By 2025, AI had become the dominant destination for venture capital again, not because total VC was booming, but because capital poured into AI faster than the rest of the market. OECD’s 2026 policy brief says AI firms took about 61% of global VC investment in 2025 ($258.7 billion out of $427.1 billion), roughly double AI’s 2022 share (30%). It also reports that generative AI funding reached $35.3 billion in 2025, up from $15.3 billion in 2023 and $2.8 billion in 2022. OECD also puts the U.S. at roughly 75% of global AI VC deal value in 2025, or about $194 billion.

On the infrastructure side, the industry continued to scale in 2026. Reuters, citing Bridgewater analysis, reported Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft were expected to invest about $650 billion in AI-related infrastructure in 2026, up from $410 billion in 2025. Reuters also reported company-level figures showing the scale of the buildout: Meta guided 2026 capital expenditure to $115–$135 billion (vs. $72.22 billion in 2025), Amazon projected $200 billion in 2026 capex (vs. $131 billion in 2025), Alphabet targeted $175–$185 billion (vs. $91.45 billion in 2025), and Microsoft reported $37.5 billion in capex for one quarter, from October to December, up nearly 66% year over year.

BigTech aside, ever since ChatGPT’s launch, AI startups have started entering the public equity markets and have made it big. Reuters reported that CoreWeave’s March 2025 IPO raised $1.5 billion at a $23 billion valuation and described it as the largest AI-related listing by amount raised in Dealogic’s records since 1995. Reuters also reported MiniMax raised HK$4.8 billion ($614 million) in its January 2026 Hong Kong IPO, and Generate Biomedicines raised $400 million in a February 2026 U.S. IPO.

With that backdrop, we present here our selection of 12 cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

Methodology

For our list of cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026, we used their 12-month price target upside as a proxy for undervaluation. We narrowed our selection to stocks with at least a 25% upside based on the consensus of at least 5 analysts, as reported by stockanalysis.com’s screener. We then limited our final selection to companies that have recently reported noteworthy developments likely to impact investor sentiment. These stocks are popular among analysts and elite hedge funds.

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 427.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 264 percentage points (see more details here).

12. UiPath, Inc. (NYSE:PATH)

UiPath, Inc. (NYSE:PATH) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

On February 23, 2026, UiPath announced a suite of agentic AI solutions for healthcare providers and payers, targeting administrative and financial bottlenecks tied to revenue cycle management. The company said the initial offerings focus on medical records summarization, claim denial prevention and resolution, and prior authorization, using agentic automation and orchestration with governed agents designed for regulated workflows.

UiPath framed the launch around common payer-provider friction, including labor shortages and disconnected systems, and positioned the tools as a way to translate complex clinical documentation into structured, decision-ready outputs that can speed reimbursement processes. In a customer example included in the announcement, a firm, medlitix, said it reduced the average summary review time from 70 minutes to 6 minutes after implementing UiPath’s Medical Records Summarization solution, describing that as a 90% improvement. UiPath also said it is partnering with Genzeon to deliver the prior authorization solution, noting Genzeon’s selection by CMS for the WISeR Model and citing Genzeon’s payer experience across more than 100 healthcare clients and 30+ disease-specific clinical models.

UiPath, Inc. (NYSE:PATH) is a software company focused on automation and orchestration, offering a platform that helps organizations deploy and manage automated workflows, including AI agent-led processes, across enterprise systems.

11. Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (NYSE:ZETA)

Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (NYSE:ZETA) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

On February 24, 2026, Zeta Global Holdings Corp. reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2025, and said it delivered its 18th consecutive “beat and raise” quarter. Fourth-quarter revenue was $395 million, up 25% year over year, while full-year revenue increased 30% year over year to $1.305 billion. The company also said fourth-quarter revenue exceeded the midpoint of guidance by $14 million. Zeta said the results reflect continued momentum in its AI marketing platform.

Zeta reported fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $95.1 million, up from $70.4 million in the prior-year quarter, with adjusted EBITDA margin expanding to 24.1% from 22.4%. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA totaled $278.7 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.4%, up from 19.2% in 2024. The company also reported positive GAAP net income of $6.5 million in the fourth quarter.

