If you can identify powerful trends set to persist for many years, you can build vast wealth in the stock market. One such trend (actually more of a megatrend), artificial intelligence (AI), is presenting investors with such an opportunity.
AI is set to transform huge swaths of the global economy. The game-changing technology is expected to usher in a wave of productivity and efficiency gains. Businesses that can harness AI's power, in turn, stand to see their profits soar.
Read on to learn about three companies that are working to bring the potential of AI to their customers and, by extension, wealth-building gains to their shareholders.
1. Salesforce
Many businesses want to integrate artificial intelligence into their operations, but they don't know where to start. Salesforce (CRM 0.42%) makes this process easy by serving as an AI hub for its customers.
The leading provider of cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software is helping its clients add cutting-edge AI and powerful data analytics tools to their sales and marketing platforms. These businesses, in turn, are better able to harvest actionable, AI-driven insights that can boost revenue and improve customer experiences.
As part of this process, Salesforce connects its clients to the latest and greatest large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI's ChatGPT. But it does so in a way that protects their proprietary data. This is key, as the cost of data breaches -- and the corresponding loss of customer trust -- can be crippling.
By serving as a trusted partner for countless companies' AI-powered growth initiatives, Salesforce is set to cash in on the AI revolution. Buy shares today, and you can position yourself to profit alongside this AI leader.
2. Snowflake
An AI model's value is derived from the data on which it is trained. And data is Snowflake's (SNOW 3.69%) specialty.
Snowflake aggregates data from a wide array of sources and makes it easily accessible in a single, cloud-based platform. This secure and unified approach to data collection enables its customers to run more effective analytics and machine learning processes. Unsurprisingly, given the rapidly rising need for these services, Snowflake's business is booming.
Snowflake's revenue leaped 32% year over year to $734 million in the quarter ended Oct. 31. This impressive growth was driven by strong customer gains and higher sales to existing clients.
Better still, Snowflake is growing more profitable as it scales its operations. Its adjusted product gross margin improved to 78.3% from 75.4% in the prior year period. That helped to drive its adjusted free cash flow higher by a whopping 70%, to $111 million.
Snowflake's data-management offerings are clearly becoming indispensable for more businesses as demand for AI-powered solutions soars. "In this new AI era, generative AI and large language models will reshape how we live, work, and do business," Snowflake executive Sridhar Ramaswamy said earlier this month. "But there is no AI strategy without a data strategy," he added.
And, for many companies, no data strategy is complete without Snowflake.
3. Advanced Micro Devices
AI will be built in the cloud. Thus, there's enormous demand for the semiconductors that power cloud data centers. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 2.37%) is one of the small group of companies that can produce the advanced chip designs required to train and run the most powerful AI models and applications.
AMD estimates that the market for AI chips will balloon to $400 billion by 2027. Today, it's an industry dominated by Nvidia. But AMD recently debuted its MI300 series of AI accelerators, which are designed to reduce the time and cost of training and operating LLMs. AMD's newest chips stack up well against its rival's current offerings in terms of high-speed memory and overall performance -- so much so, that AI leaders like Microsoft and Meta Platforms have already decided to integrate AMD's MI300 accelerators into their massive cloud-computing operations.
AMD's AI-related sales, in turn, are expected to surge. CEO Lisa Su projects that the company will earn more than $2 billion in AI chip sales in 2024. Analysts believe that figure will climb quickly in subsequent years.
The chipmaker is also bolstering its AI software offerings. AMD struck a deal to purchase open-source AI software developer Nod.ai in October. The acquisition should help AMD further chip away at Nvidia's lead in the AI arena.
