Ark Invest fund manager Cathie Wood likes to invest in innovative companies that are looking to disrupt their industries. As such, it’s not surprising that she owns some top artificial intelligence (AI) stocks.
With AI looking like it could be a once-in-a-generation technological opportunity that helps reshape the world, now could be a great time to follow Wood into several of the AI stocks she owns.
Let’s look at three AI names she holds that investors can buy right now.
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Palantir
Palantir Technologies (PLTR) is a top-10 holding in a few Ark exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including its flagship ARK Innovation ETF. It’s easy to see why Wood is attracted to the stock.
Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) has been taking the commercial space by storm. Palantir started as a government-focused data-gathering and analytics company, but it’s since leveraged that expertise to build what amounts to an AI operating system. AIP can gather data from a variety of disparate sources and then organize it into an “ontology” that then connects the data to their real-world counterparts. It then uses third-party AI models to discover and help solve real-world problems.
AIP is being used across a wide range of industries. Its large number of use cases is what makes Palantir stock so exciting, as the opportunity is seemingly endless. The company has been seeing revenue consistently accelerate over the past seven quarters, cumulating in 39% growth in Q1.
Palantir is a disruptive company with an enticing future ahead.
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is a top-10 holding in the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF. While the chipmaker may not stand out as an AI disruptor — given that it plays second fiddle to Nvidia in the graphics processing units (GPU) space — AMD has a big opportunity in front of it with AI inference.
While Nvidia has dominated the AI model training market thanks to its CUDA software advantage, AMD has been able to carve out a solid niche in inference as it is less technologically demanding than training and cost per inference is a big consideration. Best of all, the inference market is eventually expected to become the much larger of the two.
If AMD can just take some GPU market share away from Nvidia, it is going to see a lot of growth in the years ahead. Meanwhile, there are already some signs AMD can accomplish this, with the company saying last quarter that one of the largest foundation AI model companies in the world was using its chips to run a significant portion of its inference.
While I wouldn’t expect AMD to displace Nvidia in the future, I do think its stock could outperform its larger rival given its smaller revenue base and big AI inference opportunity ahead.
Amazon
Amazon (AMZN) is a top-10 holding in the Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF. While Amazon is not going to be mistaken for an under-the-radar stock, I do think its technology prowess often gets overlooked. The company created the whole cloud computing business with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is now one of the industries most benefiting from AI.
Amazon’s cloud computing business is much more than just going out and buying Nvidia-powered servers and building data centers. Amazon has developed its own internal chips for AI training and inference, which ultimately gives it a cost advantage. Amazon also has developed software platforms to help customers create and deploy their own AI models and apps that can be run on its data center infrastructure.
In addition to AWS, the company is also leading the charge on AI-powered robots. Amazon is the world’s leading manufacturer and operator of mobile robotics, and recently deployed its 1-millionth robot. Because it uses these robots internally at its fulfillment centers and does not sell them, Amazon’s leadership in this field doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves.
The company has incorporated AI into its robots to do things well beyond just moving boxes. It has robots that can spot damaged items before they are shipped and even ones that can repair themselves. In May, it introduced its first robot with a sense of touch, called Vulcan, that can retrieve items from tight spaces. It also recently launched an AI model called DeepFleet that can coordinate its entire robot fleet to better navigate its fulfillment centers, saving time.
Amazon is one of the most innovative AI and robotics companies in the world, and it’s just getting started.
John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Geoffrey Seiler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
