As xAI’s Grok became the top app on the Google Play Store, its owner, Elon Musk, revealed a major development at his AI startup. The wealthiest person on Earth revealed Friday that xAI had acquired X, formerly Twitter, in an all-stock transaction, valuing his social media platform X at a staggering $33 billion.
“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk wrote. “This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach…The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge. This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.”
Elsewhere, OpenAI is reportedly in advanced negotiations to close a record funding round of $40 billion. The round, led by SoftBank, would value OpenAI at $300 billion, which is double compared to its valuation in October 2024. SoftBank is expected to invest $7.5 billion initially and $22.5 billion in the latter half of this year.
The AI-based humanoid robot industry also made headlines after Realbotix announced that it will showcase an advanced intelligence robot at the DiscoveryX expo in mid-April. The AI-powered humanoid robot, Aria, will demonstrate the company’s efforts to integrate AI, robotics, and human connection through direct interaction with conference attendees.
“DiscoveryX is a great event to showcase how far we’ve come in developing emotionally intelligent, interactive AI,” said Realbotix CEO Andrew Kiguel. “Aria isn’t just a robot – she’s a glimpse into the future of personalized, human-centric technology.”
According to a Goldman Sachs report led by research analyst Jacqueline Du, the total addressable market for humanoid robots could reach $38 billion by 2035, which is over six times higher than a previous estimate of $6 billion.
We selected AI stocks by reviewing news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. We listed the stocks in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that hold stakes in them, as of Q4 2024.
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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
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8. Pony AI Inc. (NASDAQ:PONY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 20
Pony AI Inc. (NASDAQ:PONY) leverages its full-stack, vehicle-agnostic Virtual Driver technology in combination with its proprietary software and hardware offerings to drive large-scale commercialization of autonomous mobility for diverse transportation use cases.
On March 28th, Pony AI Inc. (NASDAQ:PONY) said it won a permit to operate paid, driverless robotaxis across city centers in Shenzhen’s Nanshan District. The company will also extend its commercial operations to connect Nanshan with its service zone in Baoan District, marking the first cross-district driverless network.
“Expanding our fully driverless commercial robotaxi services to the vibrant city centers of Shenzhen will accelerate public adoption, as well as inspire confidence and trust in fully driverless technology as we deploy its application to daily urban use cases.”
-said James Peng, CEO of Pony AI Inc.
7. Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:VRNT)
Number of Hedge Fund Followers: 24
Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:VRNT) is a technology company focusing on customer experience automation. The company’s offerings help clients enhance customer engagement and experiences across various channels, including contact centers, web, mobile, and back offices.
On March 28th, Wedbush analysts lowered Verint Systems Inc.’s (NASDAQ:VRNT) stock target price to $30 per share from $38 but retained an “Outperform” rating. The brokerage highlighted the company’s Q4 earnings missed both the top and bottom lines because of the timing of unbundled SaaS revenue renewals. However, the analysts believe that Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:VRNT) remains well-positioned within the CX space as it capitalizes on its current demand pipeline while further embedding AI capabilities into its CX platform.
6. Braze Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 31
Braze Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE) offers a customer engagement platform that enables marketers to gather, analyze, and take appropriate action on vast amounts of data to improve customer engagement in real time. The company’s services include cross-channel messaging, journey orchestration, and AI-powered experimentation and optimization to improve brand loyalty and promote business growth.
On March 27th, Braze Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE) said it narrowed its Q4 losses from a year earlier to $0.17 per diluted share as revenue increased 22.5% YoY to $160.4 million on new customers, renewals, and advancements in AI agentic innovation through the acquisition of an AI decisioning company called OfferFit. The company set the fiscal year 2026 revenue outlook between $686 million and $691 million.
“Fiscal 2025 was a milestone year for Braze that reinforced our position as the leading Customer Engagement platform through robust customer growth and continued advancements in our product, including meaningful new investments in AI and machine learning. We grew revenue 26% while continuing to drive strong operating leverage, ending the year with three straight quarters of non-GAAP net income profitability. And today, we are also pleased to announce our intent to acquire OfferFit, a sophisticated AI decisioning company focused on deploying reinforcement learning that recommends individualized cross-channel customer journeys at scale. We look forward to bringing our complementary products and teams together to drive the evolution of Customer Engagement.”
-said Bill Magnuson, Cofounder and CEO of Braze.
5. Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU)
Number of Hedge Fund Followers: 50
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) is a Chinese technology company offering AI and internet services, including video streaming and discussion forums. The company’s search engine is the most popular in the country. In recent years, the company has accelerated its AI investments to position itself as a leader in the mainland’s dynamic tech landscape.
