The next big thing in artificial intelligence (AI) is here, and it has the potential to be the next megatrend that can power the market higher over the next few years. That, of course, is agentic AI, where AI moves beyond creating content to independently executing tasks. The best thing about this trend, though, is that Wall Street hasn’t yet fully caught on to its potential.
There are several ways to play this agentic AI megatrend, and with $5,000 in available funds, you can create a nice agentic AI portfolio with the five stocks featured below.
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With the rise of agentic AI, the architecture of data centers will have to be reconfigured. AI data centers today are all about providing the raw power to train large language models (LLMs) and run AI inference. This is largely done through graphics processing units (GPUs) and, in some cases, AI ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) specifically developed for these tasks. However, these compute-heavy chips are not ideal for handling the requirements of AI agents.
Instead, this work will fall to high-performance central processing units (CPUs), which act more like the brain of a computer. These chips will help AI agents stop and think before acting, and let them better interact with other software. And with the rise of AI agents, the ratio of GPUs to CPUs is set to close materially.
The two companies that look poised to best benefit from this opportunity are Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) and Arm Holdings (NASDAQ: ARM). AMD is the market leader in data center CPUs, and it is aggressively going after this opportunity. With its new Venice architecture, it’s moving to a chiplet design with high core counts designed specifically for agentic AI. Note that the number of cores controls how many tasks a CPU can handle simultaneously.
Arm, meanwhile, recently announced the bold move of designing its own data center CPUs. The company has traditionally been a provider of intellectual property (IP) to the semiconductor industry, but it views this opportunity as being so large that it has decided to make actual chips. It was recently projected that the data center CPU market will grow to $100 billion in the next five years and that it thinks it can capture a 15% market share.
A lot of companies are going after creating AI agents, but the one that really stands out is Salesforce (NYSE: CRM).
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The company’s bread-and-butter has been breaking down data silos between departments. However, it recently upped its game with the introduction of Data 360, which uses a technology called zero copy that can grab data from outside sources like data warehouses and cloud providers without the slow and costly process of transferring it. It then bought Informatica to help it help clean up, govern, and structure all this data.
AI agents need access to clean, consistent, structured data to avoid costly mistakes, and Salesforce has set itself up to be a master of records from which to launch AI agents. The market has very much dismissed this transition, making it a great way to play the upcoming agentic AI boom.
The third big way to play the agentic AI boom is through AI orchestration. With so many vendors chasing agentic AI, organizations will have a system in place to manage and govern all these outside AI agents. Two companies at the forefront of this are ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) and UiPath (NYSE: PATH).
ServiceNow’s IT management platform essentially acts as the internal plumbing of its customers, helping them orchestrate their various software solutions. It is now extending that expertise to AI agents with its AI Control Tower solution. Given its deep integration into its customers’ entire technical infrastructures, it is well-positioned to lead in this area.
Another company with a great opportunity in this space is UiPath with its Maestro platform. The company is already a leader in robotic process automation (RPA), and it is taking that governance and guardrail foundation and applying it to AI agents. What differentiates UiPath is that Maestro can manage and assign the most appropriate tasks to AI agents or cheaper software bots, saving its customers money.
Agentic AI is set to be the next big trend, and there is the potential for multiple winners to emerge. Investing $5,000 into these five stocks (combined or separately) could be a great way to play the various aspects of this emerging technology.
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Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Advanced Micro Devices, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and UiPath. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and UiPath. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Got $5,000? 5 Agentic AI Growth Stocks to Buy Before Wall Street Catches On. was originally published by The Motley Fool
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