On September 11, Trivariate’s Adam Parker joined CNBC’s ‘Closing Bell’ to discuss where markets are in the AI investing cycle. Parker stated that we’re two years into a decade-long AI investment trend. He recalled a conversation with his colleague, Scott, who had a “dour mood” and questioned if the AI trade was over after a single down day. Parker explained that he believes the trend is far from over, and that it is necessary to maintain AI exposure in an equity book that is benchmarked against the S&P 500.
He also cautioned against the idea that the AI trend is limited to just a few names. He then brought up a key challenge for investors: at what point will concerns about the return on capital spending weigh on equities? He also mentioned the transition from companies that are obvious AI beneficiaries to those that benefit from the resulting productivity gains and stated that this will happen in H2 2026 and in 2027. He believes that this transition is still to come and that, for now, investors must own a significant amount of tech stocks.
He expressed that he was not surprised by the market’s reaction, even though it was significant. He pointed to the upward trends seen in many AI-related companies. Parker explained his general investment rule, which is to own semiconductors over software. Historically, this sector grew at 2% above GDP for over 30 years, but he forecasts it will grow at 5%, 6%, or even 7% above GDP for the next five to seven years. This growth, he added, will occur at higher gross margins than in the past because many of the businesses now outsource the chip manufacturing.
That being said, we’re here with a list of the 10 best AI stocks to buy according to analysts.
Our Methodology
We sifted through different financial media reports to compile a list of the top AI stocks. We then selected the 10 stocks with an upside potential of over 10% as of September 12. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of their upside potential. We have also added the hedge fund sentiment for each stock, as of Q2 2025, which was sourced from Insider Monkey’s database.
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 Best AI Stocks with Huge Upside Potential
10. Lantronix Inc. (NASDAQ:LTRX)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 9
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 12.61%
Lantronix Inc. (NASDAQ:LTRX) is one of the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On August 28, Christian Schwab from Craig-Hallum reiterated a Buy rating on Lantronix, with a price target of $5.00. This sentiment followed the company’s announcement of its financial results for FQ4 2025 and FY2025. The company reported a FQ4 revenue of $28.8 million, which was a sequential increase from $28.5 million. For the full FY2025, total revenue was $123 million.
Despite a return to sequential revenue growth, the company faced some financial challenges. For Q4 2025, Lantronix reported a GAAP net loss of $2.6 million, or $0.07 per share, compared to a GAAP net income of $400,000 in the same quarter of the previous year.
Lantronix secured an agreement with a US mobile carrier to modernize 50,000+ backup power systems and wireless cell sites. The company also announced a win with Red Cat’s Steel Drones, where its secure edge compute solutions will power Black Widow drones for the US Army’s short-range reconnaissance program.
Lantronix Inc. (NASDAQ:LTRX) develops, markets, and sells industrial and enterprise IoT products and services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific Japan.
9. Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 29
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 12.98%
Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) is one of the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On September 3, Righ, which is a company that specializes in distributed Agentic AI on edge devices, announced a partnership with Synaptics for the development of smart home Agentic AI applications.
The collaboration will combine Righ’s distributed AI platform, RighValor, with Synaptics’ Astra SL1680 SoC and Righ’s network control plane, RighGravity. The partnership enables intelligent services to run directly in the home without relying on cloud computing. This approach is designed to reduce latency, ensure user privacy, and lower operational costs.
The companies will demonstrate their integrated solution at IBC 2025, showcasing live Agentic AI in action. The demonstration will highlight capabilities such as distributed parallelism, on-device image processing, and real-time device and user identification. The collaboration will allow service providers and device manufacturers to deploy next-gen AI services with zero reliance on cloud compute.
Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) develops, markets, and sells semiconductor products worldwide. The company sells its products through direct sales, outside sales representatives, OEM distributors, and value-added resellers.
8. Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 28
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 13.61%
Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) is one of the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On August 29, Applied Digital announced it has finalized a new lease agreement with CoreWeave for an additional 150MW at its Polaris Forge 1 Campus in Ellendale, North Dakota. The new long-term lease, along with two initial ~15-year leases executed in May of the same year, brings the total contracted capacity to 400MW for CoreWeave’s AI and high-performance computing initiatives.
