In this article, we will take a detailed look at the 10 Buzzing Tech and AI Stocks Everyone’s Talking About.
Several market analysts have started talking about market froth amid the stock market’s new highs and rising valuations driven by new AI business deals. However, some market experts believe the AI boom is still in its early stages and the “bubble” many are talking about is likely years away. Jim Lebenthal, a partner at Cerity Partners, said during a recent discussion on CNBC that we are not in an AI bubble yet and mentioned some examples from history to prove his point:
“Let me cut to the chase. We will eventually be in a bubble in AI. We are not there yet. We just are not. If you want to know what a bubble looks like, look at the multiple of Cisco in 1998. It was around 30 times, shot up over the next 2 years to 120 times. That’s not what’s been happening for the most.
In the same program, Joshua Brown, co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, said if someone is looking for “signs” of a bubble, they will not find it in companies like Nvidia and Oracle.
“I’m just saying if you’re looking for signs that it’s an egregious bubble, I don’t think you’re going to find them in Nvidia and and Oracle, per se, I think you’re going to find them in companies that we’ve given 30, 40, $50 billion market caps to that have no earnings and in some cases have no revenue.”
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For this article, we picked 10 stocks analysts are talking about. With each stock, we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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. KLA Corp (NASDAQ:KLAC)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 58
Joseph Terranova Senior Managing Director, Virtus Investment Partners, in a latest program on CNBC praised KLA and said the company is sitting “right next to” companies like Nvidia and Broadcom. Here is why the analyst likes the stock:
“In the case of…. KLA Corp (NASDAQ:KLAC), the reason that you’re owning these stocks, the buyback’s good, but that’s not the reason that you own these stocks. You own these semi-equipment names because they are fully participating in the buildout of the artificial intelligence infrastructure. And they’re in the right place. They’re sitting next to companies like Nvidia and Broadcom. They have direct relationships with both of them and they’re seeing significant expansion in terms of profit margins and earnings growth, and it’s one of the reasons why we have ownership with them.”
Parnassus Core Equity Fund stated the following regarding KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We also added several new positions, including two in Information Technology: Workday, a category leader for enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, and KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC), a leader in semiconductor process control. KLA, a leader in semiconductor process control, benefits from inherently high switching costs, structurally higher demand for advanced semiconductors and increasingly complex semiconductor manufacturing. The company has a strong management team that is positioning it well for long-term growth. Concerns about weaker demand in China have impacted KLA’s stock price recently, but we believe the secular growth in other regions could offset the risk in the longer term.”
9. ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ:ASML)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 78
Mehdi Hosseini, senior equity research analyst at Susquehanna, said in a recent program on CNBC that he likes ASML because the company is expected to benefit from spending by Taiwan Semiconductor.
“I like, which has had a nice run over the past couple of weeks, is ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ:ASML). Taiwan Semi is going to be the largest spender in 2026, and ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ:ASML) is also overindexed to Taiwan Semi spend.”
Artisan Value Fund stated the following regarding ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is a Dutch manufacturer of advanced semiconductor equipment, with a near-monopoly in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography market. Every chip on every node on the planet is made with an ASML lithography machine. The world is consuming ever more chips, and the leading edge is moving to more complex architectures, driving capital intensity higher for manufacturing. ASML sells into this increasing demand with machines that allow innovation at the leading edge and ever-increasing efficiency in trailing nodes. EUV lithography systems are the only ones capable of producing advanced chips, with the smallest nanometer values. ASML’s high-NA EUV(high numerical aperture EUV) machine can cost over $400 million per unit and already has a decade-long roadmap with customers. With significant net cash on the balance sheet and a large backlog for arguably the most important machine in the world, we have little doubt ASML will exist on the other side of this trade war. When we took our position in April, ASML’s valuation was the cheapest in years, pricing in a slowdown from a recession and other turbulence.”
8. Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 82
Thomas Hayes from Great Hill Capital said in a recent program on Schwab Network that he likes Intel because he believes the US government having a stake in the company will boost the chipmaker’s sales globally. He also believes Nvidia needs Intel.
“You think President Trump is selling Boeing planes to all these countries around the world? Now that he owns $9 billion of stock, or we own $9 billion of stock, he’s going to be selling Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) chips. So this $5 billion from Nvidia starts with CPUs and is going to lead to GPUs. Why? Not because Nvidia is doing charity work, but because Nvidia is capped at Taiwan Semiconductor’s $4 billion per quarter growth. They’re not demand-constrained—they’re supply-constrained. They need Intel to succeed. They need Intel’s fabs to succeed with advanced chips so they can supply all the unlimited demand for this around the world. So Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) could be a multi-multi-bagger from here, and no one’s paying attention to it.”
7. Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ:LRCX)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 85
Mehdi Hosseini, senior equity research analyst at Susquehanna, said in a latest program on CNBC that he likes Lam Research because the company is linked to spending on memory. The analyst believes memory spending will increase in the second half of 2026.
“I do like Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ:LRCX) because they’re overindexed to memory spend, and I think at some point in the second half of 2026, memory spend would have to pick up — just we’re not going to have enough supply. And then on top of that, what you get with Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ:LRCX) is increased market share. They have a new product; there’s a new material used in making semiconductor chill, and that’s the gravy on top of everything. I think Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ:LRCX) is well positioned.”
Artisan Value Fund stated the following regarding Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Booking Holdings and Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) were the top contributors in the consumer discretionary and information technology sectors, respectively. Lam Research is a global leader in wafer fabrication equipment used in the production of semiconductors. Lam was a new purchase, made on April 9 near depths of the post-Liberation Day market selloff. As value investors, conditions of fear and uncertainty are fertile ground for creating attractive long-term buying opportunities. Few areas of the market were under greater pressure than semiconductors & semiconductor equipment stocks to start the year. We had been researching Lam since 2023, so we knew the company well and were able to act quickly when the stock plunged. At our initial purchase, Lam was selling for ~$60, almost 50% below its July 2024 highs. Lam is one of the key global suppliers of chip equipment serving the memory (NAND and DRAM) and foundry/logic markets. The financial condition is rock solid as it has a net cash balance sheet, and the company returns 100% of earnings to shareholders via share repurchases and dividends. Shares were selling for a 17X P/E on cyclically depressed earnings at the time of initial purchase, which we believed was an attractive valuation given the compounding nature of the business.”
6. Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 94
Mehdi Hosseini, senior equity research analyst at Susquehanna, said in a latest program on CNBC that Nvidia “has to buy” from Micron and this places the memory company in a strong position in terms of pricing power.
“I think the most important takeaway here, which I don’t think Sanjay (Micron CEO) is going to elaborate on a live interview, is who is actually doing a lot of buying. Unlike prior cycles, which were driven by distributors and the OEMs and ODMs, this cycle it is Nvidia, it is AMD, it is Broadcom that are actually doing the buying. And when you look at the AI, what Nvidia charges, which is about 80% of the AI server, the majority of that is going towards memory. So it is Nvidia that has to buy from Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU), and this is what gives Sanjay pricing power. The future of AI compute requires advanced memory, and that’s where the premium comes in, which is why this cycle is sustainable throughout 2016 and may even sustain into 2027.”
Parnassus Investments, an investment management firm that focuses on owning a concentrated portfolio of U.S. large-cap stocks, released its Parnassus Value Equity Fund second-quarter 2025 investor letter. Here is what they have to say about Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) in their investor letter:
“Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) shares advanced due to the company’s strong position in the AI-driven memory market. Management noted robust demand in its latest quarter.”
5. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd – ADR (NYSE:BABA)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 101
Thomas Hayes from Great Hill Capital said in a latest program on Schwab Network that Alibaba is the “cheapest” way to play AI “in the entire world.” Here is why the analyst is bullish on the stock:
“We started buying this over $100. It dropped to $60. We pounded the table while all the sell sides were saying China is uninvestable, and all we saw was $25 billion of free cash flow and $80 billion on the balance sheet. Number one, China middle-class e-commerce retailer; number one in cloud; and the cheapest way to play AI in the world. We brought our basis down to $82. It’s a $175 stock right now, and it’s going a lot higher. This story hasn’t even begun—they just launched Qwen 3.0 Max, which is the large language model with 1 trillion parameters. I’m telling you, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd – ADR (NYSE:BABA) is the cheapest way to play AI in the entire world.”
Conventum – Alluvium Global Fund stated the following regarding Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) was down 12.8%. Bear in mind, this comes off a stunning 55.3% March quarter return. Alibaba reported full year results, and by all accounts they were pretty good. Market chatter suggests some were disappointed by the Cloud revenue, but with 18% growth over the last year, we are not complaining. We liked the continuation of share buybacks, noting that for the year ended 31 March 2025, it bought back over 5% of its shares. Our Alibaba holding accounts for 3.3% of the Fund. We wrote last quarter that we were closely monitoring the position (hinting toward selling). We chose not to act, largely because we see it as one of the cheaper and most direct ways for the Fund to benefit from AI initiatives and Cloud infrastructure growth, and at the same time it provides geographic and economic diversity.”
