In this article, we will take a look at some of BlackRock’s 30 Most Important AI Stocks Right Now.
During the first week of June, BlackRock shared a report highlighting how AI and expanding resource constraints are redefining investment opportunities. In the report, the asset manager revealed that currently, there is an era of scarcity. Growing mega forces are putting pressure on infrastructure, labor, capital, energy, and materials.
BlackRock noted that certain supply-side bottlenecks are shaping pricing dynamics, inflation, and growth. This is where AI becomes more important, as it creates the possibility of a sustained growth breakout by speeding up innovation itself. The AI development is speeding up, bringing three unresolved issues into consideration.
First, is AI becoming a bubble? Second, what will be the cost of AI adoption? Models may become affordable and accelerate adoption, yet we still do not have enough computing capacity to satisfy demand.
Finally, who will capture economic value? Power and data-center owners, model developers, cloud, and chip providers may all capture part of the profits. Power remains the primary bottleneck in the West.
Political risk is becoming a major part of the return. Trade and model-access restrictions and permitting constraints can alter who captures value or slow the adoption process. It is not necessary to know which AI model succeeds to know that AI demands memory, chips, power, and data-center infrastructure. With that background, let’s explore BlackRock’s 30 Most Important AI Stocks Right Now.
Photo by lucas law on Unsplash
Our Methodology
To identify relevant stocks for this article, we looked at the U.S.-listed holdings of BlackRock’s iShares Future AI & Tech ETF (ARTY), as per the filings on March 31. We identified companies with market capitalizations above $2 billion, and selected 30 stocks with the highest weightage to rank them in ascending order.
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 599.2% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 372 percentage points (see more details here).
30. Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS)
Weight in ARTY ETF: 0.71%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 35
Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) is one of BlackRock’s 30 most important AI stocks right now. BlackRock is the largest institutional holder in Rambus, owning approximately 16.31 million shares, or slightly over 15% of the outstanding shares, as of March 31, 2026, per the filings.
As AI workloads demand greater memory bandwidth, Rambus’ solutions have become more relevant. The company develops high-performance memory interface technologies and intellectual property that enable faster data transfer and improved computing efficiency. While it continues to benefit from AI-related demand, the market has been focusing on the rising valuation.
Rambus’ stock has performed strongly, in line with many other semiconductor majors, and has risen nearly 14% so far this year, bringing its 1-year returns to 71.38%. With an average forward EPS estimate of $2.95, the stock currently trades at a forward P/E ratio of nearly 45x, as of June 30. Interestingly, this is down from a forward P/E of ~60x in the first week of June as the stock has corrected by around one-third since touching $174.
That said, the long-term fundamental growth outlook remains robust. After the Q1 2026 earnings results, Evercore ISI analysts said that, according to its channel checks, the company’s growth over many quarters should be supported by secular growth drivers related to Agentic-AI for CPUs.
In early June, Insider Monkey highlighted a bullish thesis on Rambus, which noted that the company has yet to fully benefit from rising CPU demand. The thesis can be read here: Is Rambus Inc. (RMBS) A Good Stock To Buy Now?
Interestingly, global equity manager ClearBridge Investments initiated a new position in Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) for its Small Cap Growth Strategy in the first quarter of 2026. The portfolio managers, in the investor letter, commented:
“We believe the rising complexity of server memory will drive content per server growth and, alongside a variety of adjacent product launches, will support robust growth.”
The full investor letter can be read here – ClearBridge Investments Small Cap Growth Strategy’s Q1 2026 Investor Letter.
Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) designs and produces a variety of semiconductor products and memory interface chips. Products range from memory interface chips to silicon intellectual property solutions for interface, security, and high-speed memory technology.
29. CoStar Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)
Weight in ARTY ETF: 0.74%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 62
CoStar Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) is one of BlackRock’s 30 most important AI stocks right now. BlackRock is the second-largest institutional owner in the company, holding approximately 33.81 million shares worth slightly over a billion dollars, or around 8.3% of outstanding shares, according to Yahoo Finance data. Vanguard Portfolio Management LLC is the top holder with a 9.36% stake.
While the company’s shares have had a rough 2026 so far, with stock declining 58% YTD as of June 30, around two-thirds of the 24 analysts covering the stock are currently bullish on the name, with Buy or equivalent ratings, while 21% advise a Hold. The 1-year median consensus price target of $46 implies a 57% upside.
Among the latest firms to reiterate its Buy rating was Goldman Sachs. According to a June 25 report, the firm lowered its price target on CoStar Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) by 15% to $46 (from $54 earlier). Goldman’s analysts noted a divergence between the company’s two residential platforms, viz. Homes.com and Apartments.com. For Homes.com, the analysts flagged a decrease in traffic and expect the trend to continue due to a reduction in its 2026 marketing spend.
On the other hand, Goldman Sachs is much more optimistic about the Apartments.com platform, for which it expects healthy growth to continue. Moreover, the company’s investments in this platform are expected to be lower, which should, in turn, support margins and earnings.
CoStar Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) provides commercial real estate analytics and online marketplaces. It operates various platforms such as CoStar Property, CoStar Markets, CoStar Leasing, CoStar Sales, Home.com, and LoopNet. Through these platforms, it delivers services around unique property types including office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, and student housing.
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