Should You Forget SoundHound and Buy 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Instead?

Source The Motley Fool

Key Points

  • Nvidia's GPUs are driving the growth of artificial intelligence (AI).

  • Alphabet is utilizing AI to improve advertising and solidify its dominance in search.

  • 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia ›

SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) entered 2025 riding a ton of momentum. The company's voice artificial intelligence platform allows its customers to build custom conversational AI assistants, which are used by restaurants, automakers, and more.

The stock jumped a whopping 835% in 2024, but this year has been a different story. Shares are down 43% so far in 2025, including a steep drop of 38% in the last month alone.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Amid fears of an AI bubble, investors have every reason to be concerned about SoundHound stock right now. But are there any AI stocks that offer investors some protection should the bubble pop? Here are two suggestions.

A hand holding a needle next to an AI balloon.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Nvidia

Personally, I think that Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is immune to the AI bubble. In fact, CEO Jensen Huang says that the company is in what he calls a "virtuous cycle of AI," with more start-ups and industries embracing the technology.

What makes Nvidia immune to the bubble is that none of this can happen without Nvidia's powerful graphics processing units (GPUs), which provide the computing power to train and run the most sophisticated AI programs. Nvidia has a market share of as much as 90% for data center chips, and its revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 totaled $57 billion, including an impressive $51.2 billion from data center chips alone. By way of comparison, Nvidia's biggest competitor, Advanced Micro Devices, had only $4.3 billion in data center revenue in its most recent quarter.

Significantly, AMD is growing much slower than Nvidia -- its data center revenue was up 22% from a year ago, while Nvidia's data center revenue jumped by 66%.

Nvidia also issued guidance for $65 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, which would be 65% better than it did a year ago.

2. Alphabet

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) may not be the first name you think about when you consider AI stocks, but the company has made massive strides in both incorporating AI into its products and by investing in AI infrastructure to lock in future growth.

Alphabet is synonymous with internet services -- its Chrome browser has 73% of global market share, and its Google search engine is even better with a 90% market share.

Combined with its popular YouTube platform, Alphabet's internet dominance fuels a powerful advertising business. Advertising revenue in the third quarter was $74.18 billion, up 12.6% from a year ago and making up more than 70% of Alphabet's $102.3 billion in quarterly revenue. The company's AI-powered tools play a role in that, helping customers generate ad copy, target, and personalize campaigns.

Alphabet has successfully utilized AI to fend off challenges from chatbots like ChatGPT in its internet search market share. The company introduced AI Overviews, which appear at the top of Google search queries, and its Google AI mode, powered by the Gemini chatbot, can provide conversational responses to prompts.

Then there's Google Cloud to consider -- as the third-largest cloud provider in the world, Google Cloud is increasingly an important part of the business, as many companies prefer to use a cloud environment for AI applications over investing in Nvidia's pricey GPUs. Google Cloud revenue in the third quarter rose 33.5% from a year ago to reach $15.15 billion.

That's a relatively small number for Google, but if the growth continues, Google Cloud will become a significant part of Alphabet's growth story.

The case for Nvidia and Alphabet today

Both stocks, members of the "Magnificent Seven" are having strong years. Nvidia is up 30% in 2025, while Alphabet is doing even better, up 58% on the year. And while any company is bound to face downturns, I think Nvidia and Alphabet are less likely to face long-term disruptions -- even if the AI bubble pops -- because of their dominant positions.

Nvidia's GPUs are unmatched in the space, and advancements in generative AI, the growing adoption of GPU accelerators, and the emergence of agentic AI will all feed demand for Nvidia's architecture.

Meanwhile, Alphabet is utilizing AI to enhance advertising and solidify its dominance in search. The continued growth of Google Cloud is expected to generate billions of dollars in business for years to come.

Both are AI stocks that investors can count on long term.

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Patrick Sanders has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Disclaimer: For information purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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