For the next stage of the AI era, companies with purposeful, practical, and highly targeted solutions stand to benefit the most.
At first glance, the mania surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) stocks has some similarities to the short-lived hype seen in the market from time to time (the metaverse, cannabis stocks, and cryptocurrencies are recent examples). Take a closer look though. This buzz is different.
Not only is it not fading away, but the proverbial table-pounding is making more and more sense. AI is looking more and more like a once-in-a-generation opportunity for investors, not unlike the computer technology boom of the 1990s that was spurred on by the advent of the then-new internet.
The key to making the most of the opportunity from here is just finding the stocks that don't yet reflect their underlying companies' ultimate potential. With that as the backdrop, here's a look at three companies perfectly positioned to capitalize on the next stage of AI's rise.
1. SoundHound AI
It might be a funny-sounding moniker. But SoundHound AI (SOUN -5.83%) is appropriately named. This company creates technologies capable of understanding and responding to human speech.
OK, it's not exactly a new idea. Speech-to-text word processing, voice-based customer self-service, and voice-activated digital assistants like Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana have been around for a while now. These technologies didn't become powerful enough to handle complex interactions, however, until they became AI-powered. SoundHound's solutions now include drive-thru order taking, in-car driving assistants, in-room hotel-service agents, and voice-activated, home-appliance management, just to name a few. These are tasks that only until recently required manual inputs or human-to-human conversations.
Now that such solutions are available, enterprises are utilizing them as quickly as they can. Last quarter's top line for SoundHound AI was up 80% year over year, extending but also accelerating growth that's been underway for a couple of years now.
Analysts are looking for more of the same sort of forward progress at least through the end of next year too. And they'll probably see it. Market research outfit Market.us believes the AI voice-assistant market is set to grow at an annualized pace of nearly 29% through 2033.
SoundHound AI isn't profitable yet (it's one of the frequent arguments for not owning the stock). That's not necessarily a great reason to avoid stepping in, however. For many growth stories like this one, making progress toward profitability is more than good enough for now. SoundHound is most definitely doing that, and there's every reason to believe it's going to swing to a profit sooner than later.
2. Recursion Pharmaceuticals
You're not reading this wrong -- a pharmaceutical company is on a list of AI stocks to consider buying. That's because Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX -2.91%) is also developing AI tools to aid in the development of new drugs. Indeed, it wouldn't be unfair to describe Recursion Pharmaceuticals as a full-blown AI company that also happens to make and market pharmaceuticals.
As the organization's website plainly states, "central to our mission is the Recursion Operating System (OS), an integrated, multi-faceted system for generating, analyzing and deriving insight from massive biological and chemical datasets to industrialize drug discovery." This data-rich platform makes it easier and faster to develop new drugs. In fact, its tech is behind five different clinical trials currently underway, with two more drugs in the preclinical stage. Over a dozen more are still in the discovery/developmental stage where the Recursion Operating System does its important data-driven predictive work.
There's still above-average risk here. As brilliant as the premise might be, this $2.3 billion company remains in the red and doesn't yet have any meaningful revenue to speak of. Its partners are only paying nominal fees for access to its tech.
The high risk is worth the potential reward though. AI-powered research is a key piece of pharmaceuticals' future. Precedence Research predicts the AI drug-discovery market is set to grow at an average of 21.5% per year through 2033. Few other players are even close to matching Recursion's answer to this opportunity.
3. Broadcom
Finally, add Broadcom (AVGO -7.91%) to your list of potential millionaire-making AI stocks.
As was the case with Recursion Pharmaceuticals, this isn't a mistake -- Broadcom is an AI stock. Or, it's at least a key beneficiary of the rise of AI.
Oh, that's not its core business to be sure. The company remains a maker of the chips, semiconductors, and other communication technologies frequently found in smartphones, laptops, medical equipment, and industrial robotics just to name a few. But it also happens to be an integral part of the data centers being used to develop AI solutions. Chief among its products used on this front are the fiber-optic connection equipment that links multiple motherboards into a single network, and the circuit boards connecting hard drives to those motherboards. It also offers software that maximizes the performance of its hardware. Perhaps most importantly, however, Broadcom makes many of the ASIC processors that are an alternative to Nvidia's GPU-based AI platforms. (GPU is the acronym for graphics processing unit.)To this end, the company's AI-related sales reached a record-breaking $3.1 billion during the second quarter of this year.
That's still a small part of its $12.5 billion worth of quarterly revenue, for the record, but that might not be the case much longer. The artificial intelligence hardware market is expected to grow at a double-digit pace for at least another decade, and IT research outfit Gartner believes the ASIC AI chip market is set to grow at an annualized clip of 24% between now and 2028. Given Broadcom's strength on the ASIC front, it's likely to capture more than its fair share of this growth.
James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and Gartner and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
