In this article, we discuss the top 20 trending AI news and analyst ratings.
Artificial intelligence (AI) startups have taken the finance world by storm in the past few months. This interest was sparked by the blockbuster launch of ChatGPT by California-based OpenAI in late 2022. Since then, OpenAI has raised tens of billions of dollars in new funding and reached a valuation of over $150 billion. OpenAI revealed earlier this week that it had secured more than $6.6 billion in new funding through a financing round led by prominent names including Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Tiger Global, among others.
Read more about these developments by accessing 10 Unsexy AI Stocks According to Goldman Sachs and 10 Buzzing AI Stocks According to Goldman Sachs.
Perhaps one reason the startup is so popular is that it is projecting more than $3.5 billion in revenue this year and over $11 billion in 2025. AI startups in general have been quicker at making revenues than previous technology booms, according to an analysis of payment information by fintech firm Stripe. The report underlines that top AI groups are reaching millions of dollars in sales within a year. This timeline is far faster in the life cycle of a startup than comparable non-AI tech groups. The report relies on annual revenue data for the 100 highest-grossing privately held AI companies using Stripe, compared with a comparable basket of prominent Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) start-ups as of July 2018.
The report has gained a lot of traction since Stripe customers include OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, GitHub and Midjourney, among others. Stripe claims, per Financial Times, that AI start-ups took a median 11 months to hit $1 million in annual revenue after their first sales on Stripe, compared with 15 months for the previous generation of SaaS companies. AI start-ups that have scaled to more than $30 million in annual revenue achieved the milestone in 20 months — five times faster than past SaaS companies. Emily Sands, the head of information at Stripe, highlights that unlike past generations of software companies, AI companies paid compute costs straight out of the gate, and were under pressure to build monetisation faster.
Read more about these developments by accessing 33 Most Important AI Companies You Should Pay Attention To and 20 Industrial Stocks Already Riding the AI Wave.
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Top Trending AI News And Analyst Ratings
20. Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 65
Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client to cloud networking solutions for data center, campus, and routing environments. Evercore ISI recently raised the price target on the stock to $425 from $400 and kept an Outperform rating on the shares. In a research note, the advisory detailed that current revenue and EPS estimates for Arista in calendar year 2025 seemed relatively conservative. Consensus was looking for 16% revenue growth in calendar 2025, but the advisory saw a path to 20%-plus, with upside to 25%. The note further highlighted the annual investor day in November – where the company will likely provide an initial 2025 outlook – as a key upcoming catalyst.
19. ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 81
ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) makes and sells advanced semiconductor equipment systems. The company was recently named among a basket of equities that investment advisory Citi believes have the highest revenue exposure to China. Citi analysis shows that ASML has 26.3% revenue exposure to the Chinese market. Interest in companies with China exposure has skyrocketed since Beijing unveiled new stimulus plans that cut short-term borrowing costs and lowered restrictions on home purchases, measures that aim to refresh the struggling property market and hit a 5% growth target.
18. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 108
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) operates as a semiconductor manufacturer. Bank of America released a research note on the company ahead of the upcoming Advancing AI event on October 10. The note detailed that last year’s AI event on December 6 produced 19% and 80% stock returns one month and three months later, respectively. The advisory further argued that roadmap updates in AI and server CPU with supporting cloud customer comments could also reinvigorate AMD stock. However, per the note, the competitive landscape was getting crowded, while expectations were already high with investors expecting AMD to boost calendar year 2024 AI sales by another 10% to $5 billion-plus.
Latest reports, published by tech-focused website The Verge, claim that Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is releasing updates to improve the performance of its Ryzen 9000-series processors on the Zen 5 desktop following some negative reviews from the gaming community. CPU users had reported higher-than-expected core-to-core latency across the Ryzen 9000-series of desktop processors, and now AMD has addressed this with a new BIOS optimization, per the report.
17. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 88
Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) designs, develops, manufactures, markets, sells, and supports various comprehensive and integrated solutions, products, and services. Latest SEC filings reveal that Michael Dell, the CEO and founder of the firm, has filed to sell 10 million company shares for $1.24 billion. The shares are being sold for $122.40 each. The CEO had already sold around 10 million shares of the company in June. The latest disclosure brings his year-to-date stock sale total to more than $2 billion. Even after selling these, he still holds close to 17 million shares and another 1.38 million in a separate property trust. As the AI boom takes off, Dell shares have climbed more than 55% year-to-date.
