AI stocks were hit hard by DeepSeek’s announcement, but it seems to be that DeepSeek is only causing more optimism in the long run for many AI companies. This is because cost has been a big problem for AI companies, and if they can make progress on this front, it will let AI companies make much more powerful models with the existing hardware they have.
DeepSeek is open source, so most AI companies can learn from its efficiency and integrate it. Moreover, companies and VCs are still willing to put money into AI companies and are doubling down on their bets. This likely means that AI companies will be able to make even more progress in the long run.
The real action has been spreading into many AI companies beyond the familiar names. Plus, we’re seeing the rise of agentic AI. These stocks crushed the market last year, and despite the DeepSeek catalyst this year, they are still doing well.
Here are 15 that have gained the most year-to-date.
A laptop and a computer monitor display a detailed stock market technical analysis chart. Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki on Pexels
Methodology
For this article, I screened the top-performing AI stocks year-to-date. Stocks that I have covered recently will be excluded from this list.
I will also mention the number of hedge fund investors in these stocks. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds invest in? 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).
15. Allot Ltd (NASDAQ:ALLT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 9
Allot Ltd (NASDAQ:ALLT) provides network intelligence and security solutions. It also sells to cloud service providers.
Allot Ltd reported solid results in Q3 2024. It reported its first non-GAAP operating profit in three years. Revenues grew to $23.2 million, up 3% year-over-year. Moreover, SECaaS revenue rose 69% to $4.7 million. It also achieved a positive OCF of $1.9 million.
Analysts now think the company will break even by 2026 and achieve a profit of $3 million in 2027. That said, it has had some muted revenue growth. Revenue declined 10% last year.
The consensus analyst price target of $13 implies 55.3% upside potential from here.
ALLT stock is up 35.2% year-to-date.
14. Agora Inc (NASDAQ:API)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 7
Agora Inc (NASDAQ:API) is a tech company that lets developers integrate real-time voice, video, and AI functions into their apps.
The stock has risen sharply in 2025 due to senior management committing to a voluntary lock-up agreement until the end of 2025. Moreover, although Agora has seen a revenue decline in previous quarters, it has been recovering by focusing on higher-margin products. It expects revenue growth for Q4 2024 and GAAP breakeven this year.
Agora Inc. partnered with OpenAI to launch a conversational AI SDK, so that also improved market sentiment.
For Q3 2024, Agora reported $31.6 million in revenue, down 9.8% year-over-year due to the discontinuation of low-margin products and reduced demand in some sectors. But excluding these, revenue increased 2.3% sequentially. It also had $362.6 million in cash at the end of Q3 2024.
Agora projects Q4 2024 revenue between $34 million and $36 million.
The consensus price target of $6 implies -0.8% downside.
API stock is up 38.4% year-to-date.