The combined value of these 3 agreements is anticipated to generate ~$11 billion in total contracted lease revenue, which includes $7 billion from the initial 2 leases. The new 150MW data center will be in the third building of the Polaris Forge 1 Campus, with a projected service date of 2027.
The first 100MW data center from the initial May agreements is scheduled to be ready in Q4 2025, and the second 150MW building is under construction and expected to be operational in the middle of 2026. The Polaris Forge 1 Campus is engineered to eventually scale up to 1 gigawatt. The company’s recent study estimates that the campus’s design, which uses renewable power and North Dakota’s cool climate, could result in $2.7 billion in savings over a 30-year lifespan by optimizing the total cost of ownership.
Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) designs, develops, and operates digital infrastructure solutions for HPC and AI industries in North America.
7. UiPath Inc. (NYSE:PATH)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 42
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 13.69%
UiPath Inc. (NYSE:PATH) is one of the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On September 5, BMO Capital lowered the firm’s price target on UiPath to $12.50 from $15.50, while keeping a Market Perform rating on the shares, as UiPath released its FQ2 2026 earnings report. The company reported a reasonable quarter, as net new ARR increased by $30 million vs. the firm’s estimate of $25 million.
In this quarter, the company reported a revenue of $362 million, which marked a 14% increase year-over-year. ARR reached $1.723 billion, which was an 11% increase year-over-year, with a net new ARR of $31 million. This was driven by the company’s Cloud ARR, which grew by over 25% to over $1.08 billion. The company has ~10,820 customers, with a dollar-based gross retention rate of 98% and a dollar-based net retention rate of 108%.
UiPath is seeing strong momentum in its AI and agentic solutions, with 450 customers actively using the technology since its launch in May 2025. These solutions are helping to secure larger deals and increase deal sizes. However, CEO Daniel Dines, noted that the adoption of these new capabilities is still in its early phases and is not expected to materially contribute to the company’s top line in FY2026.
UiPath Inc. (NYSE:PATH) provides an end-to-end automation platform that offers a range of robotic process automation/RPA solutions primarily in the US, Romania, the UK, the Netherlands, and internationally.
6. CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 29
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 16.50%
CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) is one of the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On September 9, CoreWeave announced the launch of CoreWeave Ventures, which is a new initiative to invest in companies and founders shaping the AI ecosystem. The venture group aims to provide capital, technical expertise, and access to the CoreWeave cloud platform to help new ideas come to market faster.
CoreWeave Ventures offers a variety of investment models, which include direct capital investment and compute-for-equity transactions. The group will also provide founders with access to production-grade performance clusters for testing, as well as insights on go-to-market strategies.
CoreWeave Ventures is already working with a diverse group of innovators, from foundational model developers to pioneers in vertical AI applications and infrastructure. CoreWeave was founded with the conviction that AI’s potential required a cloud platform built specifically for AI workloads. It has since grown to operate data centers across the US and Europe.
CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) operates a cloud platform that provides scaling, support, and acceleration for GenAI. It builds the infrastructure that supports compute workloads for enterprises.
5. Ambarella Inc. (NASDAQ:AMBA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 38
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 19.13%
Ambarella Inc. (NASDAQ:AMBA) is one of the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On August 29, Roth Capital raised the firm’s price target on Ambarella to $85 from $65, while keeping a Neutral rating on the shares. The company reported a solid beat and raise with growth from non-auto Edge AI applications, which supported the revenue momentum at Ambarella.
This sentiment came after Ambarella reported its financial results for FQ2 2026. The company saw strong financial growth, with revenue reaching $95.5 million, which was a 49.9% increase year-over-year and an 11.2% sequential increase. Ambarella’s cash and marketable securities increased by $1.8 million from the prior quarter to $261.2 million.
Ambarella is seeing strong demand for its 5-nanometer AI System-on-Chips/SoCs, which are driving higher average selling prices. The company’s edge AI applications are expanding into new markets such as portable video and robotic aerial drones. The automotive market’s adoption rate is slower with longer time-to-revenue, but the company continues to invest in both automotive and IoT sectors due to their similar hardware architecture.
Ambarella Inc. (NASDAQ:AMBA) develops semiconductor solutions that enable AI processing, advanced image signal processing, and HD and ultra-HD compression.