In customer metrics, Zeta said its Super-Scaled Customer count rose to 184, up 24% year over year.

Following the earnings release, D.A. Davidson analyst raised its price target on Zeta Global to $30 from $29 and maintained a Buy rating, according to The Fly, citing scaled customer growth and ARPU expansion after the company’s Q4 results.

Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (NYSE:ZETA) is a marketing technology company whose AI-powered cloud platform helps enterprises acquire, grow, and retain customers through data, identity, and omnichannel activation.

10. Globant S.A. (NYSE:GLOB)

Globant S.A. (NYSE:GLOB) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

On March 3, 2026, Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev lowered his price target on Globant S.A. to $76 from $91 while maintaining an Outperform rating. According to The Fly coverage, Dolev said Globant reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and provided relatively in-line 2026 guidance.

The analyst note followed Globant’s February 26, 2026, fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial report. In that release, the company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $612.5 million, above its guidance, though down 4.7% year over year. Non-IFRS adjusted diluted EPS was $1.54, versus $1.75 in the prior-year quarter, while non-IFRS adjusted operating margin was 15.5%. For full-year 2025, revenue rose 1.6% to $2.4549 billion, and non-IFRS adjusted diluted EPS was $6.14.

Globant’s management tied the quarter to improving demand conditions and execution discipline. CEO Martín Migoya said the company is moving beyond a traditional seats model with a token-based intelligent subscription approach, while CFO Juan Urthiague said fourth-quarter revenue reflected an improvement in client sentiment. Urthiague also cited strong operational discipline, a pipeline exceeding $3 billion, and record quarterly free cash flow of $152.8 million.

For 2026, Globant guided to full-year revenue of $2.46 billion to $2.51 billion and non-IFRS adjusted diluted EPS of $6.10 to $6.50, which helps explain Mizuho’s description of the outlook as relatively in-line.

Globant S.A. (NYSE:GLOB) is a digital native technology services company that helps enterprises with digital transformation, software engineering, design, and AI-focused solutions across multiple industries.

9. C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI)

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026. However, due to their recent quarterly results, some analysts are cautious but still optimistic.

On February 26, 2026, Wedbush analyst lowered its price target on C3.ai to $15 from $20 but maintained an Outperform rating. The Fly summary said Wedbush cited weaker-than-expected fiscal third-quarter results, broad misses, and guidance below street expectations, while noting the company’s shift toward large-scale enterprise transformations.

C3.ai had reported fiscal third-quarter 2026 results on February 25, 2026, for the quarter ended January 31, 2026. The company posted total revenue of $53.3 million, including $48.2 million in subscription revenue, with subscription revenue making up 90% of total revenue. Combined subscription and prioritized engineering services revenue was $51.5 million, or 97% of total revenue. C3.ai also reported GAAP gross profit of $9.2 million (17% margin), non-GAAP gross profit of $19.6 million (37% margin), and non-GAAP net loss per share of $0.40. Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $621.9 million.

Management said it had reduced cost structure and cash burn, restructured and flattened the sales organization, focused on core applications, and shifted go-to-market efforts toward enterprise-wide transformations. The company also announced a restructuring plan expected to deliver about $135 million in annual non-GAAP operating expense savings and guided fiscal Q4 revenue to $48.0 million to $52.0 million.

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) is an enterprise AI application software company that offers the C3 Agentic AI Platform, industry-specific AI applications, and C3 Generative AI products for enterprise use cases.

8. CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV)

CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

On March 4, 2026, CoreWeave announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Perplexity to support the latter’s AI inference workloads on CoreWeave Cloud and to pilot new services across both organizations. The company said Perplexity will run next-generation inference workloads on CoreWeave’s platform under the agreement.

CoreWeave stated that Perplexity will use dedicated NVIDIA GB200 NVL72-powered clusters, which the company said are intended to support Perplexity’s growth and the requirements of its Sonar and Search API ecosystem. CoreWeave also said it will roll out Perplexity Enterprise Max internally so employees can search the web and internal knowledge, conduct multi-step research, analyze data, and work with advanced AI models within one platform.

