History will show that 2023 was the year that AI stocks truly took off. Many investors are wondering if 2024 will be the same. Many pundits have called for a cooling period. Yet, just as many again assume this is the beginning of a super cycle.
AI stocks have started out the year strong, so it’s easy to argue that the bulls are correct: AI stocks — particularly big names — continue to offer unprecedented surge potential. Bears need to ask themselves a question: are there really legitimate reasons to believe that artificial intelligence will cool down in 2024?
Nvidia (NVDA)
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) was the most important stock of 2023. No other company managed to monetize the emergence of artificial intelligence like Nvidia did. That seemingly innocuous statement remains very relevant for 2024 and beyond.
Nvidia is a pick-and-shovel investment, serving the broad AI industry. Its chips, particularly the h100, dominate AI applications. Simply put, they are the best at AI tasks. In these still early days of artificial intelligence, investing in anything other than the best is too risky for firms. The result is that Nvidia continues to command incredible premiums for its h100 chips.
2024 is not going to be any different. Nvidia will ship its h200 chips this year, which are expected to be even more technologically capable than the h100s. Thus, it’s highly likely that they command incredible prices as well. There is no other firm that can do what Nvidia does, so investors should shun the notion that it is overpriced, despite its seemingly high P/E ratio.
AMD (AMD)
AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) is the chief rival of Nvidia. The company continues to prove that its stock is also highly valuable and that its chips also deserve consideration in relation to the future of AI.
The company’s shares have exploded over the last few months. That’s a nod from the market that it believes in the idea that AMD is indeed a legitimate challenger to Nvidia. Both Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta (NASDAQ:META) have stated that they would switch to AMD’s chips. That admission catalyzed the most recent surge in AMD share prices. Microsoft and Meta collectively purchased approximately 60% of all chips sold by Nvidia during the most recent quarter.
The company is also releasing updated AI chips in 2024. It’s clear that the biggest tech companies have grown tired of Nvidia’s pricing, offering an opening for AMD.
All of the positive sentiments around AMD of late has led analysts to suggest that its share prices could quadruple by 2027.
Snowflake (SNOW)
Investors need only understand market cyclicality in order to understand why Snowflake (NASDAQ:SNOW) stock looks so good right now. Cloud AI firms continue to be hot, but growth stocks are lukewarm at best.
That’s exactly what snowflake is: a cloud AI growth stock. It’s no secret that growth stocks have been hammered over the past few years. Fed funded rate hikes initiated in 2022 set that decline in motion. It is just beginning to subside. Market cyclicality is shifting back in favor of growth stocks on the promise of rate cuts beginning this year.
That shift favors Snowflake, as does the cloud AI narrative. Snowflake included an interesting visual representation of cloud AI growth since 2020 in its most recent earnings report. It’s a nascent sector which has essentially exploded in the last 3 years. Snowflakes growth metrics continue to be very impressive, but the company is hindered by continuing losses. Those losses will look much less negative as the Fed funds rate declines. Thus, Snowflake continues to offer unprecedented surge potential at the moment and is a high-return AI stock overall.
On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
