US President Donald Trump struck massive deals last week in numerous avenues during his Middle East tour. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund, established AI startup Humain, with US companies Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm announcing numerous deals to supply chips and partner on AI infrastructure.
Wedbush analysts have been calling this a “watershed moment” for Big Tech companies. That’s right, these recent developments in the region mean the AI boom might be rapidly shifting its center of focus. Moreover, these investments in AI infrastructure across Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries signify an acceleration in U.S. tech companies’ expansion abroad.
READ ALSO: 12 AI Stocks on Analysts’ Radar and 15 AI Stocks Surging on News and Analyst Ratings.
Noting these investments, analysts led by Dan Ives said that the region is poised to become one of the most important global markets for AI over the next decade, boasting the potential to add over $1 trillion.
“We believe the market opportunity in Saudi Arabia and UAE alone could over time add another $1 trillion to the broader global AI market in the coming years,” the note said, “and this dynamic is not being priced into the market and tech names in our view.”
The firm further said how it is becoming “crystal clear” that the “AI Revolution has found its next major area of penetration…the Middle East.”
“[That announcement] is the start of a new era of growth for the US tech sector and a gamechanger for the industry. Riyadh and UAE will be a major buyer of AI chips, software, autonomous/robotics, and datacenters over the next decade.”
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
10. CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders in Q4 2024: 0 (Due To IPO in Q1 2025)
CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) is a cloud platform provider that provides equipment for AI and other computing purposes. On May 21, Citi analyst Tyler Radke kept a “Neutral” rating on the stock and more than doubled the price target from $43.00 to $94.00. The price target change follows CoreWeave’s first quarter financial results and guidance last week, along with its $4B deal with OpenAI, which also motivated investors.
“Overall we think the print reinforces CoreWeave’s high-growth status, especially with recent $4B OpenAI expansion deal, and likely assuages investor concerns around AI capex/infrastructure slowing. Shares have gone vertical … While we’d argue a portion of the re-rating is justified, given strong Azure/hyperscaler numbers and capex, we reiterate our Neutral/High Risk rating as we’d like to see more progress on profitability and more customer diversification.”
-Citi analysts, led by Tyler Radke, in a Wednesday investor note.
The hyperscalers’ second quarter and full-year guidance also came in ahead of consensus estimates. These results point at a strong demand for AI data centers.
“The FY guidance came in at $5B, or 161% Y/Y at the midpoint, 8pts ahead of our/street estimates, which was considerably higher than the 1Q beat and shows the company’s confidence in the increase of demand signals,” Radke added.
9. Navitas Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:NVTS)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 13
Navitas Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:NVTS) is a small-cap chip designer. Its next-generation power solutions support energy-efficient AI data centers. On May 21, the pure-play, next-generation power semiconductor company announced its latest 12 kW power supply unit (PSU) for hyperscaler AI data centers. The PSU is designed for high-power rack densities of 120 kW and complies with Open Rack v3 (ORv3) specifications and Open Compute Project (OCP) guidelines. It is designed to ensure the highest efficiency and performance, along with the lowest component count. In simple words, Navitas’ new power supply unit is faster, safer, and more efficient. This makes it an ideal choice for powering the next generation of AI-driven data centers.
“The continuation and leadership of Navitas’ AI power roadmap has seen a quadrupling in output power – from 2.7 to 12 kW – in just over 24 months. This increase in power delivery is vital for the world’s data centers to support the exponential power demanded by the latest GPU architectures. The ‘designed for production’ PSU enables our customers to quickly implement a highly efficient, simple, and cost-effective solution to address the power delivery challenges for AI and hyperscale data centers.”
-Gene Sheridan, CEO and co-founder of Navitas.
8. Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 34
Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) is an American eyewear brand that recently turned into a surprising AI play owing to its recent partnership with Google. On May 21, the company announced a partnership with Google to develop AI-powered glasses designed for all-day wear. The partnership will integrate Warby Parker’s signature approach to eyewear design with Google’s industry-leading technology ecosystem. Together, the two companies will bring the next generation of computing to glasses. Google has committed as much as $150 million to the deal, with half of it going toward product development. The first line of products brewing from the partnership is expected “after 2025.” These products will incorporate multimodal AI with prescription and non-prescription lenses.
