We recently compiled a list of the 10 Best Performing AI Stocks in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) stands against the other AI stocks.
Even amidst the DeepSeek frenzy, artificial intelligence remains the most prevalent theme in the market today. Surging enterprise adoption, expanding use cases, and increasing artificial intelligence infrastructure have led to the AI surge. DeepSeek’s claims that its AI models are more efficient and less costly have now been deemed “largely understated” by several analysts and investors in the tech world. More importantly, tech giants continue their AI investment sprees, demonstrating that the global AI arms race is far from over.
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Recent earnings reports signify that the combined capital expenditures for these tech giants are set to exceed $320 billion in 2025. This is despite investors questioning whether such huge AI spending is even justified when AI models can be developed cheaper and more efficiently. These people are worried that the AI arms race may turn into an expensive gamble. Tech executives are not worried, however. According to them, cheaper artificial intelligence is only going to lead to a higher demand for AI products.
Some analyst firms seem to agree. Here is what Dan Ives from Wedbush Securities has to say:
“Huge week for Big Tech earnings as Zuckerberg, Nadella, Cook, and Musk doubled down on their AI visions and what this means for each of these tech stalwarts looking ahead,” he said in an X post last month. “This is an AI arms race and the Temu of AI DeepSeek not changing that…AI Revolution just starting.”
Even Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, has been all praises for DeepSeek, stating that it has done good work that showed how global artificial intelligence is. He stated how he previously anticipated that his company would be the leading player in the AI space, but noted that others would be there in that space too.
With AI investments soaring and competition heating up, the market continues to reward companies that demonstrate strong execution in the artificial intelligence sector. These companies are capitalizing on the AI boom through their strategic investments, market leadership, and strong earnings growth. Let’s move on to explore them.
For this article, we compiled an initial list of AI stocks using ETFs and financial media reports. From this pool, we selected the best-performing AI stocks based on their year-to-date (YTD) performance, as of February 14. 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)
Solar panel workers installing a new farm for clean energy generation.
Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST)
Year-to-Date (YTD) Performance: 21.61%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 97
Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) operates as an integrated retail electricity and power generation company. Another one of the best-performing AI stocks in 2025 has been Vistra, up 22% year-to-date. Driven by clean energy demand, its valuation has soared to $57 billion this year.
Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) differs from other utilities due to its operations in unregulated power markets, setting it free from strict price controls. Naturally, this has granted the stock flexibility to capitalize on the energy demand coming from power-hungry AI-driven data centers. On November 15, JP Morgan stated that Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is one of its top picks for 2025 based on its abundant potential for growth on the back of its huge production capacity.
Analyst Jeremy Tonet put an “Overweight” (i.e. Buy) rating on the stock with a $178 price target. The stock did plunge over 20% amid the DeepSeek frenzy but has since rebounded on the news of the Stargate initiative and the prospects of demand for energy for its data centers.
Overall VST ranks 8th on our list of the best performing AI stocks in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of VST 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 VST but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stock To Buy Now and Complete List of All AI Companies Under $2 Billion Market Cap.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
