We recently compiled a list of the 10 Trending AI Stocks on Investors’ Radar. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) stands against the other trending AI stocks on investors’ radar.
The US is struggling to keep its technology within its borders, a goal that the US government and most of the country are determined to achieve to maintain dominance, particularly in AI. In this regard, ChatGPT maker OpenAI has recently complained that its competitors, including those in China, are using its work to advance in developing their own artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
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Bloomberg reported that Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, is currently investigating whether any data belonging to the AI startup has been used in an unauthorized manner. White House “AI and crypto czar”, David Sacks, seems to agree with OpenAI’s allegations. Sacks suggested that DeepSeek may have used OpenAI’s models to get better, a process known as knowledge distillation.
“There’s substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI’s models. I think one of the things you’re going to see over the next few months is our leading AI companies taking steps to try and prevent distillation… That would definitely slow down some of these copycat models.”
-David Sacks
Nevertheless, DeepSeek’s AI models demonstrate how previous sanctions and export controls by the US have failed to curb competition. Investment firm Morgan Stanley, speaking of the broad market reaction on Monday following the emergence of DeepSeek’s cheaper and more efficient AI models, stated that the consequence may be a reduced spending interest or even tighter export controls.
“The DeepSeek release highlights evolutionary innovations in AI, some of which may be deflationary. That said, the stock market reaction is probably more important than the cause and could bring further export controls or reduce spending enthusiasm”.
It must be noted here that the technology behind DeepSeek’s r1 model Wall Street is raving over isn’t new, but what is surprising is the claim that it has been developed cheaply, and also using less powerful chips.
“The takeaway is that there are many possibilities to develop this industry. The high-end chip/capital intensive way is one technological approach. But DeepSeek proves we are still in the nascent stage of AI development and the path established by OpenAI may not be the only route to highly capable AI.”
-Xiaomeng Lu, director of Eurasia Group’s geo-technology practice.
That said, the road ahead for AI development looks enticing, and AI scientists broadly agree that these new developments are a positive step for the industry as a whole.
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.
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).
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 99
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is an automotive and clean energy company that leverages advanced artificial intelligence in its autonomous driving technology and robotics initiatives. On January 30, Daiwa analyst Jairam Nathan maintained their neutral stance on the stock, giving a “Hold” rating. Nathan has assigned a hold rating on the stock due to intense pressure on Tesla’s operating margins. Reporting its earnings call on January 29, the company had a weak fourth quarter with a GAAP operating margin of 6.2%, falling short of expectations. One of the reasons for this weakness has been a 7% quarter-over-quarter decline in revenue per unit, despite an increase in deliveries. Moreover, even though Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) managed to reduce direct costs, the decline in automotive and energy storage gross margins led to overall margin pressure.
Despite the weak quarter, investors were able to relax a bit after CEO Elon Musk vowed to launch long-awaited cheaper models in the first half of 2025 and also begin testing an autonomous ride-hailing service in June. Jairam Nathan also pointed to this optimism, noting improvements in Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Technology. This advancement, together with affordable EVs and robotaxi trials, will support Tesla’s valuations. Nevertheless, margin challenges and uncertain pricing and volume have led to a cautious outlook.
Overall TSLA ranks 3rd on our list of the trending AI stocks on investors’ radar. While we acknowledge the potential of TSLA 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 TSLA 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.