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Editor’s Note: Joe Austin has spent four decades working at the intersection of Wall Street and the physical economy — as a technology sector research analyst, a senior portfolio manager overseeing more than $10 billion in assets, and a coverage analyst for a $5 billion hedge fund. He knows how to spot a major shift before it becomes obvious.
For today’s Smart Money, Joe is here to share why he believes AI’s biggest profit opportunities aren’t in the names everyone already owns — and how a brand-new tool from 60-year Wall Street legend Marc Chaikin is designed to find the next generation of winners before Wall Street catches on.
That tool — the “AI-Powered Time Machine” — is being unveiled for the very first time on Wednesday, June 24. It’s Chaikin Analytics’ first-ever AI-powered product, and charter access is limited.
Click here to secure your spot for this free event.
Now, here’s Joe…
The search for oil and gas never stops. And it never looks the same.
On Alaska’s North Slope, rigs operate in some of the most punishing conditions on Earth. In winter, temperatures routinely drop well into the negatives. Around the winter solstice, daylight can last as little as two hours a day.
The enemy is the environment. Low light, brutal cold, and encroaching sea ice shut down operations for nearly half the year. When your drilling window is that short, every hour counts.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles south, drillships in the warm waters off Guyana operate over the Stabroek Block — a deepwater tract that ExxonMobil Corp.’s (XOM) CEO has called one of the biggest oil discoveries in nearly two decades. The water here can be more than 6,000 feet deep before you even reach the oil reservoir.
Everything costs a fortune, and nothing stops. The day rate for drillships runs between $400,000 and $500,000 per day.
Then there’s the U.S. shale patch.
In the Permian Basin and the Marcellus Shale, the challenge isn’t weather or day rates. It’s doing more with less. From late 2022 through late last year, the active rig count in the lower 48 states dropped by about one-third.
But over that same period, Permian production jumped 18%. Appalachia production increased 10%. And last July, the lower 48 states set a new monthly production record for crude oil.
Fewer rigs. More oil. That’s efficiency — and AI is driving it.
These are three environments with very different problems. But the solution is always the same: better technology. And right now, that means AI.
AI Is Reshaping Industrial Processes in Real Time
Across the oil and gas industry, AI is reshaping how wells get drilled.
The basic machinery has been around for decades: a derrick to support the drill string, a rotary system to spin the bit, a hoist to raise and lower equipment, and a circulation system to pump drilling fluid in and out of the hole. But what happens inside those systems has changed dramatically.
Sensors in the drill string now send live data up from the bottom of the hole while drilling is still underway. That gives engineers a real-time read on rock type, pressure, and well direction. Software tracks mud weight and chemistry in real time, catching pressure warning signs before fluids start flowing into the well uncontrolled.
Directional drilling lets crews bend the well path underground to reach targets thousands of feet away — making it possible to drill multiple wells from a single surface location. And as each section is drilled, it gets lined with steel casing and cemented in place. Evaluation tools verify the cement has set before the crew moves deeper.
For years, skilled operators and engineers managed all of this by reading data, making judgment calls, and adjusting on the fly. Now, AI is taking over that work. And the results are measurable.
Surface systems no longer just follow preset rules. They learn from live well data, make decisions, and adjust drilling parameters faster and more consistently than any human can. In one 2024 drilling program, an AI-driven system drilled nearly 50% faster than a manual crew.
Downhole, AI now interprets data from drilling tools in real time and adjusts the well path automatically — keeping the bit in the most productive zone without waiting for a geologist to weigh in. At a well in Ecuador, an AI system made 25 course corrections along a single well section, each in seconds. That well became one of the best producers in the country.
On the fluids side, machine-learning models can flag signs of a pressure imbalance 10 to 12 minutes earlier than conventional monitoring tools. And cement evaluation models that once required a specialist to manually read complex acoustic logs now run automatically, faster, and with better accuracy.
This is what physical AI looks like. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not a software upgrade. It’s machines making real-time decisions in conditions where a human mistake costs millions of dollars — or worse.
Where the Opportunity Is
Many of the companies driving this transformation fall under the energy equipment and services industry. These aren’t household names. They’re not the Nvidias or the Microsofts that get discussed on financial television every day.
But they’re doing something just as important: they’re making one of the world’s most capital-intensive industries dramatically more efficient. And the Power Gauge — Marc Chaikin’s 20-factor stock rating system — currently rates this corner of the market as “strong.”
Of the 58 stocks in the energy equipment and services industry that the Power Gauge tracks, 26 carry a “bullish” or better rating. Only one gets a “bearish” or worse.
I’ve spent 40 years on Wall Street. And I’ll tell you — when a less-obvious sector lights up like this, it’s worth paying attention.
The AI opportunity isn’t just in the big infrastructure names. It’s in the companies using AI to transform physical industries — oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, power generation. These are trillion-dollar industries that are just beginning to feel the full impact of what this technology can do.
A New Way to Find These Stocks
Here’s the challenge: Finding the right stocks in these less-covered corners of the market is hard. There’s no shortage of companies claiming AI capabilities. The question is which ones have the real financial and technical momentum behind them — and which ones are just along for the ride.
That’s a problem Marc has spent his entire career trying to solve. And on June 24, we’re unveiling the most powerful tool he’s ever built to do it.
It’s called the Time Machine. It’s Chaikin Analytics’ first-ever AI-powered platform — and it works by scanning decades of market history to find stocks today whose fundamental and technical fingerprints match the early profiles of stocks like Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), and Meta Platforms Inc. (META), just before they made their biggest moves.
In backtesting, it surfaced stocks that went on to deliver gains of 995%, 1,406%, and 3,804% — all while the “seed” stocks they were matched against posted far more modest returns.
This is the first time Marc and I have shown this to anyone outside of Chaikin Analytics. Charter membership spots are limited, and this offer won’t be repeated.
If you want to be among the first to access the Time Machine — and see which stocks it’s flagging as the next generation of potential 10X winners — the first step is to reserve your spot for our free event on June 24.
Folks who sign up now get early beta access to the Time Machine before June 24, so you can start exploring the platform right away. No purchase required. Get on the list for that free broadcast here.
The oil and gas AI story is just one example of what the Time Machine is designed to find. The opportunity is much bigger than any one sector.
Good investing,
Joe Austin
Senior Analyst, Chaikin Analytics
P.S. The Time Machine is Chaikin Analytics’ first-ever AI-powered product — and June 24 marks its public debut. Marc Chaikin has spent 60 years building tools that give individual investors an edge. This is the biggest thing he’s launched in years. Charter membership is limited, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Sign up now to lock in your spot.
