The problem comes down to the high costs of artificial intelligence. Over the past several weeks, companies from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) have reported rising spending on AI efforts with little growth to show for it. Computing performance has become exponentially more expensive to achieve – as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang correctly noted in a 2022 speech – and people simply aren’t willing to pay up. OpenAI has not raised retail prices for ChatGPT in more than a year, despite GPT-4 having roughly six times more parameters than its predecessor and costing at least 20 times more to train, according to experts.
Larger tech firms are feeling pressures to rein in spending.
It’s important to note that Nvidia is still the king of the AI hill. Joey Frenette notes in an InvestorPlace.com article this week that once the dust settles, Nvidia will be ready to go again. My own $1,600 target price for shares by 2027 remains intact.
But sagging momentum means weaker AI plays are now facing a reckoning. Studies have shown that markets have become more momentum-driven since the mid-1990s, and the effect has become significantly stronger over the past several years. We’re already seeing smaller AI firms like SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) and BigBear.ai (NYSE:BBAI) down 50% or more from this year’s highs.
Meanwhile, some surprising tech stocks are now on the mend. These “hidden” AI plays have distanced themselves from Nvidia, whether by operating in a separate industry or projecting a more conservative image. Writers at InvestorPlace.com have highlighted three AI stocks to buy — each from companies they believe will continue rising despite weakness in other AI plays.
Broadcom (AVGO)
The first company I want to tell you about this week is pretty much everything Nvidia is not… at least from a public relations standpoint. The 1999 spinoff of Hewlett-Packard has remained below the radar by sticking to its knitting. Broadcom’s CEO prefers to communicate through blog posts, which he has used for everything from communicating corporate strategy to putting out fires. And it also helps that most of its products, like RAID controllers and ethernet adapters, are not nearly as exciting to the regular investor as the graphic processing units (GPUs) that Nvidia creates.
Nevertheless, Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) has quietly assembled one of the best portfolios of computer hardware and software in the industry, which it has used to stay ahead of the AI revolution. The company is a leader in the high-performance switches and routers that increasingly large hyperscale data centers require. And its recent acquisition of VMware gives it new markets to cross-sell into.
Chris MacDonald highlights these facts and notes that investor fatigue with other megacap chip names appears to be boosting Broadcom’s appeal.
Currently well-positioned for more growth, AVGO stock is seeing strong growth courtesy of its AI and cloud computing exposure. The company’s strong R&D investments and recurring revenue from infrastructure software support a solid business model. Additionally, Broadcom’s recent VMware acquisition is expected to boost growth by integrating key AI tools. Broadcom’s strategy to lead in critical markets with high switching costs supports a positive long-term investment outlook.
Broadcom also has momentum on its side. Shares have fallen by less than half of what Nvidia has seen, and strong earnings from Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) are a net positive. Unlike Nvidia, Broadcom does not compete directly against AMD.
Perhaps best of all, Broadcom’s shares remain reasonably priced, trading at just 25 times trailing earnings. That gives shares upside potential from re-rating as well as from earnings growth.
CrowdStrike (CRWD)
Cybersecurity stocks have long marched to a different beat. Monthly returns of the broad-based Amplify Cybersecurity ETF (NYSEARCA:HACK) have a lower correlation with Nvidia (0.50 over the past five years) and semiconductors (0.62 vs. SOXX) than to indexes like the S&P 500 (0.73) and the Russell 3000 (0.75).
One particular cybersecurity company is now taking that truth to an entirely new level: CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD).
On July 19, thousands of users worldwide suddenly found themselves unable to log into their Windows PCs. Thousands of flights were canceled. Hospitals were forced to pause non-urgent visits. And dozens of TV stations found themselves unable to broadcast. Though security experts at CrowdStrike quickly identified and patched the problem, the damage was done. CrowdStrike’s shares have now fallen 40% since June, for reasons entirely unrelated to Nvidia’s recent selloff.
Legendary investor Louis Navellier now sees this as a phenomenal opportunity to buy one of the world’s highest-quality cybersecurity companies. In a recent update in his free InvestorPlace.com e-letter, he outlines why CrowdStrike is now a great buy:
Clearly, shares of CrowdStrike got hit harder than Amazon did during its outages. But AWS is notorious for crashes and outages while CrowdStrike is not…
I should also mention that CrowdStrike has a strong earnings surprise history, as it topped analysts’ earnings estimates in the past four quarters. Earnings estimates have been upped slightly over the past three months, so another earnings surprise could be in the cards…
It should also continue to benefit from the AI Revolution. Artificial intelligence relies on acquiring massive amounts of training data, which benefits large firms like CrowdStrike. These incumbents can “see” more threats thanks to their customer base, and so it creates a virtuous cycle. Larger companies create more powerful AI systems, which attracts more new users, and so on. It’s also important to note that one solution can get rolled out to every customer.
Essentially, tech firms routinely face outages. Amazon’s cloud computing unit has gone down multiple times over the past several years, affecting hundreds… if not thousands… of customers worldwide. Cybersecurity firms like Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) are also repeat offenders.
Markets have simply grown accustomed to these temporary failures and allow incidents to pass without much of a selloff.
That will eventually become the case for CrowdStrike, which is likely worth closer to $300 per share (it’s now trading around $222). The company will offer short-term discounts to customers and see its insurance rates go up. And a year from now, the financial impact of the July 19 incident will have largely passed. The stock is a “Buy” in Louis’s book.
Please note that CrowdStrike will likely take several quarters to fully recover; much of the financial impact from lower customer growth and discounts have not yet been reflected in analyst estimates, making downward revisions likely. So, as well this week, Chris MacDonald chooses 3 cybersecurity stocks that could be much better picks, especially for those investing with a shorter horizon.
ServiceNow (NOW)
Finally, longtime Sunday Digest readers will be familiar with ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW), a company that turned from an IT systems recording firm into an AI leader that simplifies and automates entire enterprise workflows. The company’s Now Platform serves as a single location where different corporate departments can build, monitor and optimize no-code automation. Bolt-on acquisitions have since added additional features.
It’s an incredible product. Roughly 85% of the Fortune 500 use ServiceNow, and Gartner ranks the platform as a leader in enterprise low-code application platforms. Whereas Nvidia’s chips might be a cost sink to their customers, ServiceNow’s platform is designed to save its customers money.
That’s why ServiceNow’s shares have risen in the past month, rather than fall in lockstep with other AI companies. Investors are beginning to consider the costs of AI development, and ServiceNow provides a part of the solution.
A recent earnings report highlights this fact. As Joey Frenette recently writes at InvestorPlace.com, ServiceNow is becoming a strong pick for those seeking AI upside beyond the usual plays like Nvidia:
ServiceNow didn’t just beat expectations, it knocked one out of the ballpark, sending NOW stock higher by double digits. With ServiceNow at new highs, there’s a brighter spotlight shined on AI. The company’s AI platform could easily gain further momentum going into year’s end as firms look to harness the power of their business data.
With the recent acquisition of German AI search firm Raytion, ServiceNow looks like one of the top enterprise software stocks to watch if you’re looking for the AI boom to lift the relatively affordable software names.
Frenette also identifies Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) and Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) as strong alternatives. Costs of AI are rising, and companies that help contain them are succeeding.
On the date of publication, Thomas Yeung owned shares of Alphabet (GOOGL). He did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in any other securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
On the date of publication, the responsible editor did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
Thomas Yeung is a market analyst and portfolio manager of the Omnia Portfolio, the highest-tier subscription at InvestorPlace. He is the former editor of Tom Yeung’s Profit & Protection, a free e-letter about investing to profit in good times and protecting gains during the bad.