The Top AI Stocks – Based on AI and Alternative Data

January 24, 6:44 am

As we move into early 2026, AI is pushing the world forward at a pace investors haven’t seen in decades. What started as a race to build better models is now turning into a race to deploy AI everywhere - inside products, workflows, and entire industries. That shift raises a high-stakes investing question: which public companies could see explosive upside as AI demand surges?

To answer it, we started by researching the companies AI will depend on as adoption scales. More AI usage requires more chips, more cloud capacity, faster networking, more data center buildouts, and more reliable power. We focused on these “can’t-scale-without-them” layers first, then used alternative data to identify the companies actively expanding to meet demand. By tracking signals that often lead fundamentals - job postings, headcount growth, employee sentiment, etc - we can spot where AI tailwinds are already turning into real-world growth plans. The result is a curated list of the most promising AI stocks to watch.

1. The Power & Cooling Infrastructure

As AI adoption accelerates, data centers are scaling faster than the supporting infrastructure can keep up. The limiting factors aren’t just chips and software - they’re electricity, uptime, and thermal management. Companies that can supply reliable power and enable high-density cooling are positioned to benefit as AI workloads expand across the economy.

Constellation Energy (CEG): The nation’s largest producer of emissions-free energy, with a major footprint in nuclear generation. AI data centers need massive amounts of always-on electricity, and nuclear power is one of the few sources that can provide steady 24/7 output at scale. That puts Constellation in the path of rising AI-driven power demand as operators expand capacity and lock in long-term supply. Alternative data strengthens the case: 80% of employees report a bullish business outlook - an all-time high - suggesting internal confidence as demand rises.

Vertiv (VRT): As AI computing scales, heat and power delivery become core engineering problems for data centers. Vertiv supplies the infrastructure that keeps facilities running - power distribution, cooling systems, and thermal management - making it a direct beneficiary of AI-driven buildouts. Our alternative data shows a 31% increase in job postings over the last year, with hiring concentrated in liquid cooling and thermal management roles, indicating the company is staffing up to meet rising demand.

Vertiv Job Postings

2. The Compute & Foundry Leaders

When AI demand accelerates, the first pressure point is compute. More models, more usage, and more deployment all translate into the same requirement: significantly more AI chips, more manufacturing capacity, and more places to run that hardware. This section highlights the companies best positioned to capture that surge.

NVIDIA (NVDA): You can’t spell Nvidia without AI. NVIDIA already dominates the AI chip ecosystem, and its newest architectures like Blackwell are built to keep raising performance as AI workloads scale. The stock has already delivered a historic run - up well over 1,000% over the last three years - which underscores how central NVIDIA has been to the AI buildout so far. Continued growth is driven by AI moving beyond training into always-on inference across products and workflows, which keeps overall compute demand climbing and pushes customers to upgrade.

TSMC (TSM): The manufacturing backbone behind the world’s most advanced AI chips. Many of the highest-performance designs ultimately rely on TSMC’s leading-edge process technology and production scale. That makes TSMC a direct beneficiary of AI demand even when the spotlight is on the chip designers, because capacity and yield at the cutting edge determine how fast the industry can ship more accelerators.

Nebius Group (NBIS): A fast-growing “neo-cloud” provider focused on delivering AI compute capacity. As demand for GPUs expands, access becomes a competitive advantage - especially for customers who can’t wait for procurement cycles at the largest hyperscalers. Alternative data supports the growth narrative: LinkedIn-based estimates show headcount up 58% over the last year, signaling an aggressive buildout to meet rising demand for immediate GPU availability.

3. The Connectivity & Scaling Layer

As AI workloads grow, performance increasingly depends on how quickly data can move - within a data center, between racks, and across regions. The companies in this layer enable that scale by improving bandwidth, reducing latency, and making large clusters run like a single system.

Marvell Technology (MRVL): A key player in silicon photonics and optical connectivity, which is becoming more important as AI clusters demand faster data transfer with lower power use. Alternative data supports the positioning: job postings for optical interconnect and related architecture roles point to continued investment in the shift from copper-based connections to light-based networking.

Arista Networks (ANET): A leader in high-speed Ethernet switching for modern data centers. As AI clusters expand, Arista’s networking gear helps connect large fleets of GPUs efficiently and reliably, making it a direct beneficiary of the buildout required to run AI at scale.

Amazon (AMZN): AWS provides the massive scaling infrastructure enterprises use to deploy AI globally. With demand rising across every industry, Amazon benefits as more AI workloads shift from experiments to always-on production, and its custom silicon like Trainium 2 helps it add capacity faster and serve that demand at scale.

Top AI Stocks to Watch

The table below brings our top picks into one view, showing each stock’s 12-month performance alongside its AltIndex AI Score - a single, aggregated metric that combines a wide range of alternative data growth signals.

Company		Price	AI Score
	Nebius NBIS	$94.50 144.6%	82
	Marvell Technology MRVL	$80.23 36.1%	80
	Vertiv VRT	$182.49 19.1%	79
	NVIDIA NVDA	$187.67 27.5%	68
	Arista Networks ANET	$136.34 5.6%	63
	Constellation Energy CEG	$289.62 16.5%	62
	Amazon AMZN	$238.99 1.7%	60
	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing TSM	$333.94 48.8%	54

How to read the AI Score: AltIndex AI Scores range from 0 to 100 and reflect an aggregated view of alternative data momentum plus a company’s financial health. A higher score suggests stronger growth signals and a healthier overall profile versus peers, based on indicators such as hiring activity, employee sentiment, web traffic growth, and other non-traditional data.

Conclusion

AI is moving fast, and the buildout is spreading across the full stack - compute, manufacturing, cloud capacity, networking, data centers, and power. The companies in our top AI stocks list sit close to where demand is rising fastest, and the combination of industry momentum and alternative data expansion signals suggests these stocks are positioned to benefit as AI adoption deepens.

There are still meaningful risks to watch. Supply constraints in chips, data center capacity, and electricity can delay deployments. Valuations can outrun fundamentals and create sharp pullbacks. Policy and regulation may reshape the competitive landscape through export controls and compliance requirements. Enterprise adoption can also move in waves as security, cost, and governance considerations evolve.

That said, we’ll be tracking these names closely and sharing updates. Internally, we’ve built a $10,000 portfolio across the stocks in this watchlist, and we’ll follow up with the results as this AI wave accelerates.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. You should do your own research and consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.

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