10 Top AI Stocks to Buy Now

Key Points

• AI stocks span from speculative microcaps to established megacaps across the $286 billion AI data center chip market opportunity.

• Lesser-known plays like Serve Robotics and Oklo offer high-risk, high-reward exposure to AI's next frontiers.

• Infrastructure providers CoreWeave and Snowflake are building the critical backbone for enterprise AI adoption.

• 10 stocks we like better than Serve Robotics ›

Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks continue dominating market headlines as companies race to capitalize on the $286 billion AI data center chip market projected by 2030. While megacaps like Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) grab attention, savvy investors are hunting for the next wave of AI winners across robotics, cloud infrastructure, and the critical supply chain powering this revolution.

From autonomous delivery robots navigating city sidewalks to nuclear reactors powering tomorrow's data centers, here are 10 AI stocks positioned to ride the next wave of technological disruption -- ranging from speculative bets to established giants.

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1. The last-mile AI revolution

Serve Robotics (NASDAQ: SERV) develops AI-powered sidewalk delivery robots designed for the last mile. The company is rolling out fleets through partnerships with businesses such as Uber Eats and is targeting thousands of units on city streets by the end of 2025. Still early stage and unprofitable, Serve offers investors highly speculative exposure to autonomous robotics as labor costs rise and demand for automated delivery grows.

2. Powering the AI energy crisis

Oklo Inc. (NYSE: OKLO) is developing compact, fast nuclear microreactors--known as Aurora--to deliver clean, round-the-clock power to AI data centers and remote or high-demand facilities. In March, Oklo boosted the Aurora capacity to 75 MW to better align with large-scale AI energy needs. In July, it partnered with Vertiv to co-design integrated power and cooling solutions for future deployments. Commercial operation is targeted for late 2027 to early 2028, though widespread scale-up remains a few years away.

3. The photonic computing wildcard

Poet Technologies (NASDAQ: POET) develops photonic chips that could dramatically reduce AI processing power requirements. This is an early-stage investment with high technological risk. Optical computing promises to solve AI bottlenecks, but commercialization remains unproven.

4. The custom chip kingmaker

Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) is emerging as the custom chip kingmaker, supplying application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) designed to handle AI workloads more efficiently than general purpose graphics processing units (GPUs). In its fiscal third-quarter 2025 results, Broadcom reported AI revenue up 63% year over year to $5.2 billion, alongside a $10 billion custom chip order widely believed to come from OpenAI. As hyperscalers seek alternatives to Nvidia, Broadcom's tailored silicon is becoming a preferred option for scaling AI infrastructure.

5. The efficiency enabler

Navitas Semiconductor (NASDAQ: NVTS) makes gallium nitride chips delivering three-times better power efficiency for data centers -- critical as AI facilities approach city-sized energy consumption. With each new cluster consuming megawatts, Navitas's power management solutions are essential for sustainable AI scaling.

6. The GPU cloud disruptor

CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) is a specialized cloud provider built for GPU-intensive AI workloads. In March 2025, it struck a five-year agreement worth up to $11.9 billion to supply infrastructure to OpenAI, followed by a $4 billion expansion announced in May. Alongside its acquisition of Weights & Biases, these moves cement CoreWeave's role as a lower-cost alternative to the hyperscalers for companies scaling AI.

7. The data backbone

Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW) is positioning itself as the AI Data Cloud, helping enterprises unlock siloed data for training and inference. Its Arctic LLM and Cortex AI tools strengthen its role in enterprise AI, but the challenge will be proving it can turn rapid product rollouts into durable revenue growth.

8. The enterprise AI accelerator

Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) is gaining traction with its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), which helps enterprises deploy AI through hands-on boot camps that drive rapid adoption. U.S. commercial revenue grew by a staggering 93% year over year in the most recent quarter, showing momentum beyond government contracts, though the stock trades at a premium valuation that already reflects high expectations.

9. The chip manufacturing monopoly

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) is the world's dominant chip foundry, producing nearly every cutting-edge AI processor from Nvidia, AMD, and Apple. Its 3-nanometer (NM) process gives it about a two-year lead over rivals, ensuring pricing power as AI demand soars, though geopolitical risk around Taiwan remains an overhang.

10. The ultimate bottleneck

ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML) owns the only extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines capable of manufacturing cutting-edge AI chips. With each machine costing $380 million and multiyear wait times, ASML controls the AI industry's most critical chokepoint.

Size your positions accordingly

This list spans from speculative microcaps to blue chip giants. Investors should size positions according to risk tolerance and growth goals. Established players like TSM and ASML provide stability, while names such as Serve and Poet offer lottery-ticket upside.

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George Budwell has positions in Apple, Navitas Semiconductor, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, Serve Robotics, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends ASML, Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, Serve Robotics, Snowflake, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.