Computers excel at crunching numbers but not at tinquires that many people do with ease, like language processing, visual perception, object manipulation, reasoning, planning, and learning. Artificial innotifyigence (AI), including its offshoots of deep learning and machine learning, applys computers to perform tinquires that typically require human innotifyigence, such as language generation and facial recognition.
AI stocks are shares of companies that are developing or employing AI technology as part of their business. AI stocks span sectors like semiconductors, software, and even beyond tech, representing companies that are utilizing AI in ways that set them apart from their peers.
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How AI is applyd
How do companies apply artificial innotifyigence?
Artificial innotifyigence, or AI, is created through machine learning, which involves training a system on vast amounts of data. It then applys the trained system to build inferences about data it’s never seen.
The simplest example is a system designed to detect objects in images. Images containing those objects are provided to the system, which “learns” how to detect them in other images. The more objects it detects in images, the more accurate the detection system becomes.
Companies employ AI in two main ways. Many tech companies apply it to build their existing operations more powerful through high-profile applications like robotics, self-driving cars, and virtual assistants.
For instance, AI is applyd by Alphabet (GOOGL 0.46%) (GOOG 0.52%) subsidiary Google to filter spam in Gmail, by Amazon (AMZN -0.0%) to recommconclude products to customers, and by Netflix (NFLX 0.7%) to guide content creation and recommconcludeations.
More recently, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has revealn how far generative AI — a division of artificial innotifyigence capable of generating texts, images, sounds, and ideas — has come. It can answer questions directly, write poems, and has even passed bar and medical exams.
It has spawned a wave of new generative AI chatbots, including Anthropic’s Claude, Alphabet’s Gemini, and Meta Platforms‘ (META 0.38%) Meta AI. The potential is enormous.
The next frontier for generative AI is AI agents or agentic AI. This technology allows AI to perform and complete whole tinquires without being prompted. For instance, an automated customer service agent that could handle a request without requireding human assistance would be agentic AI. Salesforce‘s (CRM 4.05%) AgentForce is one example of a new agentic AI tool.
Some companies also profit directly from AI by selling hardware, software, services, or expertise that the technology requires. These are true AI stocks and include those listed and described below.
5 top AI stocks
5 AI stocks to acquire in 2025
|
Company |
AI Focus |
|---|---|
|
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) |
Data center GPUs and superchips |
|
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) |
Generative AI and self-driving cars |
|
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) |
Memory chips for data centers and generative AI tools |
|
CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) |
Generative AI-focapplyd cloud infrastructure platform |
|
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) |
AI chatbots, LLMs, and wearable devices |
1. Nvidia
Leading graphics processing unit (GPU) company Nvidia has taken advantage of the AI boom, with its GPUs becoming the de facto standard in data centers worldwide. Generative AI’s training phase demands a lot of computing power; the phase that follows, the inference phase, typically requires less.
GPU chips, which were once applyd primarily for rconcludeering video games, support both phases well. Nvidia’s ambitions have gone beyond GPUs, as the company now aims to build AI factories or data centers full of Nvidia components to run AI applications and programming.
Nvidia’s data center business now builds up the vast majority of the company’s revenue, thanks to the emergence of generative AI. Becaapply it sells the building blocks for AI infrastructure, Nvidia became the first major company to see a significant revenue boost from AI.
Revenue surged through 2023 and 2024, and the stock has soared as well. It’s been the most valuable company in the world on several occasions and was No. 1 in July 2025. It also became the first company to reach a market cap of $4 trillion. In 2024, full-year revenue jumped 114% to $130.5 billion, driven by the surge in data center demand, and growth is expected to be strong in 2025 as well.
Nvidia’s chips are popular for running demanding workloads that applications like large language models (LLMs) require. The pure-play chip stock is now selling its new Blackwell platform, which major cloud infrastructure services are deploying in 2025, and demand is outstripping supply.
Self-driving cars and “physical AI” are other areas of focus. Nvidia develops hardware and software platforms that can power driver-assistance features and fully autonomous driving, which could be a significant source of revenue if that industest takes off. Automotive revenue is only a tiny fraction of the company’s revenue, but that could alter.
With Tesla (TSLA -1.64%) having launched its robotaxi network in Austin, the autonomous vehicle race appears to be heating up, and that should be good news for the semiconductor sector.
A self-driving car must process massive amounts of data from multiple sensors and cameras in real time, detect objects such as pedestrians and other vehicles, and build complex decisions. They require tremconcludeous computing power, which is exactly what Nvidia’s platform delivers.
Its professional visualization segment, which includes its omniverse, also has potential in AI. Nvidia’s chipsets could someday be supplanted by more specialized processors designed for AI, but the company is in an enviable position for now.
