Category: Artificial Intelligence

Cathie Wood is known for two things: making daring investment moves that go against the crowd and doing this with a focus on the long term. This means Wood might sell a spectacularly popular stock that’s soaring and buy shares of a stock that’s dropped in recent times. The chief executive officer of ARK Invest does this to get in on innovators — her favorite type of company — at a reasonable price. She doesn’t mind if the stock struggles in the near term because she aims to stick with the companies in her portfolio throughout their growth stories.

Just this week, Wood has done exactly this, and the move concerns three artificial intelligence (AI) stocks. AI stocks are right up Wood’s alley as the technology promises to revolutionize the way the world works — and that could represent billions of dollars in revenue for companies that lead the way. This week, Wood cut her holding of one of her favorite stocks — one that’s soared 1,000% over three years — and added to her positions in two other AI giants. Let’s take a closer look at her moves.

Selling shares of a favorite

So, let’s start with the stock Wood sold. This week, during more than one trading session, Wood sold shares of Palantir Technologies (PLTR -1.49%), a maker of AI-driven software systems. This stock, as of May 9, was the sixth-biggest holding, with a 6% weighting, in her flagship Ark Innovation exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Palantir reported fantastic revenue growth earlier in the week, with a solid balance of growth and profitability, and the company highlighted the strength of demand moving forward. So there wasn’t any bad news in the report, but, as a big holder of Palantir, Wood may have decided to lock in some profits to reallocate into other opportunities. On top of this, Palantir shares are pricey today at about 200 times forward earnings estimates, and this could weigh on near-term stock performance.

Still, it’s clear that with Palantir’s significant position in Ark Innovation, Wood still is optimistic about the company’s long-term prospects from earnings and share performance perspectives even after the stock has climbed in the quadruple digits over the past three years.

Two AI chip leaders

Now, let’s consider Wood’s buys. The top investor added more shares of AI chip designers Nvidia (NVDA -0.62%) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 1.14%) to Ark Innovation this past week. It’s no surprise the bargain-hunting Wood made this move considering the valuations of these players right now. Nvidia trades for 26 times forward earnings estimates, down from 50 times earlier this year. AMD’s valuation decline has been less spectacular, but the stock still looks like a good value today for 25 times forward earnings estimates compared to more than 30 times a few months ago.

Nvidia dominates the AI chip market, and its fast pace of innovation should keep it in the lead. So anyone, such as Wood, who believes in the AI growth story might view Nvidia as a solid buy at the moment. The company has proven itself by generating record revenue in recent quarters and high profitability on sales, and Nvidia has set out an aggressive product-development roadmap.

Meanwhile, AMD also is making progress in the AI chip market, and there’s enough room in this industry for this player to be successful without unseating Nvidia. AMD Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su said in the recent earnings report that the company delivered “an outstanding start to 2025.” Revenue and gross profit both climbed in the double digits, and AMD announced a gross margin of 50%, indicating strong profitability on sales. AMD’s strengths in central processing units(CPUs) — the main processor in standard computers — as well as its strengths in AI for data center customers have driven this growth.

So, what do these latest moves by superstar investor Cathie Wood mean for you as an investor? All three of these AI giants are great stocks to own for the long term. But of the three, from a valuation perspective, Nvidia and AMD represent the best buying opportunities right now. Considering the pace of AI growth, they may not remain at these valuations for long, so Wood took the opportunity to add to her holdings — and other AI savvy investors may want to do the same.

Pope Leo XIV has identified artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity today.

In his first meeting with all the cardinals since his election as pontiff, Leo said AI poses challenges to defending “human dignity, justice and labour”.

He referred to his namesake Pope Leo XIII (1878 to 1903), remembered for laying the foundation for modern Catholic social thought.

Pope Leo XIII wrote a famous open letter to all Catholics in 1891, called “Rerum Novarum” (“Of Revolutionary Change”), which reflected on the destruction wrought by the Industrial Revolution on the lives of workers.

On Saturday Leo pointed out the similarity with AI, telling cardinals: “In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.”

Toward the end of his pontificate, Pope Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it.

“It has been clearly seen in the example of so many of my predecessors, and most recently by Pope Francis himself, with his example of complete dedication to service and to sober simplicity of life, his abandonment to God throughout his ministry and his serene trust at the moment of his return to the Father’s house,” Pope Leo told the gathering.

“Let us take up this precious legacy and continue on the journey, inspired by the same hope that is born of faith.”

Leo’s speech on the perils of AI came after US President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as the pope on his Truth Social platform less than a week after attending the funeral of Pope Francis, who died aged 88 on Easter Monday.

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The White House then reposted it on its official X account with JD Vance dismissing the photo as a joke.

Former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi wrote on X: “This is an image that offends believers, insults institutions and shows that the leader of the global right enjoys being a clown.”

Last year, an AI-generated image of Pope Francis wearing a luxury white puffer jacket went viral, showing just how quickly realistic deepfake imagery can spread online.

