The most important conference in the tech world is in full swing, yet investors are skeptical about what’s ahead. According to Jensen Huang, his company is well-positioned to navigate a shift in the artificial intelligence industry, particularly where businesses are moving from training AI models to getting detailed answers from them.
Huang also defended his company’s lead in selling costly AI chips to customers, an aspect that was recently questioned after China’s DeepSeek created a competitive chatbot with relatively fewer chips.
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Despite Huang’s reassuring remarks, the chipmaker’s stock fell more than 3%, reflecting how investors haven’t been entirely assured by Huang’s presentation. Calling the conference the “Superbowl of AI”, Huang commented that “almost the entire world got it wrong,” regarding DeepSeek.
“The amount of computation we need as a result of agentic AI, as a result of reasoning, is easily 100 times more than we thought we needed this time last year.”
-Huang, when referring to autonomous AI agents that require little human intervention for routine tasks.
At the same time, new AI models and tools are being launched in the tech world as businesses and countries compete in an attempt to lead the AI arms race. In the latest news, tech giant Tencent has unveiled a suite of new artificial intelligence tools capable of converting text and images into 3D visuals. The move marks the growing Chinese momentum in the field of generative AI.
Similarly, Baidu has released two new AI models which are freely available to individual users ahead of schedule. ERNIE 4.5 is a native multimodal foundation model, while ERNIE X1 is a reasoning model with deep-learning capabilities. The company aims to increase user involvement across its platforms, attempting to combine these models into its larger ecosystem.
As major players continue to release new models and tools, the race to dominate the AI landscape intensifies even further. It’s worth waiting to see who eventually ends up leading the AI arms race and how these technologies end up making an impact on the business world and society.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.
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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
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10. Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 42
Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE) develops solid-oxide fuel cell systems for on-site power generation, helping meet the growing energy demands of AI data centers. On March 18, Mizuho analyst Maheep Mandloi initiated coverage of Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) with a Neutral rating and a $28 price target. According to Mandloi, Bloom’s innovative fuel cell technology offers a cleaner substitute to traditional energy sources, positioning it well in the growing data center market.
Regardless, the stock has experienced a significant rise due to the AI theme, which may not be sustainable. The firm further said there is uncertainty surrounding the conversion of safe harbor orders into actual revenue, adding to risk related to the stock. Moreover, despite Bloom’s shares enjoying a high valuation and reflecting investor optimism, they also suggest limited immediate upside potential.
9. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 63
Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) is a leading provider of artificial intelligence systems. One of the most notable analyst calls on Tuesday, March 18, was for Palantir Technologies. Jefferies reiterated the stock as “Underperform” with a $60 price target. The firm said that it is sticking with its underperform rating.
The rating reflects how analysts from the firm returned from Palantir’s AI Platform customer event “impressed”. The return on investment case studies demonstrates how Palantir’s products are helping transform businesses. Nevertheless, the positive momentum is “baked” into Palantir’s valuation.
“This positive momentum is baked into PLTR’s valuation at 45x CY26E, the most expensive stock in our coverage. Fundamentals have been strong, but valuation remains the biggest concern and insiders continue to sell with co-founder Stephen Cohen selling another $310M in shares over the past few days.”