“Warby Parker’s optical expertise, omnichannel approach, and history of leveraging technology to create beautifully designed products and exceptional customer experiences make them the perfect partner to co-create and launch this next generation of smart glasses on the Android XR platform.”
-Shahram Izadi, GM and VP of XR at Google.
7. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 63
Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) provides IT solutions, including servers, storage, networking, and personal computing devices, to businesses and consumers worldwide. On May 21, Morgan Stanley kept its “Buy” rating on the stock and raised its price target from $89 to $126 ahead of Dell’s Q1 Fiscal 2026 earnings due on May 29. The firm anticipates modest outperformance for Dell’s April quarter. However, it believes that the full-year guidance will remain unchanged. The firm has reason to believe so, based on Dell’s strong demand for AI infrastructure and mixed results in traditional hardware and tariffs uncertainty.
Dell’s AI server business looks strong regardless of the mixed results. An estimated $2.3 billion in revenue is expected for the April quarter and nearly $20 billion in visibility for Fiscal 2026. That said, the July quarter growth will largely depend on how Dell can manage its supply. The firm also noted market share gains in Dell’s Infrastructure Solutions Group, while its Client Solutions Group is also anticipated to perform better in the first half of the year.
All these factors have led the firm to anticipate a small upside for Q1 results. The stock has been performing well recently, but may pause following earnings. Nevertheless, the firm remains positive about the second half of the year.
6. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 64
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is a leader in AI-powered cybersecurity. On May 21, Barclays lowered the firm’s price target on the stock to $210 from $213 and kept an “Overweight” rating on the shares. According to the firm, Palo Alto’s fiscal Q3 metrics were broadly in line. Per the analyst, it had a better annual recurring revenue, but remaining performance obligation bookings were slightly short because of a tough April. Nevertheless, it is optimistic in the company’s ARR growth in Q4 and fiscal 2026 but is “proactively trimming” its FY26 revenue growth forecast to 13%.
Palo Alto Networks reported its earnings on May 19, 2025. The company achieved a significant milestone by surpassing $5 billion in next-generation security ARR, a 34% year-over-year increase. It particularly experienced strong growth in its AI-powered XSIAM product, noting an ARR growth of over 200% year-over-year. Total revenue was $2.29 billion, growing 15% year-over-year, while it also had a healthy free cash flow generation of $578 million.
5. Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 89
Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) provides enterprise cloud applications. On May 21, Needham analyst Scott Berg reiterated a “Buy” rating and $300.00 price target on the stock. Berg expects revenue and EPS to beat forecasts despite some late-quarter turbulence impacting cRPO growth. Besides a few large deals being delayed, demand for Workday’s offerings remained stable throughout the quarter. This is why it is quite likely that cRPO growth may land at the higher end of guidance.
The firm further expects the management to present a consistent outlook for the fiscal year during the upcoming earnings call on May 22nd, backed by favorable overall pipeline activity. Workday’s operating margin guidance appears conservative, and there may be upside in the company’s operating margin outlook. The firm also anticipates further investments in artificial intelligence (AI) functionalities. Investors are going to be looking at Workday’s earnings print, with a particular focus on its evolving strategy following the recent introduction of six new agentic solutions.
4. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 96
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) develops and sells semiconductors, processors, and GPUs for data centers, gaming, AI, and embedded applications. On May 20, the company announced a strategic collaboration with Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions. The collaboration aims to better support AI workloads and help companies run AI and virtual machines (VMs) faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.
Red Hat’s industry-leading open source solutions, together with the comprehensive portfolio of AMD’s high-performance computing architectures, will help organizations with the capacity and resources needed to meet workload demand and diversity rising due to artificial intelligence. The crux of the partnership is to enable businesses to manage resource-heavy AI tasks and existing virtual infrastructure without requiring major upgrades.