The release also said Perplexity has already begun running inference workloads with CoreWeave Kubernetes Service in the initial deployment phase and is using W&B Models for training, fine-tuning, and model management from experimentation to production. CoreWeave described the collaboration as part of Perplexity’s multi-cloud strategy and as evidence of CoreWeave’s role as a specialized AI cloud provider for production AI systems.

CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) is an AI cloud infrastructure company that provides a platform, tools, and technical support for building and scaling AI workloads.

7. SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE:S)

SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE:S) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

On March 3, 2026, Wells Fargo initiated coverage of SentinelOne with an Equal Weight rating and a $13 price target, with The Fly identifying Richard Poland as the analyst. Reports summarizing the note said Wells Fargo sees SentinelOne as a meaningful player in endpoint security, but one facing heavyweight competition from larger platforms such as CrowdStrike, Microsoft, and Palo Alto Networks. The firm also said SentinelOne’s valuation is compelling, while arguing the company’s recent phase has been uneven as growth has slowed and management has pushed harder on profitability.

The same reports said Wells Fargo’s field work and CIO survey pointed to endpoint security being a lower priority area heading into 2026, which helps explain the more balanced stance despite the stock’s valuation backdrop.

SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE:S) is a cybersecurity company that provides an AI-powered security platform for endpoint, cloud, and identity protection. The company is best known for its Singularity platform.

6. Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS)

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

On March 3, 2026, Wells Fargo initiated coverage of Zscaler with an Overweight rating and a $200 price target. Wells Fargo analyst sees a favorable entry point after recent “noise” tied to Red Canary, while expecting Zscaler’s core business to remain stable and newer growth areas such as Zero Trust Exchange, data security, and AI to help sustain roughly 20% growth. The note also highlighted the firm’s view that Zscaler is deeply embedded in large enterprises, with meaningful penetration across the Fortune 500 and Global 2000, and argued that concerns about logo-based saturation are overstated.

The rating followed the company’s fiscal second-quarter 2026 results released on February 26, 2026, for the quarter ended January 31, 2026. Revenue increased 26% year over year to $815.8 million, while ARR rose 25% to $3.359 billion. Zscaler also reported non-GAAP EPS of $1.01 and non-GAAP operating income of $181.0 million, or a 22% margin. Management said demand remained strong across its three growth pillars, which it identified as AI Security, Zero Trust Everywhere, and Data Security, and raised full-year fiscal 2026 ARR growth guidance to 24%.

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) is an AI-powered cloud security company focused on zero-trust architecture. Its platform secures users, workloads, and devices by connecting them directly to applications and services without relying on traditional network perimeter tools.

5. Tenable Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:TENB)

Tenable Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:TENB) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

On March 3, 2026, Wells Fargo initiated coverage of Tenable Holdings, Inc. with an Equal Weight rating and a $13 price target. Wells Fargo said Tenable holds a 27% share of the vulnerability management market, and noted that the company’s Nessus product helped establish its position against incumbent competitors.

The firm also described vulnerability management as a relatively small and penetrated market, adding that it sees more meaningful value creation at the runtime layer. In Wells Fargo’s CIO survey, vulnerability management and endpoint management ranked as the seventh strategic spending priority. The survey respondents ranked Tenable as the 12th most strategic security vendor, while Wells Fargo pointed to intensifying competition from larger consolidators with more strategic core businesses.

At the same time, Wells Fargo said Tenable One shows promise, even as competitive pressures remain a central consideration in its coverage stance.

Tenable Holdings, Inc. is an AI-powered cybersecurity company focused on exposure management. The company says its platform helps organizations unify security visibility, insight, and action across the attack surface, and its investor materials note that approximately 44,000 organizations globally rely on Tenable to understand and reduce cyber risk.

4. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

On March 5, 2026, Siemens announced a verified cybersecurity solution for industrial private 5G networks developed with Palo Alto Networks. The offering combines Siemens’ Private 5G infrastructure with Palo Alto Networks’ next-generation firewall, which Siemens said was optimized for AI and tested for high availability, resilience, and uninterrupted operations.

According to the announcement, the solution is aimed at manufacturers that need different security setups depending on the production environment, while still preserving performance for increasingly AI-driven operations. Siemens said the architecture was tested across multiple deployment scenarios and validated in its Digital Connectivity Lab in Erlangen, Germany.