Deutsche Bank recently resumed coverage of Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) stock with a Buy rating and $144 price target. The advisory expects Dell’s sales growth to accelerate into the double-digits over the next several quarters as the company benefits from a confluence of tailwinds across key segments where it is a share leader. This includes, per the advisory, ongoing momentum in artificial intelligence servers alongside a recovery in traditional servers and storage.
16. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 75
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) markets key technologies for smart devices. Deutsche Bank recently lowered the price target on the stock to $25 from $27 and kept a Hold rating on the shares. The advisory underlined that despite the recent significant pullback in share price since its last earnings call, it was reiterating a Hold rating on Intel after a recalibration of its model. This cautious stance was predicated on the significant near-term headwinds facing Intel, including persistent margin headwinds, ongoing competitive pressures, and continued node transition complexities, the advisory detailed in a research note. While Deutsche’s model indicated the potential for meaningful improvement to earnings beyond 2024, the investment firm believed the path to realizing this required strong execution across a wide array of actions with little room for co-specific missteps or macro headwinds.
15. QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 78
QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) develops and sells foundational technologies for the wireless industry. The company recently announced that it had completed the purchase of 4G Internet of Things technologies, certain employees, assets and licenses from Sequans Communications, a fab company based in France. The acquisition aims to bolster the industrial IoT portfolio of the former, offering low-power solutions for reliable and optimized cellular connectivity for IoT applications. Sequans has previously said that the transaction provides it with significant capital to continue to invest in its IoT business.
14. Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 77
Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) provides equipment, services, and software for the semiconductor industry. Morgan Stanley recently lowered the price target on the stock to $185 from $224 and kept an Equal Weight rating on the shares. The advisory updated its wafer fab equipment market forecasts, leaving its overall forecast of 5% year-over-year growth in 2025 unchanged, noting that this was below the consensus call for 15% growth. Morgan Stanley also noted that it maintained its cautious view on US semiconductor production equipment.
13. Celestica Inc. (NYSE:CLS)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 38
Celestica Inc. (NYSE:CLS) offers a range of product manufacturing and related supply chain services. The company beat market expectations on earnings per share and revenue for the second quarter by $0.09 and $140 million respectively. Rob Mionis, the CEO of the firm, said during the earnings call that with the strong performance of his firm in the first half of the year and favorable demand dynamics continuing, the firm would raise the full year 2024 outlook. Mionis anticipates achieving revenue of $9.45 billion and non-IFRS adjusted EPS of $3.62 in 2024, which, if achieved, would represent 19% and 49% growth, respectively, compared to 2023. The CEO said his company continued to stay focused on solid execution for customers and delivering on strategic priorities and financial targets.
12. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 156
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) makes and sells integrated circuits and semiconductors. The company recently announced that it would be partnering with chip firm Amkor to bring advanced packaging and test capabilities to Arizona. The two companies already have existing agreements to deliver high volume, leading-edge technologies for advanced packaging and testing of semiconductors to support critical markets such as high-performance computing and communications. Under the new deal, TSM will contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor in their planned facility in Arizona. TSM aims to use these services to support customers using the advanced wafer fabrication facilities of TSM in Phoenix. The two companies will jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as the Integrated Fan-Out (InFO) and Chip on Wafer on Substrate (CoWoS), that will be employed to address common customer needs.
11. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 120
Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) makes and sells memory and storage products. The company recently posted fourth-quarter results that topped analyst expectations and released guidance that surprised Wall Street, suggesting that the artificial intelligence boom was more than offsetting consumer weakness. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya wrote in an investor note following the results that Micron’s supply discipline helped offset inventory-related headwinds and that high-bandwidth memory was a two-horse race between Micron and South Korea’s SK Hynix. Arya added that despite increasing macro (softer PC, phone demand) headwinds, Micron was able to deliver beat/raise results on the back of solid data center demand, including continued growth in its AI-levered high-bandwidth memory sales. The analyst further underlined that there were also positives for companies like Nvidia, Broadcom, Marvell, AMD, and the semiconductor equipment firms like KLA Corp, based on Micron’s data center strength.
10. Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 38
Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM) architects, develops, and licenses central processing unit products and related technologies for semiconductor companies and original equipment manufacturers. JP Morgan analysts Harlan Sur and Peter Peng recently penned an investor note on the company, noting that Arm had hands in all the right end markets and was positioned for 20%-plus revenue growth over the next few years. Per the analysts, AI tailwinds were manifesting themselves in strong increases in licensing value on renewal/add-ons and higher future royalty rates/penetration rates in all end-markets. For example, the analysts highlighted, in the cloud/datacenter market, the ARM CPU architecture was seeing a strong adoption rate across multiple AI/general purpose server CPU platforms.
9. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44
Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR) builds and deploys software platforms for the intelligence community to assist in counterterrorism investigations and operations. The company recently announced that it had entered into a partnership with AI firm Edgescale AI to deliver Live Edge, a combination of Palantir Edge AI and Edgescale AI distributed infrastructure technology, designed to operationalize artificial intelligence in manufacturing, utilities, and other complex industrial environments. The deal helps Live Edge provide direct access to hard-to-reach operational data and closes the loop to automate physical processes.
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives recently raised the price target on Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR) stock to $45 from $38 and kept an Outperform rating on the shares. In an investor note, Ives noted that recent channel checks indicated incrementally more enterprises were strategically discussing how the company’s Artificial Intelligence Platform would be deployed in their enterprise during 2025. The increased price target reflected higher confidence in Palantir’s enterprise-driven artificial intelligence strategy, the analyst told investors in a research note. Wedbush viewed this as a clear game changer for the Palantir story as the use cases of AI started to take hold over the next 12 to 18 months.
8. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 130
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) supplies semiconductor infrastructure software solutions. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya recently penned an investor note on the semiconductor industry, highlighting that the relative weighting for the industry was flattish amongst active money managers, following a steady decline between Jul 2023 to July 2024. Arya underlined that the weighting still remained below peak levels achieved in early 2017. The analyst named Broadcom among a basket of semi stocks, including NVIDIA, QUALCOMM, and Analog Devices, that witnessed the greatest expansion in ownership quarter-over-quarter. Arya noted that Broadcom was owned by 52.2% of fund managers and saw a 628 basis point increase in ownership quarter-over-quarter.
7. Constellation Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CEG)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 71
Constellation Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CEG) generates and sells electricity in the United States. Latest reports, published by news agency Reuters, claim that the company is still yet to file for the required government permits for a deal to restart part of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. Constellation had earlier signed a deal with tech giant Microsoft to restart the Three Mile nuclear plant as the latter pushes forward with ambitious AI data center plans. The review process for the restart of operations at the plant could take as much as two years. The International Energy Agency forecasts that the energy consumption of Microsoft may double by 2026 and become on par with what Japan uses in a year as AI data centers come online.
KeyBanc recently raised the price target on Constellation Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CEG) to $279 from $265 and kept an Overweight rating on the shares. The advisory cited increased visibility into long-term EPS growth that Constellation Energy offered. KeyBanc stressed that the decision to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor was an important catalyst in demonstrating the value of nuclear generation in the age of AI and expected momentum will continue.
6. Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 47
Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) develops and manufactures high performance server and storage solutions based on modular and open architecture. The company recently announced that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Japanese information and communications technology company Fujitsu Limited to develop and market a platform with an Arm-based processor of the latter that is designed for high-performance and energy efficiency and targeted for release in 2027. The two firms also revealed that they would collaborate on developing liquid-cooled systems for HPC, Gen AI, and next-generation green data centers.
Barclays recently adjusted the price target on Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) to $42 from $438 to reflect the ten-for-one stock split and kept an Equal Weight rating on the shares. In an investor note, the advisory cautioned that it still expected near-term gross margin weakness for the server firm.
5. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 165
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a California-based technology company that owns and runs the internet search engine Google. Latest reports, published by news publication Bloomberg, reveal that the tech giant is rapidly developing artificial intelligence models capable of mimicking human reasoning. Per Bloomberg, Google teams were building software capable of solving complex and multi step problems. The new technology utilized chain-of-thought prompting which caused the software to sort through various responses and choose the best one before responding to a prompt. The reports come weeks after OpenAI, an AI startup backed by Google rival Microsoft, introduced a new series of AI models designed for solving complex problems.
