We recently compiled a list of the 10 AI News Updates Making Headlines Right Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) stands against the other AI stocks that are making headlines.
Nowadays, barely a day goes by without a huge headline touching artificial intelligence (AI). Three main factors are driving the rising interest in AI. First, it is now easier to train new machine learning (ML) models because training data is easily available. The DeepSeek R1 breakthrough is evidence of this. Second, smaller companies can access computing power with relative ease. AI models use this power to organize and process information. Third, there are enough AI solutions to bridge the gap between AI and organizations. Although organizations still need to hire skilled professionals like Data Scientists, the overall cost to design AI solutions is significantly lower because of the existence of free open-source AI platforms.
However, if you look at it from another angle, the rising interest in AI arises from increased adoption. A recent McKinsey report found that 65% of organizations are now using generative AI. The high demand for AI models and related services is reflected in the AI market as ever-higher growth numbers. For instance, a Markets and Markets analysis valued the global AI market at $214.6 billion in 2024 and projects that it will reach $1.3 trillion in 2030.
What is happening in the AI market is only one side of the coin; the other side is what the AI revolution is doing to human life. Great things are happening. According to a PwC analysis, AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy in 2030. This will happen in the form of increased GDP for local economies resulting from increased productivity and consumption of AI-related products and services.
Interestingly, this impact doesn’t come from traditional AI companies—those at the forefront of training AI models—alone. Instead, the global economy will experience an income boost from AI through partnerships between core technology developers and other businesses. What this means is that AI is no longer just a chatbot. Rather, it has changed how companies create value.
“This is exactly what we are seeing in our work with clients as well. AI transforms companies’ ability to apply intelligence and information at speed and scale, enabling them to build new business models and tap different value pools. Pioneering companies in areas from AI-supported healthcare to AI-enabled mergers & acquisitions are using the technology to create breakthroughs in the value their people can deliver,” says Carol Stubbings, the Global Chief Commercial Officer at PwC.
As AI continues to reshape the global economy, certain companies are emerging as key players in this transformation. Let’s look at 10 AI companies that are making headlines and driving significant changes in their respective sectors.
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.
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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
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Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 47
Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) is a technology company that provides cybersecurity and convergence of networking and security solutions worldwide. It offers secure networking solutions focused on the convergence of networking, security, and network firewall solutions. While the stock has been flying high, an analyst at Baird reiterated on February 3rd that it has limited upside potential.
Baird has since downgraded the stock to a ‘Neutral’ from an ‘Outperform’ but hiked the price target to $112 from $105. The downgrade comes on concerns that Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) is one of the large-cap internet security stocks that benefited from strong growth and expanding profit margins last year but have limited upside in 2025. Nevertheless, it remains a solid long-term play as it makes the most of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) tools within its Security Operation offerings. The company is positioning itself to tap into the growing demand for AI-driven security operations (SecOps) offerings that could hit $163 billion in 2028.
Overall FTNT ranks 5th on our list of the AI stocks that are making headlines right now. While we acknowledge the potential of FTNT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than FTNT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
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