Since its inception, OpenAI has had many contenders. The latest one to challenge its existence has been K2 Think, a system that claims to rival the flagship reasoning models of OpenAI and DeepSeek.
This low-cost reasoning model has been developed by Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), an AI-focused research university established by the United Arab Emirates.
MBZUAI’s model, at just 32 billion parameters, is much smaller than competing systems from OpenAI and DeepSeek. Built on top of Alibaba’s open-source Qwen 2.5 model, it has been developed in partnership with G42, the UAE-based AI firm backed by tech giant Microsoft.
According to Hector Liu, director of MBZUAI’s Institute of Foundation Models, several methods were used to achieve high levels of performance for K2 Think, despite being smaller in size.
“What was special about our model is we treat it more like a system than just a model,” Liu told CNBC. “So, unlike a regular open-source model where we can just release the model, we actually deploy the model and see how we can improve the model over time.”
“If you ask me which one of the single steps is the most important, it’s very hard to say. It’s more like a system method work where all these methods combined delivered the final result,” he added.
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 Q2 2025.
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10. C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 30
C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) is one of the 10 Hot AI Stocks to Keep on Your Radar. On September 9, the company announced C3 AI Agentic Process Automation, a new product that leverages autonomous AI agents to handle business and operational workflows across enterprises.
The C3 AI Agentic Process Automation handles numerous types of business processes such as order-to-cash, customer service, invoice processing, debt collection, supplier onboarding, procurement, and employee onboarding, industrial operations, manufacturing operations, production planning, inventory management, and aircraft maintenance.
By replacing traditional robotic process automation tools with AI models, the C3 AI Agentic Process Automation allows enterprises to work with the reasoning capabilities of modern AI models with pre-determined steps and controls.
“C3 AI Agentic Process Automation is a breakthrough that will mark a decisive shift in the very nature of work. With our software, customers can handle key business processes from start to finish, making complex workflows efficient, reliable, and repeatable.”
-Stephen Ehikian, CEO of C3 AI.
C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) is an enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) software company involved in building and operating enterprise-scale AI applications and accelerating digital transformation.
9. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 54
Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) is one of the 10 Hot AI Stocks to Keep on Your Radar. On September 9, Bank of America reiterated the stock as “Buy” and said it’s sticking with Dell after the company announced a transition to a new CFO on Monday.
The company announced that Chief Financial Officer Yvonne McGill will step down from her role effective September 9, 2025. David Kennedy was named as the interim CFO, effective the same date.
According to Jeff Clarke, Vice Chairman and COO, Kennedy brings 27 years of experience at Dell and “is well suited to provide immediate leadership for our finance team and the company.” His appointment comes at a time when Dell continues to expand its AI business operations.
“Our Buy rating is based on broad product portfolio, upside from AI, growth faster than the market, continuing share gains, and opportunity to grow margins over the next several years on higher mix of storage and mix shift to premium configurations in PCs and servers, which offset risks including a slow global economy, and high financial leverage.”
-BofA
Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) provides IT solutions, including servers, storage, networking, and personal computing devices, to businesses and consumers worldwide.
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