4. POET Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:POET)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 2
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 29.81%
POET Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:POET) is one of the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On August 29, POET Technologies Inc. announced a partnership with NTT Innovative Devices Corporation, which is a subsidiary of Japan’s leading telecom company, to develop advanced optical engines. The collaboration supports next-gen mobile networks that will enable widespread use of AI applications on mobile devices.
The development will focus on a 100G Bidirectional Optical Engine for mobile front-haul networks, which is expected to provide four times more bandwidth efficiency than current devices. The project will utilize POET’s proprietary Optical Interposer platform and optical components from NTT Innovative Devices.
POET will begin development work this year, with prototypes expected in 2026 and high-volume production anticipated for 2027. According to Market Research Future, the market for front-haul mobile networks is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.2% through 2032, reaching a market size of $5.9 billion.
POET Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:POET) designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor products and services for commercial applications in the US, Canada, Singapore, and China.
3. Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 45
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 42.13%
Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) is one of the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On September 9, BWS Financial raised the firm’s price target on Nebius to $130 from $90, while keeping a Buy rating on the shares after the company announced its first hyperscaler contract worth ~$19.4 billion with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) over 5 years.
With Nebius having a major contract in hand, the company is expected to accelerate GPU installations and bring New Jersey online as fast as possible. Earlier in August, Nebius Group reported its financial results for Q2 2025. The company announced an increase in revenue, which more than doubled from the previous quarter, and was up 625% year-over-year to $105.1 million. This was driven by strong demand for its AI cloud infrastructure.
Nebius’s core AI infrastructure business became EBITDA positive ahead of its own projections and is expected to remain so throughout the year, though the overall group is forecasted to be EBITDA negative for the full year. For the full year, the company’s annualized run-rate revenue guidance was raised to a range of $900 million to $1.1 billion for the end of 2025, up from a previous guidance of $750 million to $1 billion.
Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) is a technology company that builds full-stack infrastructure to service the global AI industry in the Netherlands, Europe, North America, and Israel.
2. Veritone Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 4
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 58.31%
Veritone Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI) is one of the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On September 9, D. Boral Capital analyst Jason Kolbert raised the firm’s price target on Veritone to $26 from $6, while maintaining a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst believes that the company’s potential to capture a small piece of the data refinery market can translate into $1 billion of sales over the coming decade.
Earlier, Veritone released its financial results for Q2 2025, reporting a revenue of over $24 million, which was flat compared to the same period in 2024 and met the high end of its updated guidance. This was driven by a strong performance in its software segment, with non-Veritone Hire software revenue growing over 45% year-over-year.
Revenue from the public sector grew over 90% year-over-year, and the commercial enterprise sector also showed an improvement of $0.8 million. However, the company’s Managed Services revenue declined by $1.9 million, a trend it expects to continue through 2025. Despite the revenue performance, Veritone experienced a decline in profitability. As of June 30, the company had $13.9 million in cash and restricted cash and has reduced its debt to ~$128 million from $201 million in December 2021.
Veritone Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI) provides AI computing solutions and services in the US, the UK, France, Australia, Israel, and India. It develops and operates aiWARE platform, which is an AI operating system.
1. Stagwell Inc. (NASDAQ:STGW)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 15
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 71.27%
Stagwell Inc. (NASDAQ:STGW) is one of the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On September 5, Stagwell and Żabka Polska announced a new joint venture to launch “In-Pulse,” which is a consumer insights and engagement tool designed specifically for the Polish market. The collaboration combines Żabka’s extensive retail network and consumer base with Stagwell’s expertise in data-driven marketing.
Żabka Polska operates the largest chain of modern convenience stores in Poland, with over 11,600 locations. The company handles ~4.1 million transactions daily and serves more than 10 million users of its Żappka app. In-Pulse uses this extensive data to provide Polish businesses with real-time and actionable insights into consumer preferences, shopping patterns, and spending habits.
The In-Pulse tool is a five-step, end-to-end solution that includes: collecting and analyzing anonymous data; enabling direct customer dialogue through the app; testing products and services; developing targeted marketing activities; and evaluating effectiveness with predictive analytics.
Stagwell Inc. (NASDAQ:STGW) provides digital transformation, performance media & data, consumer insights & strategy, and creativity & communications services in the US, the UK, and internationally.
While we acknowledge the potential of STGW to grow, 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 STGW and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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