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Pope Francis had emphasised the grave, existential concerns that have been raised by ethicists and human rights advocates about the technology that promises to transform everyday life in ways that can disrupt everything from democratic elections to art.

His greatest alarm was devoted to the use of AI in the armaments sector, which he said has seen remote weapons systems leading to a “distancing from the immense tragedy of war and a lessened perception of the devastation caused by those weapons systems and the burden of responsibility for their use”.

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Many people worry the rise of AI and robotics could lead to job losses, as machines become increasingly capable of performing tasks faster, cheaper, and more accurately than humans, concerns have grown about the long-term impact on employment, wages, and job security.

Even skilled professions, such as those in healthcare, finance, law, and technology, may not be immune. The growing capabilities of AI suggest that no sector is entirely safe from disruption.

“There are different reasons for [the choice of Leo as a name], but mainly because Pope Leo XIII, in his historic encyclical Rerum Novarum, addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution,” Leo XIV told the college.

Leo XIII was the last pope of the 19th century, reigning from 1878 to 1903. He is often credited with serving as a midwife for the Catholic Church into the modern world amid political turbulence and competing visions for restructuring the global economy and systems of labor.

Rerum Novarum, whose Latin title means “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor,” was a landmark encyclical that rejected both socialism and unrestricted capitalism as ethical systems of economics. It championed the right to organized labor, the right to private property, and the preeminent importance of the poor.

Pope Leo XIV made clear that he sees immense value in Leo XIII’s school of thought as the world undergoes another, even more destabilizing revolution — the digital age.

“In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labour,” he told the cardinals.

Through his initial public addresses and self-styling, the image of what role Pope Leo XIV wants to play as supreme pontiff is becoming clearer — a figure that can work the same magic as Leo XIII, navigating an ancient institution into the depths of 21st-century turmoils as a lifeboat for the lost.

“In a particular way, God has called me by your election to succeed the Prince of the Apostles,
and has entrusted this treasure to me so that, with his help, I may be its faithful administrator for the sake of the entire mystical body of the church,” he said yesterday in his first homily as pope. “He has done so in order that she may be ever more fully a city set on a hill, an ark of salvation sailing through the waters of history and a beacon that illumines the dark nights of this world.”

Leo XIV is still finding his footing in the shoes of the fisherman. But early signs show he is a more organized, formal, and traditional pontiff compared to Pope Francis, who was known and often praised for his informality and austerity.

While changing one’s name usually has little effect on life expectancy, it is worth noting that Leo XIII was the third-longest-reigning pope of all time at 25 years. He is surpassed only by Pope Pius IX and St. Peter himself.

Leo XIV is young by papal standards at a spry 69 years old. A multi-decade run in office is a distinct possibility.

POPE LEO XIV HOLDS FIRST MASS AS SUPREME PONTIFF, URGES EVANGELIZATION AGAINST ‘LOSS OF MEANING’

A small detail about Leo XIII that might be humorous to modern readers is his documented love for cocaine-fortified wines, a popular drink of the time also enjoyed by leaders such as U.S. Presidents William McKinley and Ulysses S. Grant.

Leo XIII even awarded a gold medal to Vin Mariani, the company behind his preferred brand. His likeness was used in advertisements boasting of the papal endorsement.

Pope Leo XIV has laid out his vision for his papacy, identifying artificial intelligence (AI) as one of the most critical matters facing humanity and vowing to continue in some of the core priorities of his predecessor, Pope Francis.

But in a sign he was making the papacy very much his own, Leo made his first outing since his election to a sanctuary south of Rome that is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is of particular significance to his Augustinian order and to his namesake, Pope Leo XIII.

Townspeople of Genazzano gathered in the square outside the main church housing the Madre del Buon Consiglio (Mother of Good Counsel) sanctuary as Leo greeted and blessed them. The sanctuary, which is managed by Augustinian friars, has been a place of pilgrimage since the 15th century. The previous Pope Leo elevated it to a minor basilica and expanded the adjacent convent in the early 1900s. 

After praying in the church, Leo greeted the crowd and told them they had both a gift and a responsibility in having the Madonna in their midst. He offered a blessing and then got back into the passenger seat of the car, a black Volkswagen, with Vatican security alongside.

The after-lunch outing came after Leo presided over his first formal audience, with the cardinals who elected him Pope two days ago.

Leo repeatedly cited Francis’s own 2013 mission statement, making clear a commitment to making the Catholic Church more inclusive, attentive to the faithful and concerned with the “least and rejected.”

Leo, the first American-born pope, told the cardinals he was fully committed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council that were put together during meetings in the 1960s that modernized the church.

He identified AI as a critical issue, saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity, justice and labour.

Leo referred to AI in explaining the choice of his papal name. Leo XIII, the pope from 1878 to 1903, laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought — most famously with his 1891 encyclical (papal letter) Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age.