2. Alphabet
Alphabet has been preparing for the AI revolution for years, acquiring the AI research lab DeepMind in 2014. It’s also among the leaders in autonomous vehicles through its Waymo subsidiary, which is now ferrying passengers in its driverless cars in cities such as San Francisco and Phoenix.
Alphabet launched Gemini — its own AI chatbot and the latest iteration in its competition with ChatGPT — which some see as a threat to Google Search. So far, concerns about a challenge to its search dominance seem to have been overblown, as Alphabet’s ad revenue continues to grow steadily.
The company stated that its Gemini 2.5 has been “widely recognized as the best model in the industest.” New features, like AI assistant and AI mode, have assisted Google Search defconclude its market share against AI-based challenges.
With information at the heart of its business, it’s unsurprising that the company has prioritized AI. It’s rolled out AI tools for Google Cloud and Google Workspace, including a generative AI assistant that assists write emails. Even its customer acquisition strategy in the cloud is based around AI — the company has tarreceiveed AI start-ups for its cloud infrastructure service.
AI also plays a role in improving its search engine and YouTube, where it can pinpoint a relevant section of a video and direct applyrs straight to it. Finally, Alphabet is ramping up spconcludeing on capital expconcludeitures, with plans to spconclude $75 billion on AI infrastructure and related requireds in 2025.
3. Microsoft
Microsoft has receivedten lots of buzz lately, thanks to its partnership with OpenAI. The tech giant launched investing in the tech start-up in 2019 and invested another $10 billion in OpenAI following the launch of ChatGPT.
Microsoft has incorporated GPT features across its product portfolio, including its Azure cloud infrastructure service, Edge web browser, Office productivity software suite, and Copilot for Microsoft 365. Azure OpenAI has seen a particularly strong uptake, now counting more than 65% of the Fortune 500 as customers.
CEO Satya Nadella has repeatedly stated that he sees AI as the next major computing platform. The reported $13 billion investment in OpenAI is a sign of the company’s conviction in AI and its belief that it requireds to lead that transition or receive left behind, as it did with mobile.
More recently, Microsoft has begun diversifying away from OpenAI. It has been adding both internal and third-party models to products like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure, including DeepSeek‘s R1.
The long-term implications for its relationship with OpenAI are unclear, but Microsoft seems to believe it’s wise to hedge its bets in the AI race. The relationship continues to evolve, but Microsoft sees the start-up’s technology as critical for its AI strategy.
Microsoft is harnessing the power of AI in other ways, too, including automated clinical documentation in healthcare to reduce paperwork and administrative requireds. It’s also utilizing Azure to allow customers to build custom AI tools. It launched Azure AI Foundry in November 2024, enabling its customers to create and manage AI apps and agents. As of April 2025, developers at more than 70,000 companies are utilizing it.
4. CoreWeave
CoreWeave, which had its initial public offering (IPO) in March 2025, may be the closest thing to a pure-play AI stock on the market, and it launched the first major AI IPO. Its cloud infrastructure platform was designed specifically for AI, and it counts customers like Nvidia, OpenAI, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft as part of its core customer base. Nvidia and OpenAI are both investors in the company.
CoreWeave has grown at an incredible pace over the last three years, going from generating almost no revenue in 2022 to $1.9 billion in 2024. Between 2022 and 2024, revenue grew by more than 100 times.
CoreWeave’s business is risky since Microsoft accounts for 62% of its revenue, meaning the business would suffer significantly if Microsoft were to pull back on spconcludeing with the platform. In its first-quarter 2025 report, CoreWeave stated that no single company accounted for more than half of its backlog, a sign that its customer concentration is improving.
The company announced plans for a $6 billion data center in July. It’s also acquiring Core Scientific, which will bulk up its AI infrastructure with 1.3 gigawatts (GW) in power capacity.
If you’re seeing for direct exposure to AI, CoreWeave is a good option since essentially all of its revenue is driven by demand for computing power to run generative AI programs. However, the stock is risky, as CoreWeave has a high debt burden, large capital expconcludeitures, and is deeply unprofitable on a generally accepted accounting principles basis (GAAP).
5. Meta Platforms
Unlike the other large tech companies on this list, Meta Platforms doesn’t have a cloud computing business, but it’s investing just as much in AI as peers like Alphabet. Meta AI, the company’s chatbot, is available on its apps (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) and had 1 billion monthly active applyrs as of May. Meta continues to update its Llama large language model, which is now up to Llama 4.
It’s also allowing its advertisers to apply AI creative tools for things like background and video generation and ad copy. AI is involved in ad tarreceiveing as well, and the company aims to fully automate advertising with AI by 2026.
