Artificial intelligence (AI) has the power to revolutionize our lives -- at least if big tech is to be believed. Plenty of products already hit the market, like ChatGPT, and while they have made a splash, the technology's true impact has yet to be felt. That promise of more to come is driving incredible growth for companies involved in AI.
Top fund managers are snapping up shares of these businesses as they try to capture as much value from the technology's explosive growth as possible. Funds with more than $100 million in assets under management need to report their trades every quarter to the Securities and Exchange Commission on form 13F. Lucky for us, it's public knowledge.
Knowing where the "smart money" is flowing can help you make sound decisions, but it should only be part of your information gathering. It turns out that the smart money isn't always so smart -- and besides, there are plenty of managers selling shares of all of the following five stocks.
1. Nvidia
To perhaps no one's surprise, the company with the most hedge-fund buys was Nvidia (NVDA -0.46%). It captured the investing world's imagination after positioning itself as the go-to chipmaker for all things AI.
Its revenue growth has been incredible, and it's done it all while keeping costs relatively low. The chart below measuring the growth of its net income over the past three years shows the point where AI took off.
NVDA net income (quarterly) data by YCharts.
Fund managers bought $15.9 billion worth of shares last quarter. The biggest purchases were $6.2 billion from Vanguard and $1.8 billion by BlackRock.
2. Amazon
One of my favorite AI plays, Amazon (AMZN -1.65%), runs the largest cloud computing operation in the world, Amazon Web Service (AWS), controlling over 30% of the cloud market and is investing heavily to maintain this share. It partners with Nvidia to outfit its data centers with the latest and most powerful chips, and it put $4 billion into OpenAI competitor Anthropic.
Fund managers bought $14.4 billion worth of shares last quarter. The biggest purchases were $2.5 billion (Vanguard) and $1.9 billion (BlackRock).
3. Microsoft
Another solid AI play, Microsoft (MSFT 0.09%), backs OpenAI, the maker of the most popular AI application, ChatGPT. When OpenAI released ChatGPT-3 to the public, it became the most quickly adopted technology in history. For much of the public, ChatGPT is as far as their knowledge of AI goes, unaware of Anthropic's offering or Alphabet's.
Microsoft is No. 2 in the cloud and has been slowly eating into AWS' market share. Its partnership with OpenAI means Microsoft has the most-used AI application in the world on its servers. And Microsoft is also outfitting them with Nvidia chips.
Fund managers bought $13.1 billion worth of shares last quarter. The biggest purchases were $2.8 billion (BlackRock) and $1.3 billion from Geode Capital Management.
4. Apple
This one is different from the previous three. Apple (AAPL -0.13%) shares slid for much of last year as investors worried it had fallen behind in AI.
But the company finally jumped on board this month, unveiling Apple Intelligence, its cleverly named AI offering. Its products will have all sorts of AI enhancements (maybe now Siri will actually know what I ask her to do).
Crucially, the enhancements will require too much computing power for many older products in Apple's lineup, forcing users to upgrade to the latest (and most expensive) models. This will help boost the company's sagging iPhone sales, an essential part of its bottom line.
Fund managers bought $11.8 billion worth of shares last quarter. The biggest purchases were $1.3 billion (Geode Capital) and $983.9 million by Lazard.
5. Broadcom
Like Nvidia, Broadcom (AVGO 0.52%) supplies hardware to the AI industry. They don't compete head to head, leaving Nvidia to dominate the core chip market. But one of the most crucial components in AI data centers is the one that allows all of those chips to talk to one another fast enough and seamlessly, which is where Broadcom comes in. Broadcom is a top designer, manufacturer, and supplier of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Its product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wireless, storage, and industrial markets.
The company also made some key acquisitions that have driven immense growth, as the revenue chart below shows. (It also indicates an inflection point close to the one in Nvidia's chart above.)
AVGO revenue (quarterly) data by YCharts.
Fund managers bought $11.8 billion worth of shares last quarter. The biggest purchases were $1.6 billion (Vanguard) and $1.5 billion from Jennison Associates.
