If 2024 was a breakout year for artificial intelligence—including major developments in autonomous vehicles, a broad expansion of generative AI applications across industries, and much more—2025 has the potential to be even bigger. In the first weeks of the year, President Trump announced the Stargate initiative in partnership with OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) to invest up to $500 billion in developing infrastructure related to AI. Demand for—and interest in—AI continues to surge.
Investors thus face a difficult choice. The AI space is burgeoning, and the list of key players is continuing to shift. Besides legacy tech giants that have a huge leg up in developing and unrolling AI platforms, much smaller up-and-coming firms are jostling for dominance in new corners of the market. It may be the case that these smaller firms have more upside potential than major tech operations like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), which already has a market capitalization quickly approaching $3.5 trillion.
