revenue was largely in line with estimates. The company has narrowly exceeded revenue expectations by less than 5% in most cases. Some analysts suggest Broadcom’s growth rates will moderate to below 20% CAGR starting the first quarter of 2025. In fiscal Q4, it was +50% topline growth. The market won’t be kind to the stock when the revenue growth rate slows. Broadcom has about $58 billion in net debt, which is relatively high.
Munro Global Growth Fund stated the following regarding Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) contributed 94bps to Fund performance for the quarter. Broadcom is a fabless semiconductor company that designs semiconductors for a range of different industries and applications, based in Palo Alto, California. The company plays an important role in providing semiconductors for AI, specifically, they provide hyperscale data centre companies custom silicon chips. Over time, as companies such as Meta, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft build out their AI offering, the critical semiconductor content will come from both custom silicon chips, designed by companies such as Broadcom, and merchant silicon chips, designed by Nvidia. Depending on the use case, or workload, the hyperscaler will use either a custom silicon semiconductor or a merchant silicon semiconductor. Therefore, over time we expect AI processes to be driven by both Nvidia designed chips and custom designed chips from Broadcom and its peers.
On their recent earnings call, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan confirmed that the company’s customers are rapidly pursuing the development of a 1 million XPU cluster of chips. To translate what this means for Broadcom, Hock laid out the Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) opportunity for the company’s AI revenues over the next 3 years to 2027. In 2024, Hock noted that Broadcom’s SAM was $15-20bn USD, of which the company commanded an approximate 70% share. In 2027, that SAM is expected to grow to $60-90bn USD, and assuming Broadcom captures an approximate 60% share, this gives rise to $50bn USD of AI revenue opportunity for the company over the next 3 years. For the company overall, this means that revenue has the potential to double over the next 3 years. We believe the technology road map outlined by Broadcom and the resulting revenue opportunity gives rise to a multi-year runway of earnings growth backed by a large structural change.”
5. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 158
Dan Niles, Niles Investment Management founder & portfolio manager, predicted in a latest program on CNBC that Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) will cut its forecasts and expectations in its latest quarterly results and criticized Apple bulls who were relentlessly talking about an upgrade cycle:
“Everybody on the planet is expecting Apple to cut their numbers, which I think will happen. And so then the question is going to be how do investors react to that, because the Bulls for the last three years have been, well, there’s an upgrade cycle coming. And so the multiples just kept expanding while numbers have come down. And so the question with Apple is, at a 29 PE with the S&P sitting at 22 times, do people sign up for a fourth year of trying to pretend an upgrade cycle is coming or not?”
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is desperately in need of new catalysts. The company’s revenue in China fell 8% in fiscal year 2024, following a 2% decline the previous year. The Chinese market accounts for about 15% of Apple’s total revenue, so this downtrend cannot be ignored.
Investors had hopes from the Wearables, Home, and Accessories segment, but so far its performance has been weak. Vision Pro faces tough competition from Meta’s $500 Quest and the more affordable Quest 3S, making it hard to justify its $3,500 price tag. The failure of Apple’s HomePod, unable to compete with Amazon’s and Google’s lower-priced offerings, further highlights the challenges in this market.
Apple’s iPhone 16 has not shown promising growth prospects yet and investors are still in a wait-and-see mode on the AI platform.
While the company is projected to achieve 9.5% EPS growth this fiscal year and 12.3% growth in the next, much of this growth is already priced in, as the stock trades at nearly 30 times the expected EPS for the fiscal year ending September 2026.
Greenlight Capital stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We continue to be concerned about the overall valuation of the market and have maintained a lower-than-average net market exposure. In fact, our daily correlation to the S&P 500 last year was 0.01. Cyclically and interest rate adjusted valuations are as high as we can remember.
A look at a prior favorite company of ours, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), shows that the stock at times sported a single digit P/E ratio and achieved 19.2% compounded revenue growth during the eight years we owned it. The last couple of years AAPL has had no revenue growth, but the P/E multiple has expanded from 22x to 37x. In this environment, we can’t say the multiple won’t expand to 45x a year from now. It might. But we don’t see why it should or what the investment appeal is at this valuation.”
