The trade war between two of the world’s biggest economies, China and the US, is deepening even further. In a tit-for-tat retaliatory move, China has imposed an 84% tariff on all imports from the US starting April 10. This move comes after Trump’s duties on Beijing, which have now been increased even further to a whopping 145%.
Tech stocks have been plunging in response. Apple, for instance, has been doing the majority of its manufacturing in China, and the trade war is likely going to raise the price of its iPhones. Even though President Trump has confidence that the tech giant can make its phones in the U.S., experts aren’t so sure.
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According to Needham analyst Laura Martin, reshoring iPhone manufacturing may take years and result in the price of iPhones skyrocketing. Similarly, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has said that an iPhone would cost $3,500 if produced in the U.S.
Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has just announced a 90-day pause on his administration’s “reciprocal tariffs.” These would have affected the company’s production locations in Vietnam, India, and Thailand.
Amid all this chaos, artificial intelligence continues to make leaps and bounds. In recent news, Silicon Valley startup Lightmatter has revealed it has developed a new type of computer chip. This chip is capable of both speeding up artificial intelligence work and using less electricity in the process.
The company is one of the few that seeks to use beams of light to move data between computers, instead of electronic signals. However, the company also believes that it can use these very beams of light to carry out the computation.
“What we’re doing is looking at the future of where processors can go. We fundamentally care about computers, and this is one of the alternative paths. There’s trillions of dollars of economic value that’s behind the idea that computers will keep getting better.”
– Nick Harris, Lightmatter’s CEO
In other news, President Donald Trump has recently told Cabinet members that billionaire Elon Musk will leave his administration role in the coming months. Musk has been the subject of hate after his efforts to cut the federal workforce. His involvement in politics has been hurting his company as well.
“I think he’s been amazing, but I also think he’s got a big company to run … And at some point, he’s going to be going back. He wants to. I’d keep him as long as I could keep him.”
-President Donald Trump.
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).
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10. Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 42
Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE) develops solid-oxide fuel cell systems for on-site power generation, helping meet the growing energy demands of AI data centers. On April 9, Redburn Atlantic analyst Skye Landon downgraded the stock to “Sell” from Neutral with a price target of $10, down from $14.50. The firm sees a lot of “uncertainty” around the company’s outlook, and has been questioning its ability to grow earnings at market expectations. It anticipates lower levels of product sales due to worries that its fuel cells may not be able to compete with traditional generation sources for market share in the long term. There is fuel cell competition anticipated in the second half of 2025, likely to put additional pressure on Bloom’s international business.
9. Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 85
Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) develops, manufactures, and sells data storage devices and solutions. On April 10, Benchmark upgraded the stock to “Buy” from hold, stating that the stock’s valuation is compelling.
“Besides valuation there are other reasons why we find the shares of Western Digital attractive: expected double digit y/y growth in data center spending by the major hyperscalers, the AI opportunity, and lower expected interest expense. As such, we are raising our rating to “Buy” with a $55 target price.”
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