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What Are the 2 Top Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy Right Now?

Published

3 weeks ago

August 15, 2025

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Key Points

Spending on AI hardware and devices is on pace to jump impressively in 2025, which explains why Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is growing sales at a healthy pace.
An acceleration in AI software and services spending has led to an improvement in the growth rate of cloud communications specialist Twilio.

A lot of money is being spent on artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and software now as organizations and governments across the globe look to benefit from the efficiency and productivity gains that this technology can deliver.

Market research firm Gartner expects spending on generative AI will jump by 76% in 2025 to a whopping $644 billion. That’s why it is a good time to take a closer look at two names that are benefiting from the rapid growth in AI spending in different areas. These companies are already delivering healthy growth and are trading at attractive valuations, so buying them right now could be a smart move.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

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1. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(NYSE: TSM) is right in the middle of the AI revolution as it fabricates the high-end chips that go into devices ranging from data centers to smartphones to personal computers to cars. It’s the largest third-party chip foundry in the world by far. Gartner points out that 80% of generative AI spending this year will be on hardware products, including both devices and servers.

TSMC is already benefiting from this opportunity. The foundry giant’s revenue in the first seven months of 2025 increased by 38% year over year. That impressive growth can be attributed to robust chip demand from top customers such as Nvidia, Apple, AMD, and Broadcom.

The strong end-market demand led TSMC to increase its 2025 revenue growth guidance to 30% from its earlier expectation of growth in the mid-20% range. However, don’t be surprised to see the Taiwan-based company exceeding even that upgraded target thanks to its AI-related catalysts.

For instance, Counterpoint Research is expecting a 68% spike in sales of generative AI-capable smartphones in 2025. Apple, which is one of TSMC’s largest customers, reported a 13.5% jump in its iPhone revenue in its most recently reported fiscal quarter. Importantly, Apple is expecting sales growth in the mid to high single-digit percentages in the current quarter, suggesting that it could witness another period of robust iPhone sales ahead of the holiday season.

Moreover, TSMC’s relationship with smartphone processor giant Qualcomm should pave the way for the company to grow its footprint in the smartphone market. On the other hand, TSMC’s relationships with the leading AI chip designers and its focus on expanding its manufacturing capacity to serve this fast-growing market will set the stage for further healthy sales growth.

The diversity of its customer base helps explain why the foundry’s revenue is anticipated to increase at healthy double-digit percentages over the next couple of years as well.

TSM Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts.

However, TSMC could end up doing better than that over the long run thanks to its improving share of the Foundry 2.0 market, which is expected to generate $298 billion in revenue this year. IDC expects Foundry 2.0 to grow at an annualized rate of 10% through 2029, and TSMC has been able to expand its market share in the space thanks to its focus on advanced chip packaging.

As such, TSMC seems capable of outperforming expectations in the long run, and that’s why buying the stock while it is trading at an attractive 24 times forward earnings (a discount to the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 index’s multiple of 30) looks like the right thing to do.

2. Twilio

Spending on generative AI services and software is also taking off as organizations and people adopt more applications to automate processes and increase productivity. According to estimates from Gartner, in 2025, total spending on AI services and software could jump by 119% to almost $65 billion. Twilio(NYSE: TWLO), a cloud communications specialist, is witnessing a healthy acceleration in growth thanks to the adoption of AI tools in its industry.

Twilio’s application programming interfaces (APIs) enable its clients to stay in touch with their customers through multiple channels such as text, voice, email, chat, and video. The company offers AI tools that allow its clients to build voice AI solutions such as AI agents to elevate the customer service experience, along with AI-powered marketing tools to improve conversion.

The company’s AI tools are helping it close bigger deals with customers. Twilio says that it saw a 57% year-over-year increase in the number of communications deals valued at $500,000 or more in the second quarter of 2025. The company’s active customer accounts increased by 10% from the year-ago period, compared to a 4% increase in the same period last year.

Spending by Twilio’s established customers improved as well. This is evident from an increase of 5 percentage points in its dollar-based net expansion rate to 108%. (That metric compares the spending of active customers in a quarter to the same cohort’s spending in the year-ago period.) Not surprisingly, Twilio has increased its organic revenue growth estimate for 2025 by 1.5 percentage points.

It could, however, end up doing better than that thanks to its accelerating customer base growth as well as the cross-selling opportunities that its AI solutions are creating. Analysts covering the company are encouraged by its improving growth profile, and have raised their expectations for it.

TWLO Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts.

Finally, this cloud stock is trading at just 3 times sales, a slight discount to the S&P 500‘s sales multiple. Investors, therefore, can get a good deal on an AI stock that seems capable of flying higher in the long run.

Should you invest $1,000 in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing right now?

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Harsh Chauhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Twilio. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and Gartner. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Artificial intelligence, rising tuition discussed by educational leaders at UMD

Published

53 minutes ago

September 6, 2025

Ella Schoeberl

DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) – A panel gathered at UMD’s Weber Music Hall Friday to discuss the future of higher education.

