We recently published a list of 30 Best AI Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) stands against other best AI stocks to buy according to billionaires.
The optimism around the United States economy over the past few months, largely due to the AI hype, has been dampened by recent measures undertaken by the Trump administration to shore up US manufacturing. These measures, largely in the form of obscene tariffs on goods imported into the US from overseas, with a particular focus on China, have hit global stocks, resulting in a downward spiral for major indexes. The latest tariff hike has wiped trillions in market capitalization from the Magnificent Seven, a group of seven firms that dominate the benchmark US indexes and are heavily invested in AI. Latest reports from market research firm IDC indicate that if the tariffs stay in place, they are expected to trigger supply chain disruptions and inflationary challenges across various markets, including the IT sector. According to a report from news agency Reuters, global hedge funds, dominated by billionaires, scaled back their risky bets and sought safety before Trump introduced new tariffs last week.
This report was based on data gathered by investment bank Goldman Sachs. Per the data, hedge funds pulled out of bets in emerging markets of Europe and Asia ahead of the announcement of new tariffs. Research by investment bank Morgan Stanley, as seen by Reuters, also echoes these sentiments. Morgan Stanley estimates US long-short funds net leverage quickly fell to 37%, just shy of historical lows, by the end of last week, from over 50% at the beginning of the year. Net leverage measures the difference between a fund’s long and short positions against the value of what it owns including borrowings. JPMorgan also noted in a recent report that the net leverage of hedge funds has dropped to around the lowest since late 2023. The lower the net leverage, the more conservative a hedge fund’s position. Investors expect significant volatility on risk assets in the near term given the tariff uncertainties and suggest a continued risk-off stance.
Read more about these developments by accessing 10 Best AI Data Center Stocks and 10 Buzzing AI Stocks According to Goldman Sachs.
The latest developments represent a reversal of positions from billionaires who, in the past few months, have often hailed AI as the next transformative technology that would shape the future of economies, industries, and society. Influential billionaires repeatedly advocated for investing heavily in AI for the immense economic value it promised. This bullish thesis was based on research from firms like McKinsey that predicted that AI could add up to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy in the coming years. For investors, this translated into a chance to own stakes in technologies that could underpin the next generation of global growth. For billionaire investors, AI also represented both a diversification strategy and a chance to influence the direction of a powerful new technology. These investors often take strategic stakes that allow them to shape product development and scaling. Some of the biggest companies these investors made huge bets on are discussed in detail below.
Read more about these developments by accessing 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock and Beyond the Tech Giants: 35 Non-Tech AI Opportunities.
For this article, we consulted an internal database on AI companies. From these, we selected the thirty stocks with the highest number of billionaire investors. 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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A row of electric vehicles all powered by the company’s advanced battery systems.
Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 120
Number of Billionaire Investors: 25
Value of Billionaire Holdings: $3 Billion
Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) operates as an integrated retail electricity and power generation company. In early March, following strong quarterly results, Bank of America upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral with a $152 price target. In an investor note, analyst Ross Fowler viewed Vistra’s base business of baseload generation and competitive retail as well-positioned to benefit from tightening markets in PJM and ERCOT, increasing demand and retail growth, regardless of datacenter deals. For 2026, the company has maintained confidence in adjusted EBITDA exceeding $6 billion. However, CEO Burke has noted that legislative and regulatory uncertainties in Texas and PJM markets could impact future investments and timelines, particularly for new-generation projects.
Overall, VST ranks 7th on our list of best AI stocks to buy according to billionaires. While we acknowledge the potential of these AI companies, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. 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 VST 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.
