All year long, chip stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) have been the hottest AI investments on Wall Street. NVDA itself is already up more than 130% year-to-date – and we aren’t even halfway through 2024 yet!
But we believe the AI industry is rapidly approaching a critical inflection point. And soon, a different kind of stock will reign supreme.
Move aside, chip stocks. It’s time for the software stock boom.
For nearly two years, AI chip stocks have been the market’s biggest winners because they provide the industry’s ‘picks and shovels.’ That is, in order for companies across the globe to develop AI models, they first need chips to build those models on.
It’s the AI Boom’s ‘first derivative,’ if you will – the first wave.
But we think that trend has mostly played out. Companies spent billions on a chip buying spree in 2023 and 2024. So, what will they do now?
They certainly won’t just sit on them.
Rather, they’ll create new AI models and applications – which is exactly why software stocks should boom this summer and into 2025.
The Second Wave of the AI Boom
Thanks to the chip-buying frenzy of 2023/24, companies are fully equipped to build and deploy next-generation AI models and applications in 2024/25.
We’ll likely see hundreds of new applications emerge over the next 12 months. Those applications will proliferate throughout society. And by the end of 2025, we’ll be drowning in AI software.
Over the next 12 months, AI software will eat the world.
We’re already starting to see early signs of this.
Last night, for example, enterprise AI software provider C3.ai (AI) reported quarterly earnings. And they were fantastic. Revenues jumped nearly 20% year-over-year and are expected to rise another 20% next quarter. And management says that “demand for Enterprise AI is intensifying” and that the interest they are seeing in their applications is “staggering.”
Just a few weeks ago, fellow AI software provider Palantir (PLTR) echoed the same sentiment, saying that demand for its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) software is very strong.
It seems pretty clear to us that the AI software boom is kicking off.
We think this boom will give rise to some huge stock winners.
After all, the Dot Com Boom – which we view as a great parallel for the AI Boom – also played out in two waves: an infrastructure boom followed by a software boom.
The infrastructure boom occurred throughout the 1990s, as the telecom infrastructure necessary to power the internet was built out. Internet hardware stocks like Qualcomm (QCOM) soared during this era.
This was followed by the software boom of the 2000s and 2010s. Internet applications and services were built atop the infrastructure that was established in the 1990s. And during this era, internet software stocks like Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX), and Microsoft (MSFT) soared.
The Final Word
Now, I don’t know about you… but if given the choice between investing in the next Qualcomm or the next Amazon, Netflix or Microsoft… I’d choose the latter all day long.
That’s the very opportunity we face today.
Sure, the Qualcomms of the AI Boom have already soared. See: NVDA.
But the Amazons, Netflixes, and Microsofts of this boom have not.
It’s time to go and invest in those stocks.
On the date of publication, Luke Lango did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
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