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.