“By combining Red Hat’s industry-leading open source platforms with world-class AMD Instinct GPUs and AMD EPYC CPUs, we’re delivering the performance and efficiency customers demand to accelerate AI, virtualization and hybrid-cloud innovation.”
-Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, AMD
3. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 162
Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is a cloud-based CRM company that has gained popularity after it unveiled its AI-powered platform called Agentforce. On May 21, the company announced that Indeed, a global job matching and hiring platform, is deploying Agentforce to support employer account onboarding with digital labor. Indeed will be leveraging AI agents to automate routine administrative tasks and scale its support operations. Currently, Indeed plays host to 610 million Job Seeker Profiles, allowing more than 3.3 million employers to reach the right candidates.
After the company realized that 22% of employer support requests are related to the onboarding or account moderation process, it decided to automate this process through Salesforce’s autonomous AI agents. Through the said Agentforce deployment, Indeed will be able to automate processes such as answering employer questions autonomously, and addressing routine questions about things such as the account verification process or administrative tasks related to onboarding or job posting. Indeed will also be deploying Data Cloud to streamline its extensive data from different systems and formats to ground Agentforce.
“Indeed’s dedication to rapid and efficient job matching, coupled with outstanding support for employers, is central to its success. By leveraging the power of Salesforce’s deeply unified platform, including Agentforce and Data Cloud, Indeed can deliver an enhanced onboarding experience while freeing their teams to concentrate on specialized employer needs and expanding opportunities for job seekers.”
-Adam Evans, EVP and GM, Salesforce AI.
2. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 223
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) specializes in AI-driven solutions, offering platforms for data centers, self-driving cars, robotics, and cloud services. On May 21, Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers reiterated an “Overweight” rating on the stock with a $185.00 price target. Rakers noted that Nvidia’s NVLink Technology has growing potential, particularly after the launch of NVLink Fusion. The technology allows third-party custom silicon and CPUs to integrate NVIDIA’s memory-coherent NVLink for chip-to-chip interconnect. While some industry reports do suggest that this CPU connectivity isn’t something novel, Rakers stressed the role of NVLink interconnect in AI infrastructure.
NVIDIA’s NVLink interconnect offers significant bandwidth advantages over the standard PCIe. In particular, the NVLink version 6, anticipated to be launched in the second half of 2026, is expected to double the bandwidth to 3.6TB/s with Rubin R200 GPUs. Rakers also highlighted how Nvidia is enhancing its competitive edge through its move to externalize NVLink. It is doing so by enabling its Grace and Vera CPUs to connect with custom accelerators and CPUs. Initial partners for the venture include Marvell, Alchip, MediaTek, and Astera Labs, with Synopsys and Cadence.
1. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 234
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company wholly owning the internet giant Google, amongst other businesses. On May 21, Google and Swedish carmaker Volvo Cars announced that Volvo will now be the lead development partner for Android Automotive software. This would allow it to give its buyers access to new versions and more rapidly deliver the latest Android Automotive OS innovations to customers owning Volvo models with Google built-in.
This includes Google Gemini, demonstrated at Google I/O 2025 in a Volvo EX90. Customers will be able to leverage the power of the latest conversational AI technology. Volvo’s cars will also be serving as Google’s reference hardware platforms for future Android development in cars, allowing Volvo to enjoy the latest Android features and enhancements.
“For years, Google and Volvo Cars have collaborated closely to bring cutting-edge technology to connected cars. We’re excited to deepen this partnership, accelerating the pace of innovation that will not only improve the driving experience for Volvo customers but also set new benchmarks for the automotive industry.”
-Patrick Brady, Vice President of Android for Cars, Google.
While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOGL and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street Today and 15 AI Stocks Surging on News and Analyst Ratings.
Disclosure: None. Insider Monkey focuses on uncovering the best investment ideas of hedge funds and insiders. Please subscribe to our free daily e-newsletter to get the latest investment ideas from hedge funds’ investor letters by entering your email address below.
Hedge Fund Resource Center