In this article, we will look at the 12 AI Stocks in Focus on Wall Street right now.
Kamil Dimmich, Partner & Portfolio Manager at North of South Capital, recently spoke on CNBC and talked about the divergence in emerging markets’ performance amid geopolitical tensions tied to the Iran conflict.
He noted that domestic economies, particularly in Southeast Asia, are those that remain particularly vulnerable amid elevated oil prices. This has in turn weighed on their equity markets to an extent.
On the flip side, there is the whole AI trade that continues to power select markets such as Korea and Taiwan. These markets, Dimmich noted, have performed well even since the war started. Despite being hugely reliant on energy inputs, these countries have held up well particularly because their equity markets are dominated by semiconductor companies. They are less sensitive to oil prices and are instead benefiting from accelerated AI spend.
The scale of investment in AI underscores this shift. The market, he highlighted, must have seen companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic raise enormous amounts of money. Meanwhile, Sell side analysts continue to revise their estimates and struggle to keep pace, with the momentum appearing relatively insulated from what’s happening in the Middle East.
People are looking at it as a structural shift and game changer, Dimmich said. However, the long-term durability of the trade is yet to be proved.
That said, let’s dive into the top AI stocks in focus on Wall Street.
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 2025.
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 498.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 303 percentage points (see more details here).
AI Stocks in Focus on Wall Street
12. SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 22
SoundHound AI Inc. (NASDAQ: SOUN) is part of our coverage of 12 AI Stocks in Focus on Wall Street. The company has recently announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement under which it will acquire LivePerson, an enterprise leader in predictable conversational AI.
Following the news, on April 22, DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $14.00 price target. Firm analysts believe the LivePerson acquisition will add scale and value to the stock, supporting its long-term growth and helping it expand its AI conversational platform.
SoundHound announced this morning a definitive agreement to acquire LivePerson, a provider of an AI powered conversational platform to help businesses communicate with customers, for a total enterprise value of ~$250M upon closing.
However, they also acknowledged that the acquisition is SoundHound’s largest till date, and that it also presents some integration risks. However, they still view it favorably as it adds significant scale to the company’s business and is also accretive on a valuation basis.
We reiterate our BUY rating.
SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN) is a voice artificial intelligence company offering voice AI solutions to businesses.
11. Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 52
Astera Labs (NASDAQ: ALAB) is included in our roundup of 12 AI Stocks in Focus on Wall Street. The company recently received a rating initiation from UBS, with analysts pointing to robust AI networking growth and execution as drivers for the stock. On April 21, analyst Natalia Winkler initiated coverage on ALAB with a Neutral rating and a price target of $180.
While analysts are optimistic on ALAB’s growth, elevated valuation and rising competition, they flagged, may limit upside. Discussing the past five years, analysts appreciated the company for its emergence as a credible AI networking supplier. It has earned this credibility, they noted, in part by robust execution in retimers and successful expansion beyond their initial anchor customer, AWS.
Ever since ALAB launched retimer products, the company has managed to defend its share with AWS and also broaden adoption across different hyperscalers. As such, its growth outlook looks constructive over the next few years as revenue is expected to modestly exceed consensus.
This modest beat will likely be driven by its retimer business and expansion into PCIe/UA Link switching. However, the firm noted that incremental growth is likely to be more reliant on the competitive switching market.
That said, incremental growth should come from a more competitive switching market (we are 3% below consensus in C2028) and, combined with a high-40s C2027 P/E that is well above AI networking peers and an elevated PEG, leads us to launch at Neutral, seeing more attractive risk-reward in other networking names.
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