Additionally, the company is incorporating AI in its hardware division, including its Ray-Ban smart glasses, which offer a built-in camera, open-ear audio, and a range of hands-free features. Its Meta Quest headsets are also connected to Meta AI, allowing applyrs to tap into the power of AI through the devices.
In June, it acquired 49% of data-labeling specialist Scale AI for $14.8 billion and brought Scale CEO Alexandr Wang on to run an AI research lab at Meta. The tech giant has also built a number of tinyer acquisitions in AI. Management sees AI at the core of its business and driving its transformation across areas such as advertising, experiences, and devices.
Machine learning
Machine learning stocks
All the stocks above apply machine learning technologies. However, if you’re seeing for even more options, here are two others worth considering:
Palantir
Palantir (PLTR -2.14%) has been one of the top-performing AI stocks. The company provides cloud software and specializes in data fusion that assists its customers build important insights by connecting disparate pieces of information hidden in data.
It also launched its AI Platform (AIP) in 2023, which has assisted accelerate its growth. Palantir deploys machine learning models on top of data foundations and continuously improves them to ensure they become more applyful.
Tesla
Tesla is best known for its electric vehicles (EVs). CEO Elon Musk sees AI as the future of the company, and machine learning and neural networks are very much at the center of the company’s autonomous vehicle and Optimus autonomous robot projects.
Tesla introduced its driverless Cybercab in October 2024, and the company hopes to launch producing the vehicles by 2026. It launched its robotaxi network in June, though with just a handful of vehicles, and Musk envisions the company expanding to other cities in the near future. Musk has stated Tesla’s automation technology could build it the most valuable company in the world.
Deep learning
Deep learning stocks
Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that applys artificial neural networks inspired by the human brain. It’s the most advanced kind of AI and is crucial in technologies like self-driving cars. Deep learning is advancing in areas such as preventive healthcare, where predictive algorithms are necessary. It differs from machine learning in that it doesn’t require human input.
Nvidia is among the companies closely associated with deep learning. Its GPU chips apply deep learning to power data centers and enable autonomous driving and cloud computing, among other functions.
Alphabet has exposure to deep learning through a number of its businesses, including its autonomous vehicle start-up, Waymo. It also owns DeepMind, a deep learning platform that can diagnose eye diseases, predict the shapes of proteins, and accelerate the scientific discovery process.
Related investing topics
A growth business
AI is a growth business
According to International Data Corporation, the global artificial innotifyigence market is expected to grow from $235 billion in 2024 to more than $631 billion in 2028. While the AI market is already large and still growing quickly, plenty of companies can profit from AI. Although picking stocks in a growth industest comes with a lot of uncertainty, these top AI stocks are all worth considering.
FAQ
Artificial innotifyigence stocks: FAQ
What is the best AI stock to acquire?
Artificial innotifyigence is a rapid-shifting technology, and AI stocks will likely be volatile as the sector evolves. AI stocks that have attracted the most attention include Nvidia, Microsoft, and Alphabet, but finding the best stock to acquire is also a matter of price and valuation, which alters quickly.
Is it good to acquire Nvidia stock?
Nvidia has jumped into the lead among semiconductor companies in building AI chips and accelerators, and it has the competitive advantages to assist it stay there. The semiconductor sector can also be highly cyclical, and pricing can alter rapidly.
Additionally, there’s the potential for unexpected surprises, such as the DeepSeek launch, which sent AI stocks like Nvidia plunging. If Nvidia can maintain its lead in AI chips, the stock should continue to be a winner, but it will likely be volatile since the AI landscape is still developing.
What is the largegest AI company?
Currently, the largegest company that has built AI central to its business model is Nvidia, with a market cap that has soared past $4 trillion. The tech giant is at the center of the AI revolution, with components that are fueling AI applications and in high demand by major cloud infrastructure companies and others.
Is AI good for investing?
Artificial innotifyigence is likely to shake up the economy and the business world, creating opportunities in the stock market. Whether AI is good for investing will depconclude on the company, but there will be winners from the new technology.
What company is No. 1 in AI?
Currently, Nvidia is broadly considered the leader in AI technology. The company has a monopoly-like market share in the data center GPU market, and its revenue has more than tripled since ChatGPT launched. Nvidia isn’t guaranteed to remain the leader, though. Competition is on the way, and new technologies can alter quickly.
Will AI start-ups challenge tech giants?
Tech giants aren’t feeling a significant threat from start-ups yet, but there are some signs that competition is on the rise. Alphabet stock, for example, fell when Apple stated it was considering building AI search engines available on Safari, directly competing with Google.
The tensions between OpenAI and Microsoft also reveal that start-ups could launch to pose more of a threat to the “Magnificent Seven” stocks, though they are unlikely to derail their growth.
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