We recently published a list of 9 Best AI Energy Infrastructure Stocks to Buy Now. Since Cheniere Energy Inc (NYSE:LNG) ranks 2nd on the list, it deserves a deeper look.

Rob Thummel, senior portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital Advisors, while talking to CNBC in a latest program, said that he sees a big opportunity for AI in the energy industry. Thummel said that while everybody keeps talking about technology infrastructure when it comes to AI, they “forget” about energy infrastructure.

Thummel said that AI will create electricity demand that will in turn fuel the need for natural gas.

“There is no AI without EI (energy infrastructure) because you need this critical infrastructure to provide the fuel to keep their lights on and electricity flowing 24 hours a day.”

Talking about energy stocks, Thummel said a lot of them are “pretty simple stories” as they generate a lot of cash flows and return a significant portion of it back to shareholders.

Asked about the cyclical nature of the industry, Thummel said that global energy demand is currently at its peak and has grown for 38 years over the last four decades. The analyst said the demand for energy increases every year across the world. Thummel said the US has become the largest energy exporter and he does not see that changing for a long time.

Thummel also shared some of his top picks in the energy sector. For this article we scanned his portfolio and chose his top AI energy infrastructure picks. With each stock we have mentioned the total number of hedge fund investors. 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).

Cheniere Energy Inc (NYSE:LNG)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 69

Cheniere Energy Inc (NYSE:LNG) is one of the best AI energy infrastructure stocks to buy according to Tortoise Capital Advisors.

In a recent earnings call, the company’s management talked about AI-driven demand:

“But we look at things, We see roughly a doubling of demand globally by 2030 from about 2% to about 4% of power for data centers, obviously, driven in part by these more power-hungry chips. And we think that the easiest places and all the guys who are developing them, by the way, have huge teams that are looking for pockets of opportunity where there is the ability to add this capacity. One of the more interesting dynamics, if you will, is that Japan has been forecasting a dramatic decline in its power use by about 12% from ’22 to 2030. The easiest places in the world to add this capacity is where this capacity exists.”

Wolfe Research expects Cheniere Energy Inc (NYSE:LNG) to benefit if Donald Trump assumes the Presidential office.

Cheniere Energy Inc (NYSE:LNG)  is one of the biggest LNG companies in the world. The stock is set to grow amid rising demand of LNG across the world. According to a latest report by Shell, the global gas demand is expected to rise 50% by 2040 amid increasing LNG appetite in Asia. Cheniere Energy Inc (NYSE:LNG) is operating with a wide moat since it’s the second biggest LNG company with a huge production infrastructure. Cheniere has facilities with 45 million metric tonnes per annum as of this year. Its Sabine Pass LNG Terminal in Louisiana has six operational trains. Cheniere Energy Inc (NYSE:LNG) has already secured orders or agreements for 95% of its anticipated production capacity extending into the middle of the year 2030.

During its Q1 earnings call Cheniere Energy Inc (NYSE:LNG) talked about this and guidance:

Today, we are reconfirming our full year 2024 guidance ranges of $5.5 billion to $6 billion in consolidated adjusted EBITDA and $2.9 billion to $3.4 billion in distributable cash flow. As we’ve noted previously, 2024 represents our most contracted year-to-date. We still expect 2024 to represent a trough year for EBITDA as we expect our results to trend higher after this year as Stage 3 commences and eventually reach its run rate by the end of 2026.

As a reminder, our operating and financial results and forecast reflect some degree of seasonality as typically higher winter production at our facilities, coupled with typically higher pricing international markets, can provide for a somewhat seasonal weighting of our results to the colder quarters versus the hotter ones. For the balance of the year, we don’t expect meaningful changes to our earnings forecast for the remaining 3 quarters with an immaterial amount of unsold capacity remaining. We still expect to produce approximately 45 million tonnes of LNG this year, inclusive of planned maintenance at both sites, and our guidance continues to reflect only contributions from completed portfolio optimization activities as we do not forecast potential contributions from future opportunities.

TimesSquare Capital U.S. Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE:LNG) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

“The strategy’s top detractor was the -5% retrenchment from Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE:LNG), which operates liquid natural gas (LNG) liquefaction facilities for the global transportation of LNG. While revenues and earnings were as expected, management’s initial guidance for the new fiscal year was lower than anticipated. Cheniere was conservative—appropriately so in our view—regarding plant volumes as election-year noise surrounding the regulatory environment could dampen LNG exploration and export activities.”

Overall, Cheniere Energy Inc (NYSE:LNG) ranks 2nd on Insider Monkey’s list titled 9 Best AI Energy Infrastructure Stocks to Buy Now. While we acknowledge the potential of Cheniere Energy Inc (NYSE:LNG), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than LNG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.