We recently published a list of 10 AI Stocks to Watch Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stands against other AI stocks to watch now.
The trade war between two of the world’s biggest economies, China and the US, is deepening even further. In a tit-for-tat retaliatory move, China has imposed an 84% tariff on all imports from the US starting April 10. This move comes after Trump’s duties on Beijing, which have now been increased even further to a whopping 145%.
Tech stocks have been plunging in response. Apple, for instance, has been doing the majority of its manufacturing in China, and the trade war is likely going to raise the price of its iPhones. Even though President Trump has confidence that the tech giant can make its phones in the U.S., experts aren’t so sure.
READ ALSO: 10 AI Stocks Investors Are Watching Today and 9 Trending AI Stocks Making Headlines Today.
According to Needham analyst Laura Martin, reshoring iPhone manufacturing may take years and result in the price of iPhones skyrocketing. Similarly, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has said that an iPhone would cost $3,500 if produced in the U.S.
Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has just announced a 90-day pause on his administration’s “reciprocal tariffs.” These would have affected the company’s production locations in Vietnam, India, and Thailand.
Amid all this chaos, artificial intelligence continues to make leaps and bounds. In recent news, Silicon Valley startup Lightmatter has revealed it has developed a new type of computer chip. This chip is capable of both speeding up artificial intelligence work and using less electricity in the process.
The company is one of the few that seeks to use beams of light to move data between computers, instead of electronic signals. However, the company also believes that it can use these very beams of light to carry out the computation.
“What we’re doing is looking at the future of where processors can go. We fundamentally care about computers, and this is one of the alternative paths. There’s trillions of dollars of economic value that’s behind the idea that computers will keep getting better.”
– Nick Harris, Lightmatter’s CEO
In other news, President Donald Trump has recently told Cabinet members that billionaire Elon Musk will leave his administration role in the coming months. Musk has been the subject of hate after his efforts to cut the federal workforce. His involvement in politics has been hurting his company as well.
“I think he’s been amazing, but I also think he’s got a big company to run … And at some point, he’s going to be going back. He wants to. I’d keep him as long as I could keep him.”
-President Donald Trump.
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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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 317
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) provides AI-powered cloud, productivity, and business solutions, focusing on efficiency, security, and AI advancements. On April 9, Jackson Ader from KeyBanc maintained a “Buy” rating on the stock with a price target of $575.00. According to Ader, the company maintains significant flexibility in managing its capital expenditures despite all the speculations about reduced AI investments. Data center-related commitments allow the company to adjust its spending strategically. This can ultimately benefit shareholders. These commitments make up for 61.8% of Microsoft’s 2025 non-debt obligations.
Overall, MSFT ranks 2nd on our list of AI stocks to watch now. While we acknowledge the potential of MSFT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MSFT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
