Artificial intelligence (AI) is a once-in-a-generation technological shift that should help create some huge winners over the long haul. While it will take time to sort out the winners, let's look at three AI stocks that have potential to make millionaires out of investors.
These stocks all come with risks, but they also have huge potential if things break right.
1. Palantir
Palantir Technologies (PLTR 1.22%) isn't just using AI to make an existing solution better, it's trying to become the operating system of AI. That's a huge swing, but companies that have been able to control the operating systems for computers and smartphones –- think Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Microsoft -- have grown to become some of the largest companies in the world.
Palantir's AI Platform (AIP) pulls data from across an organization, maps it to real-world processes, and essentially makes AI more actionable. Its platform is already being used across a wide array of industries to solve very different problems. This includes everything from managing battlefield intelligence to helping telecoms decommission old equipment to monitoring for sepsis at hospitals. It's even looking to add AI agents that can go out on their own and directly solve these problems.
Palantir has been seeing its revenue growth accelerate, led by the U.S. commercial sector. Its largest customer -- the U.S government -- has also picked up its spending, as the company becomes one of the government's most important vendors when it comes to modern warfare. The company has even signed a deal with NATO that could unlock more international defense wins.
The number of use cases for which Palantir's technology is applicable is massive, which gives the company a huge runway for growth. The stock is expensive, but if AIP can become the go-to operating system for enterprise AI, Palantir could grow into one of the largest companies in the world.
Image source: Getty Images
2. Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 0.77%) has always played second fiddle to Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), but a shift in the market could help it become a huge long-term winner. The early stages of AI have largely revolved around training large language models (LLMs), which is an area where Nvidia's superior software platform has given it a huge advantage. However, AI is slowly moving from training to inference, and that's where AMD has been carving out a niche. Best of all, the inference market is eventually expected to become much larger than the one for training.
Inference is all about speed and cost. Once a model is trained, it has to respond to user queries, and that's where AMD's graphics processing units (GPUs) are starting to gain traction. Last quarter, it said one of the world's biggest AI model companies is now running a large share of its inference traffic on AMD's hardware. Meanwhile, cloud computing providers have started using its chips with search and generative AI.
One of the biggest opportunities for the company could come from UALink, which is a new open-source, high-speed, low-latency standard for communication across servers in AI data centers. The protocol is being developed by a consortium of top tech companies to challenge Nvidia's closed NVLink standard. If UALink becomes the go-to interconnect, data centers will then be able mix and match AI chips. That would be a game changer, and it opens the door for AMD to gain share in this huge market.
AMD does not have to overtake Nvidia to be an AI winner. Last quarter, its data center revenue was just $3.7 billion compared to Nvidia's $39 billion, so even modest gains could lead to massive upside.
3. AppLovin
AppLovin (APP 0.10%) may not sound like a serious AI company, but it's been one of the most successful adtech growth stories of the past few years. The launch of its AI-driven advertising engine, Axon 2, has helped transform the way gaming app companies advertise.
Axon 2 uses predictive machine learning to optimize ad targeting, bidding, and placement. Right now, it's mostly been focused on gaming apps, where the company has been taking share away from competitors. This could be seen in its Q1 results, as its ad revenue jumped 73% in the first quarter.
However, the company's bigger opportunity is expanding into other areas, such as e-commerce and web-based ads. It's already piloting Axon 2 in these verticals, and if its ad engine can deliver similar results outside of gaming apps, the upside for the stock is substantial.
Now, every stock comes with risks, but it should be noted that AppLovin has been the target of multiple short-seller reports alleging everything from shady app installs to ties with China. However, the company also has drawn the interest of some heavyweight investors like Tiger Global's Chase Coleman. Meanwhile, Alphabet continues to allow the platform on Google Play despite the competition, and Apple, which is known for being very strict, has allowed it to remain being used within its App Store.
If Axon 2 can become a broader AI-powered ad engine, AppLovin could go from a niche gaming app player to a dominant adtech platform. That would mean huge upside for its stock.