On March 28th, Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) said its autonomous ride-hailing platform, Apollo Go, executed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Roads and Transport Authority of Dubai to roll out autonomous driving testing and services across the city. The agreement will see Apollo Go deploy 100 fully autonomous vehicles in urban Dubai by 2025-end, with plans to scale the fleet to at least 1,000 by 2028.
“We see strong synergy between our mission and Dubai’s ambitious vision for autonomous transportation. It is a privilege to partner with the RTA and support its goal of making 25% of the city’s transportation autonomous by 2030. With Apollo Go’s proven success in China and Baidu’s cutting-edge expertise in AI and autonomous driving, we are excited to introduce safe, efficient, and sustainable autonomous mobility solutions to the region.”
-said Yunpeng Wang, corporate vice president of Baidu Inc.”
4. Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 65
Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) is an aerospace and defense company that designs military aircraft, satellite platforms, ground control software, and launch vehicles for crewed spacecraft. The company has multiple AI and ML-based initiatives, such as the LMText Navigator, T-Tauri platform, and the Astris AI subsidiary, to rapidly process large datasets from space, air, and ground sensors, monitor spacecraft telemetry, and integrate AI solutions in the US defense industrial base.
On March 28th, Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) announced a collaboration with Google Cloud, integrating the latter’s GenAI into its AI Factory ecosystem to improve the ability to train and deploy high-performance AI models for national security, aerospace, and scientific applications. Specifically, Lockheed Martin will apply AI capabilities enhanced by Google Cloud to make progress in areas like advanced intelligence analysis, predictive aerospace maintenance, engineering designs, supply chains, software development, customized workforce training, and accelerated scientific discoveries.
“Using Google Cloud’s AI technologies allows us to explore a wide range of powerful capabilities to deliver innovative, reliable solutions that stay ahead of the curve. A sustained relationship with Google Public Sector is part of our ongoing commitment to a culture of innovation, driving continuous improvement and delivering results for our customers.”
-said John Clark, senior vice president, Lockheed Martin Technology & Strategic Innovation.
3. Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 79
Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) offers diverse services ranging from agile transformation and data analytics to intelligent automation and software engineering. The company has been speeding up its R&D and AI agent deployment using Nvidia Corp.’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) AI offerings for faster placement of multi-agent networks and seamless integration into enterprise systems. It is also overhauling its core banking modernization capabilities via platform acquisitions, enabling data unification from legacy and modern banking architectures for product development and innovation.
On March 31st, Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) announced it is extending its long-term partnership with Siemens to transform engineering and manufacturing. The two companies formed the Accenture Siemens Business Group to combine their AI capabilities and jointly develop and market offerings that leverage automation, industrial AI, and software.
“Engineering and manufacturing are the next digital frontier. The Accenture Siemens Business Group scales the power of automation, data and AI to help clients reinvent their products and how they make them. Together with our long-standing partner Siemens, we will increase speed and efficiency, reduce cost and strengthen the digital core, which is essential for continuous reinvention and the creation of new value.”
-said Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture Plc.
2. Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 89
Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) provides an AI platform to help organizations manage finances and human resources more efficiently for higher work productivity and better business outcomes.
On March 31st, Jefferies trimmed the company’s 12-month stock price target on Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) to $325 from $350 but reiterated its “Buy” rating on the shares. The brokerage said it is reducing price targets across its US software coverage to reflect recent multiple compression amid early hints of weakening macro factors impacting deals across the technology sector. Analysts said they believe “we may have another ‘mullet’ year in software” with H1 chop followed by H2 flow. Jefferies said didn’t lower estimates “yet” as it awaits Q1 checks while highlighting that recent guidance levels were set for no material improvement and that the current uncertainty means “investors are waiting on the sidelines to assess the impact.”
1. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 107
Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) is a provider of technology infrastructure, e-commerce platforms, cloud services, and digital media solutions for organizations and consumers globally. In recent years, the company has also made significant investments in AI development.
On March 28th, Mizuho analyst James Lee said the brokerage’s “AI deep dive” on Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) revealed that the company has solid building blocks for AI investments—“scaling models toward AGI, building a platform for model APIs to accelerate application deployment for customers, and ultimately providing end-user solutions directly across industries.” He noted that Mizuho expects Alibaba’s AI investments to bump productivity internally, translating to better product conversions and recommendations.
“Concurrently, we look for businesses ex-TTG to reduce losses (11% of EBITA) and potentially reach break-even in two years; (3) We raise FY26E cloud revenue growth from 13% to 17% YoY due to increased confidence in the product roadmap and improving sentiment around China enterprise IT spending,” the analyst added. The brokerage maintained its “Outperform” rating on the stock and increased its 12-month target price to $170 from $140 per share.
While we acknowledge the potential of Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BABA 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 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
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