We recently published a list of Wall Street’s Top 10 AI Stocks to Watch Right Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stands against other Wall Street’s top AI stocks to watch right now.
According to a spokesperson for China’s parliament, DeepSeek’s progress is a reflection of the rise of Chinese companies in artificial intelligence (AI). Lou Qinjian, responding to a question on China’s progress in AI, has deemed DeepSeek’s achievement as “commendable”, Reuters reported.
“DeepSeek adheres to an open-source approach and promotes the widespread application of AI technology globally which contributes Chinese wisdom to the world. Through the rise of companies like DeepSeek, we can see the innovation and inclusiveness of China’s technological development.”
– Lou Qinjian.
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Indeed, DeepSeek has sparked a state of unrest in the tech world ever since its arrival. Using distillation to achieve cheaper and more efficient AI models, this AI startup has ignited a fierce race in the artificial intelligence world ever since the birth of ChatGPT.
Such has been the intensity of competition that in recent news, it has come to light how Tencent Holdings has displaced DeepSeek as the most downloaded free app in China’s iOS App Store. Tencent’s Yuanbao has taken the top spot in the free app list on Monday, with DeepSeek in second place and ByteDance’s Doubao in fourth, the South China Morning Post noted.
Launched in May last year, Yuanbao gained popularity after Tencent’s move to integrate DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model in February, providing users with an alternative to the tech giants’ Hunyuan model.
Developments like these illustrate how intense the global race in artificial intelligence is becoming. In this regard, China’s ambassador to the United States Xie Feng has even called for closer cooperation on artificial intelligence. According to him, the technology risks are “opening a Pandora’s box”.
“As the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is unfolding, what we need is not a technological blockade, [but] ‘deep seeking’ for human progress.”
-Xie said, making a pun on China’s star AI start-up DeepSeek.
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).

A development team working together to create the next version of Windows.
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 March 3rd, Kyndryl, a global IT Services company, announced that it has entered into a partnership with Microsoft to support the adoption and deployment of a new AI-powered healthcare assistant.
The new Microsoft Dragon Copilot solution leverages generative AI-powered ambient listening voice recognition to automate clinical documentation, enhance administrative efficiency and allow clinicians to focus on patient care. Kyndryl will begin offering Dragon Copilot in its healthcare services portfolio beginning in May 2025.
“With their vast experience in healthcare IT services, Kyndryl has been selected as a launch partner for Dragon Copilot. Kyndryl understands patient care and supports large and small healthcare providers and payers globally. Kyndryl’s services capability combined with Microsoft’s AI-enabled solutions will deliver innovative solutions that improve patient and member experiences while optimizing healthcare operations”
-Patty Carrolo, CVP Microsoft US Health and Life Sciences.
Overall, MSFT ranks 2nd on our list of Wall Street’s top AI stocks to watch right 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. 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 the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.