The conversation touched on heavy topics like artificial intelligence, rising tuition costs, and how to provide the best education possible for students.

Almost 100 people listened to conversations on the current climate of college campuses, including UMD Associate Dean of the Swenson College of Engineering and Science Erin Sheets.

“We’re in a unique and challenging time, with respect to the federal landscape and state landscape,” said Sheets.

The three panelists addressed current national changes, including rising tuition costs and budget cuts.

“That is going to be a structural shift we really are going to have to pay attention to, if we want to continue to commit for all students to have the opportunity to attend college,” said panelist and Managing Director of Waverly Foundation Lande Ajose.

Last year alone, the University of Minnesota system was hit with a 3% budget cut on top of a loss of $22 million in federal grants. This resulted in a 6.5% tuition increase for students.

Even with changing resources, the panel emphasized helping students prepare for the future, which they said includes the integration of AI.

“As students graduate, if they are not AI fluent, they are not competitive for jobs,” said panelist and University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham.

Research shows that the use of AI in the workplace has doubled in the last two years to 40%.

While AI continues to grow every day, both students and faculty are learning to use it and integrate it into their curriculum.

“These are tools, they are not a substitute for a human being. You still need the critical thinking, you need the ethical guidelines, even more so,” said Sheets.

Following the panel, UMD hosted a campus-wide celebration to mark the inauguration of Chancellor Charles Nies.

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AARP warns of “Grandparent Scams”

Published

3 hours ago

September 6, 2025

Emma Ellis

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – While artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming our world, a troubling trend shows scammers using it to steal from seniors, specifically grandparents.

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘seeing is believing’ your whole life. But in an age of artificial intelligence, the turn of phrase doesn’t exactly stand the test of time. When it’s in the wrong hands, this new technology can make our senior citizens, who didn’t grow up in the digital age, a vulnerable population.

“One of the ways we see that being done is with what’s known as the grandparent scam,” Jamie Harding, AARP of Alabama Communications director, said. “The grandparent scam is basically, it usually happens late at night, they’re asleep, and someone calls them purporting to be their grandchild, they’re in trouble, they need money immediately.”

However, it isn’t actually their grandchild on the other end of the phone. Scammers have used AI technology to replicate the sound of their grandchild’s voice to try to take money.

“These are very sophisticated international crime rings, and they have access to a lot of very sophisticated technology,” Harding said.

To protect your family from these scams, Harding suggests having a code word that every member of your family knows so you can be sure it’s actually your loved one calling.

She also advises you not to answer phone calls from unknown numbers and to keep your personal information off the internet.

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Inside Austin’s Gauntlet AI, the Elite Bootcamp Forging “AI First” Builders

Published

4 hours ago

September 6, 2025

Walt Maciborski

AUSTIN, Texas — In the brave new world of artificial intelligence, talent is the new gold, and companies are in a frantic race to find it. While universities work to churn out computer science graduates, a new kind of school has emerged in Austin to meet the insatiable demand: Gauntlet AI.

Gauntlet AI bills itself as an elite training program. It’s a high-stakes, high-reward process designed to forge “AI-first” engineers and builders in a matter of weeks.

“We’re closer to Navy SEAL bootcamp training than a school,” said Ash Tilawat, Head of Product and Learning. “We take the smartest people in the world. We bring them into the same place for a 1000 hours over ten weeks and we make them go all in with building with AI.”

Austen Allred, the co-founder and CEO of Gauntlet AI, says when they claim to be looking for the smartest engineers in the world, it’s no exaggeration. The selection process is intensely rigorous.

“We accept around 2 percent of the applicants,” Allred explained. “We accept 98th percentile and above of raw intelligence, 95th percentile of coding ability, and then you start on The Gauntlet.”

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The price of admission isn’t paid in dollars—there are no tuition fees. Instead, the cost is a student’s absolute, undivided attention.

“It is pretty grueling, but it’s invigorating and I love doing this,” said Nataly Smith, one of the “Gauntlet Challengers.”

Smith, whose passions lie in biotech and space, recently channeled her love for bioscience to complete one of the program’s challenges. Her team was tasked with building a project called “Geno.”

“It’s a tool where a person can upload their genomic data and get a statistical analysis of how likely they are to have different kinds of cancers,” Smith described.

Incredibly, her team built the AI-powered tool in just one week.

The ultimate prize waiting at the end of the grueling 10-week gauntlet is a guaranteed job offer with a starting salary of at least $200,000 a year. And hiring partners are already lining up to recruit challengers like Nataly.

“We very intentionally chose to partner with everything from seed-stage startups all the way to publicly traded companies,” said Brett Johnson, Gauntlet’s COO. “So Carvana is a hiring partner. Here in Austin, we have folks like Function Health. We have the Trilogy organization; we have Capital Factory just around the corner. We’re big into the Austin tech community and looking to double down on that.”

In a world desperate for skilled engineers, Gauntlet AI isn’t just training people; it’s manufacturing the very talent pipeline it believes will power the next wave of technological innovation.

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