The integrated setup includes Siemens’ private 5G infrastructure for on-premises deterministic wireless connectivity, Siemens’ SINEC Security Monitor for passive on-premises monitoring during production, and Palo Alto Networks’ firewall for Layer 7 protection and OT protocol analysis. Siemens said the firewall performs deep packet inspection for OT protocols while maintaining low latency for real-time control applications, including over private 5G networks.

Siemens also said the verified architecture meets IEC 62443 requirements for industrial automation and control systems security and is now available through the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is an AI-Powered cybersecurity company that describes itself as a cybersecurity partner serving 70,000+ organizations, with platforms spanning network security, AI-driven security operations, and cloud security.

3. Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA)

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

On March 5, 2026, D.A. Davidson reiterated a Buy rating on Okta and set a $110 price target after the company’s fourth-quarter results and fiscal 2027 guidance. The firm said the quarter and outlook were mostly in line with expectations, but pointed to better-than-expected current remaining performance obligations (cRPO) growth of 12% year over year versus 9% consensus.

It also highlighted fiscal 2027 subscription revenue guidance of about 10% year-over-year growth, compared with 9% consensus, and said the outlook implies more stable subscription growth through the year than some prior initial guides. D.A. Davidson added that it still views management guidance as conservative and sees a higher likelihood of cRPO growth reacceleration in the second half of fiscal 2027, citing improved sales productivity, added sales capacity, product mix, larger deal sizes, and early AI agent contribution.

Okta reported on March 4, 2026, that fourth-quarter revenue rose 11% year over year to $761 million, including subscription revenue of $747 million. RPO reached $4.827 billion, up 15%, while cRPO was $2.513 billion, up 12%. The company also reported operating cash flow of $258 million and free cash flow of $252 million for the quarter.

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) is an AI-Powered identity and access management company focused on workforce and customer identity solutions, including authentication and authorization tools for enterprises and developers.

2. Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ:TEAM)

Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ:TEAM) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

As of March 6, 2026, Wall Street’s consensus view on Atlassian was a Moderate Buy based on 27 analyst ratings, including 20 buy ratings, five holds, and two sells. The average 12-month price target stood at $189.32. Those figures suggest that, despite mixed views at the margin, analysts remained constructive on the stock overall.

Additional Wall Street commentary turned more specific to AI on March 5, 2026, when Wells Fargo said Atlassian was well-positioned to integrate OpenAI’s Symphony framework into its products. According to the note, Atlassian already controls how work is approved, tracked, and audited inside enterprise workflows, which could make AI deployment an extension of existing workflow control rather than a replacement for the underlying system. The firm’s view framed Atlassian as a company that could embed agentic AI into established software processes.

Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ:TEAM) develops collaboration and productivity software, best known for Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Management, which teams use to plan, track, and deliver work across IT, software, and business functions. It started out as a traditional software company but has increasingly become an AI-Forward company.

1. Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI)

Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI) is one of the cheap AI stocks to buy in 2026.

On March 3, 2026, Veritone and LeoSight announced a strategic partnership to deliver an integrated, AI-powered offering for law enforcement agencies and public safety organizations.

Veritone said the partnership is designed to provide a cost-effective, open alternative to incumbent public safety technology solutions, pairing Veritone’s enterprise AI capabilities with LeoSight’s data visualization tools for real-time operations. The companies described the joint solution as combining both software and hardware, supporting advanced real-time analysis as well as post-event review.

The release also described the integration as bi-directional: Veritone’s AI functions, including object detection and redaction, are expected to be incorporated into the LeoSight platform, while LeoSight’s visualization and operational tools are expected to be integrated into Veritone’s platform. Veritone framed the approach as an “open ecosystem” intended to reduce reliance on single-vendor systems and let agencies assemble a best-of-breed setup around their needs.

Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI) builds enterprise AI and data solutions, including its aiWARE platform that orchestrates a growing ecosystem of machine learning models across multiple industries, including the public sector.

While we acknowledge the potential of VERI to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some other 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 VERI and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now.

Disclosure: None. Insider Monkey focuses on uncovering the best investment ideas of hedge funds and insiders. Please subscribe to our free daily e-newsletter to get the latest investment ideas from hedge funds’ investor letters by entering your email address below.