Wells Fargo analyst Ken Gawrelski recently lowered the price target on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock to $182 from $190 and kept an Equal Weight rating on the shares ahead of quarterly results. In a research note, the advisory underlined that as regulatory headlines abated, attention was returning to fundamentals, and Wells continued to lean cautious on search growth despite a better-than-expected first half of the year.
4. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 219
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. Latest reports, published by tech news website Tech Crunch, claim that the company could use the photos and videos that users take on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses to train its AI. The smart glasses were announced at a Meta event last month. The report further underlined that Emil Vazquez, the policy communications manager at Meta, had said that where multimodal AI was available, currently US and Canada, images and videos shared with Meta AI may be used to improve it per a Privacy Policy.
Wells Fargo analyst Ken Gawrelski recently raised the price target on Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) stock to $652 from $647 and kept an Overweight rating on the shares ahead of its earnings report. The advisory predicted another robust quarter and solid forward quarter guide, but noted it was unlikely to materially alter Wells’ above-consensus 2025 EPS estimate of $27-plus. The stock is increasingly viewed as an AI winner, but it is likely range bound until 2025 OpEx/CapEx guide on Q4 2024 EPS call, the advisory added.
3. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 308
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) operates as a technology conglomerate with core interests in the ecommerce business. Truist analyst Youssef Squali recently released a research note on the firm, reiterating a Buy rating on the stock and raising the price target to $265 from $230. In the note, the analyst underlined that North America revenue for the tech giant was tracking to consensus estimates, reflecting a resilient consumer, sustained growth in advertising revenue, faster growth at Web Services and higher operating margins year-over-year. Per the analyst, this came even as the company invested aggressively in artificial intelligence, AWS, logistics and Project Kuiper.
The note further highlighted that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) remained a favorite mega cap at Truist as the company continued to gain share of global e-commerce and improved its value proposition to both merchants and consumers. It was also one of the best ways to play cloud, AI, digital ads and global logistics, contended the advisory, which moved the price target to fiscal 2025 from 2024.
2. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 184
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a consumer electronics firm. JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee recently penned an investor note on the company, maintaining an Overweight rating on the stock with a price target of $265. In the note, Chatterjee highlighted that the iPhone 16 had been available to consumers for a little over a week and the launch was lacking early momentum for the high-end models when compared to prior cycles. Per the analyst, the difference in the lead times relative to prior years in the early weeks pointed to more muted momentum in early orders for the Pro models relative to original expectations. Chatterjee noted this was likely due to the unavailability of artificial intelligence capabilities, with consumers likely delaying purchases until the features were available and the value proposition was better understood.
JPMorgan thus moderated the near-term Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone unit forecast. The advisory now expects aggregate iPhone volumes to track to 126 million in the second half of 2024 versus 130 million prior and 132 million a year ago. However, the analyst clarified that expectations for a robust AI cycle in the medium-term were unchanged, and the revision in near-term estimates only represented a modest push out from volumes to later in the cycle.
1. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 179
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) provides graphics, computing and networking solutions. Jensen Huang, the CEO of the firm, recently appeared on news platform CNBC to discuss a partnership that his firm was entering into with IT company Accenture. During the discussions around Blackwell – the latest, fastest, and most powerful AI chip developed by NVIDIA that has been hit with production delays recently – Huang revealed that Blackwell was in full production now and the demand for it was insane as everyone wanted a lot of these chips and also wanted to be the first ones to get it. Regarding the Accenture partnership, Huang claimed that AI would supercharge enterprises to scale innovation at greater speed.
JPMorgan has an Overweight rating on NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock with a $155 price target. In a recent investor note, issued after hosting a meeting with investor relations at the chipmaker, the advisory underlined NVIDIA remained on track to ship its next-generation Blackwell graphic processing unit platform in high volume production in Q4, with the company still expecting several billion dollars in Blackwell revenues during the time. The note also cautioned investors on paying too much attention to the noise around rack scale portfolio changes for the chips.
While we acknowledge the potential of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) 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 timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: $30 Trillion Opportunity: 15 Best Humanoid Robot Stocks to Buy According to Morgan Stanley and Jim Cramer Says NVIDIA ‘Has Become A Wasteland’.
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