The wave of artificial intelligence investments is heating up. Just weeks after the US President confirmed a $500 billion Stargate project to strengthen US data centre capacity, South Korea has joined the fray. An investor group has already confirmed plans to construct one of the world’s largest data centers, affirming the red-hot AI demand.
The investors are plotting a $35 billion data center that will pack up to 3 gigawatts of power in the Asian nation. It will be one of the biggest data centers and nearly three times the data centers that Softbank and its partners are planning to construct in Texas as part of the Stargate project.
AI models have grown more complex and require more chips that consume greater amounts of electricity. Amid this growth, the availability of power needed to run these AI models and data centers has become a significant problem, prompting companies and countries to invest in new sources of reliable power. By 2030, creating the biggest AI models will probably require more than 5 gigawatts of electricity, according to the research group Epoch AI.
The proposed South Korean data center would be competing against emerging data center campuses that are coming up in Malaysia, Thailand, and India whereby labor is cheap and space readily available.
“If they can do it cheaply and timely, there’s definitely an opportunity there” for the South Korean facility, said Jingwen Ong, a research manager overseeing the Asia-Pacific region at DC Byte.
Additionally, it will affirm the growing investments as countries and companies look to take advantage of the AI boom. The investment spree should allay fears of a potential cut in AI infrastructure spending following DeepSeek’s breakthrough with a cost-efficient AI model.
While the $35 billion investment in a data center might be a shocker, it underscores the willingness to spend and invest in the burgeoning AI sector. Elon Musk has already tabled a $97.4 billion buyout offer for OpenAI, underscoring the great lengths investors are willing to go to strengthen their prospects amid the AI revolution.
The board of OpenAI received the unsolicited offer of $97.4 billion from Musk and a group of investors to buy the nonprofit that owns OpenAI. While the board rejected the offer, Musk’s lawyers reiterated that they would only drop the takeover if OpenAI dropped plans to convert to a for-profit structure.
Musk’s attorney insists the OpenAI board should have considered the offer in good faith because the for-profit conversion essentially means the nonprofit’s assets are being put up for sale.
“They’re just selling it to themselves at a fraction of what Musk has offered,” he said, accusing the board of a “classic self-dealing transaction.”
Musk alleges that OpenAI and Sam Altman violated the company’s original agreement by prioritizing financial gain over benefits to humanity. Altman and OpenAI have refuted Musk’s claims and described his lawsuits as a rival’s attempt at distraction.
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 was sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database.
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9. Enovix Corporation (NASDAQ:ENVX)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 14
Enovix Corporation (NASDAQ:ENVX) designs, develops, manufactures, and sells lithium-ion batteries. Its batteries are used in mobile devices, electric vehicles, and energy storage. The high-performance battery company delivered solid fourth quarter and full year 2024 results on February 19. The company achieved record revenue of $9.7 million in the fourth quarter and $23.1 million for the entire year, up 202%.
Enovix Corporation (NASDAQ:ENVX) also achieved a significant milestone in securing a landmark prepaid purchase order for its XR batteries. The deal is from a global technology leader in artificial intelligence and immersive technologies. Consequently, Enovix’s batteries will start being used on next-generation smart eyewear. As a leader in high energy density battery technologies, Enovix plans to capitalize on emerging trends fueled by accelerating AI innovation. That’s part of the company’s plan to invest in the emerging AI-enabled smart eyewear market, which is backed by a battery cell tailored for the specific market.
