Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies are rapidly focusing on securing funding to propel R&D, roll out products and services across diverse sectors, and create interconnected ecosystems amid fierce industry competition. According to Reuters analysis of PitchBook data, AI startups have single-handedly contributed to the rebound of US venture capital funding, as total capital raised last year jumped 30% year over year.
More importantly, AI startups comprised 46.4% of the total $209 billion raised in 2024, as optimism around AI-powered technology sparked a year-long market rally led by tech giants and semiconductor leaders.
However, concerns remain about the rapidly evolving technology as tech leaders prioritise enforcing guardrails to ensure the best use of AI.
OpenAI CEO at Davos 2024
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during his speech at Davos 2024: “I think it’s good that we and others are being held to a high standard. We can draw on lessons from the past about how technology has been made to be safe and how different stakeholders have handled negotiations about what safe means.”
“Let society and the technology co-evolve, and sort of step-by-step with a very tight feedback loop and course correction, build these systems that deliver tremendous value while meeting safety requirements,” he added.
Overall, the global markets are optimistic about how leading companies are increasingly developing and integrating AI in their workflows and strategies globally. PWC’s AI Global Study projected that the AI industry could contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, boosting GDP for local economies by 26% on average. Here are the top 10 AI stocks driving the transition to a new era of product development, data flow, and sustainability in 2025.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by reviewing news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 hedge funds.
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).
A close-up of a complex network of integrated circuits used in logic semiconductors.
10. Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN)
Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) is a leading technology services provider in segments that include agile transformation, data analytics and management, intelligent automation, software engineering services, and AI solutions. The company is working to accelerate the R&D and deployment of AI agents using Nvidia’s AI offerings for faster placement of multi-agent networks that can be readily integrated into enterprise systems. Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) is also upgrading its core banking modernization capabilities by acquiring platforms that help unify data from legacy and modern banking architectures to facilitate product development while minimizing operational roadblocks.
On January 15th, Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) unveiled a proposed seven-year joint venture with Australia-based telecom giant Telstra. The joint venture will see Telstra leverage Accenture plc’s (NYSE:ACN) AI teams and resources to overhaul its existing AI systems and expand network leadership while enhancing business processes and customer services.
9. Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ:ADI)
Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) is a global semiconductor leader that leverages analog, digital, and software technologies to offer data conversion, signal processing, and power management services.
On January 10th, Truist Securities increased Analog Devices Inc’s (NASDAQ:ADI) share target price to $230 from $216, reiterating its “Hold” rating. Currently, Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) is implementing the full-stack GenAI platform SambaNova Suite as part of a companywide AI transformation to ramp up field sales and customer engagement. The development will help the semiconductor firm access its data sheets faster with high precision and improve field recommendations.
