When most of us think of artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, we think of technology players. By this, I mean companies like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices that power AI systems with their chips. Or you may consider Amazon, which uses AI across its own business and offers AI services to its cloud computing customers. And that means if you want to bet on the AI revolution, you might invest in one of these tech giants.
They could indeed become AI winners as the technology develops. But they may have to share the spotlight with another company you wouldn't identify as a tech stock. This player isn't a newcomer to AI. In fact, it used AI to develop a billion-dollar product that most of us are familiar with. I'm talking about Moderna (MRNA 5.35%), maker of a blockbuster coronavirus vaccine. In Boston Consulting Group's list of top AI innovators, Moderna and Tesla are the only nontech companies to make the top six.
Moderna is on the road to scoring a big win in the field of AI -- and that could equal victory for investors, too. Let's find out more.
Billions of dollars in earnings
So, first a bit of background on Moderna: The biotech player brought a coronavirus vaccine -- its first and only product so far -- to market in late 2020. Since then, the product has generated billions of dollars in earnings, and though demand has declined from early pandemic days, Moderna expects the vaccine to remain a blockbuster product. That's as people line up yearly for coronavirus vaccines, similar to the flu shot routine.
Meanwhile, Moderna has built a solid pipeline of potential products, with more than 40 programs in development, and expects to launch a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine next year if all goes well. Moderna aims to create a respiratory vaccine franchise that could generate as much as $9 billion in annual free cash flow later this decade. On top of this, Moderna's earnings could soar if the company is successful with candidates such as its potential vaccines for cancer and cytomegalovirus.
NASDAQ: MRNA
Key Data Points
So, how does AI fit in? In a big way. As mentioned, Moderna already was using AI as it developed the coronavirus vaccine. As a pre-clinical-stage company, Moderna harnessed the power of AI to help it produce messenger RNA needed for its experiments. Thanks to AI, Moderna went from producing about 30 mRNAs a month to 1,000, chief AI officer Dave Johnson told MIT Sloan Management Review back in 2021.
This is significant because it allows Moderna to speed up its research and gain access to better-quality mRNA sequences. Moderna also has built its own AI models for tasks including asset data analysis and regulatory interactions, chief executive officer Stéphane Bancel said during the most recent earnings call.
Required AI training
Bancel said AI training is required for Moderna employees, and he aims to incorporate AI into all parts of the business. The plan is working. Moderna introduced its own large language model back in May, and after two months, about half of employees already were using it.
Earlier this year, Moderna also announced the opening of a Seattle office, dedicated to scaling the use of AI across the company. And Moderna signed a deal with International Business Machines to use the tech giant's quantum computing and AI expertise to advance drug development. For instance, Moderna is using IBM's MoLFormer to predict the properties of molecules, an important step in optimizing the safety and efficacy of potential medicines.
How to score a win
So how can all of this score a win for Moderna and investors? The efforts should result in better drugs or vaccines -- and faster. That's because AI can help scientists select the strongest candidates early in the development process and avoid mistakes that slow things down.
Faster drug development could speed up the time to approval and commercialization -- and better products could result in stronger sales figures over the long run. All of this could translate into earnings growth for Moderna, and eventually, share price performance. That's great news for investors who buy Moderna now, while the shares are down, and stick around to watch this exciting story unfold.
