Technology stocks have helped lead the market higher over the past several years, and with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), they look poised to continue to lead the way.
Let's look at five top tech stocks catching the AI tailwinds that you might want to consider buying right now.
1. Nvidia
When it comes to AI infrastructure, Nvidia (NVDA +1.80%) has been the clear-cut winner. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) are being used to power the massive AI data center build-out, and its growth is showing no signs of slowing down.
Last quarter, the chipmaker grew its revenue by 69% year over year to $44.1 billion, with data center sales soaring 73% to $39.1 billion. That's about a ninefold jump in data center revenue from just two years ago.
Image source: Getty Images
Nvidia took a huge 92% share in the GPU space in the first quarter. Its wide moat stems from its CUDA software platform. It pushed the software into universities and research labs early on, which made it the platform developers used in order to learn to program GPUs. And it has since built tools and libraries on top of CUDA to help speed up development and improve the performance of its chips.
As AI infrastructure spending continues to ramp up, Nvidia is sure to benefit.
2. Advanced Micro Devices
Another company benefiting from the AI infrastructure build-out is Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 3.05%). Last quarter, its revenue jumped 36% year over year, while its data center business grew 57%.
While a distant No. 2 to Nvidia in GPUs, the company has established itself as a leader in central processing units (CPUs) for data centers. However, its biggest opportunity is with AI inference. It's less technically demanding than AI model training, which reduces some of CUDA's advantages.
This has allowed AMD to carve a niche in inference, a market that is eventually expected to become much larger than the one for training.
NASDAQ: AMD
Key Data Points
As the leader in the CPU market and with a big inference opportunity, AMD is in a strong position. It doesn't need to take a huge share away from Nvidia; just small gains in market share will go a long way.
3. Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms (META +0.58%) is becoming a digital marketing AI leader. It has created a proprietary AI model called Llama to boost user engagement. At the same time, advertisers are using it to create more effective ad campaigns and to better target users. This is leading to more ad inventory and higher ad prices. In the most recent quarter, Meta's ad impressions rose 5%, while ad prices jumped 10%.
NASDAQ: META
Key Data Points
Its biggest opportunity, though, is in bringing ads to its newer platforms. It just began serving ads on its popular messaging platform WhatsApp, which has over 3 billion users. It has built out the user base of its newest social media source, Threads, to 350 million monthly users, and is just gradually introducing ads to the platform.
Meta's leadership in digital advertising, combined with its AI investments and new platform expansion, sets it up for solid growth in the coming years.
4. Alphabet
Despite some investor concerns over AI's potential to disrupt its search business, Alphabet (GOOGL 0.04%) (GOOG +0.05%) remains well-positioned. While search and AI continue to evolve, Google has two big advantages.
The first is distribution: Its Android smartphone operating systems, Chrome browser, and Apple revenue-sharing agreement, make it the default search engine on most devices. And it has spent decades building out one of the most far-reaching ad networks in the world, which allows it to serve everything from global brands to local service providers.
NASDAQ: GOOG
Key Data Points
At the same time, the company has become a cloud computing leader. Last quarter, Google Cloud saw its revenue jump 28%, as customers used its platform to build their own AI models and tools.
Investors also shouldn't ignore the company's custom AI chips, called Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). Google Cloud is using them internally to improve performance and save costs, but news recently surfaced that OpenAI is renting the chips to help power ChatGPT.
The company's robotaxi business, Waymo, also has strong long-term potential. It has seen strong early demand and is now expanding into other U.S. cities. With AI, cloud computing, and robotaxis, Alphabet remains a cutting-edge technology company.
5. Pinterest
Pinterest (PINS +2.25%) has leaned heavily into AI and making its platform more shoppable in recent years. These investments are starting to pay off with user engagement rising and average revenue per user (ARPU) increasing. A partnership with Google, meanwhile, has helped Pinterest better monetize its huge international user base.
Now, the company is looking toward its new ad tool, Performance+, to help drive growth. It combines AI and automation to let advertisers quickly create and manage ad campaigns, while automatically handling ad targeting and bidding.
With its platform improvements and Performance+, Pinterest could see strong future growth.