The late pope criticized both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism, giving shape to a distinctly Catholic vein of economic teaching.

“In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour,” the current pope said.

Toward the end of his pontificate, Francis, who died on April 21, became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it. He warned such powerful technology risks turning human relations into mere algorithms.

Francis brought his message to the Group of Seven industrialized nations when he addressed their summit last year, insisting AI must remain human-centric so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools will always be made by humans and not machines.

The late Argentine pope also used his 2024 annual peace message to call for an international treaty to ensure AI is developed and used ethically, arguing a technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness is too perilous to develop unchecked.

In Saturday’s speech, delivered in Italian in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall, Leo repeatedly referenced Francis and the mourning over his death.

He held up Francis’s mission statement at the 2013 start of his pontificate, “The Joy of the Gospel,” as something of his own marching orders, suggesting he intends to continue Francis’s priorities.

WATCH l New pope bright, relatable, says longtime friend:

What a friend says about Pope Leo XIV’s character, priorities

Father Rob Hagan, a friend of Pope Leo XIV, shares with The National’s Adrienne Arsenault his reflections on the new leader’s character and their longtime friendship.

He referenced Francis’s insistence on the need for the church to make its leadership more collegial, to express “loving care for the least and rejected,” and to engage in courageous dialogue with the contemporary world.

Leo also mentioned the need to pay attention to what the faithful say, “especially in [their] most authentic and inclusive forms, especially popular piety.”

Greeted by a standing ovation as he entered, Leo read from his prepared text, only looking up occasionally. Even when he first appeared to the world on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday night, Leo read from a prepared text that he may have drafted sometime before his historic election or in the hour or so after.

When artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as the next big thing a couple of years ago, much of the talking points around the technology revolved around how it would be deployed in corporate environments to enhance productivity, data analytics, and efficiency. While AI certainly lends a hand to these applications, it is capable of far more.

Some of the more subtle use cases for AI include process improvements in drug discovery, financial fraud, and cybersecurity. But to achieve major breakthroughs in these areas, today’s AI protocols are going to need some enhancements.

This is where quantum computing comes into play. While quantum computing is not a widely adopted component of AI right now, the opportunity it presents is enormous.

Let’s explore the quantum computing market and assess which companies are making waves in the space. More importantly, after a thorough analysis of the industry’s hottest players, I’ll reveal my top disruptor in the quantum computing arena and make the case for why investors should consider buying this stock hand over fist right now.

1. Quantum computing is a massive opportunity

Management consulting firm McKinsey & Company estimates that the total addressable market (TAM) for quantum computing could be as much as $131 billion by 2040. Under the broader quantum computing umbrella, McKinsey sees mobility, life sciences, chemicals, and financial services as four of the biggest opportunities — set to potentially gain $1.3 trillion in value by the middle of the next decade thanks to quantum computing adoption.

2. This AI stock is an underrated opportunity in quantum computing

Interest in quantum computing started to emerge in the later months of 2024. During that period, relatively unknown names, such as IonQ, D-Wave Quantum, Quantum Computing, and Rigetti Computing, began witnessing abnormal buying activity. These dynamics are not uncommon. Oftentimes, when a new trend begins to gain steam, smaller players start to see some momentum — usually driven by speculation or hype narratives.

IONQ data by YCharts.

As the chart above shows, each quantum computing stock I mentioned above is trading well off its prior highs. While this might suggest these once-red-hot stocks are good buys right now, let’s check out their valuations.

IONQ PS Ratio data by YCharts. PS Ratio = price-to-sales ratio.

Despite their precipitous sell-offs, each of the stocks in this peer set still trades for extended valuations. The magnitude of these price-to-sales (P/S) multiples underscores that IonQ, Rigetti Computing, Quantum Computing, and D-Wave Quantum aren’t generating much in terms of revenue — yet each company is trading at a valuation near or more than $1 billion.

On top of that, none of these companies is on a proven path to generate consistent profitability. Given these valuation dynamics, none of the quantum computing stocks in this cohort are trading at levels that would suggest buying the dip.

Beyond the smaller players, several “Magnificent Seven” stocks, including Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft, are quietly competing in the quantum computing arena as well. While each of these companies has made impressive inroads into quantum computing, my top pick in the space right now is Nvidia (NVDA -0.62%).

At the moment, Nvidia is best known for its AI chips, called graphics processing units (GPUs). However, few investors understand that Nvidia also has a software product called CUDA that works in parallel with the GPUs. By tightly integrating both its hardware products with an in-house software service, Nvidia is quickly building an end-to-end platform for enterprise AI infrastructure.

Nvidia is parlaying this strategy by adding another stitch to the broader CUDA fabric. Known as CUDA-Q, Nvidia now has a software suite that can work alongside the hardware stack needed to perform sophisticated tasks in quantum computing. Just as Nvidia has become the market leader in the AI chip space, I think the company is going to emerge as a force in the quantum computing industry despite receiving little coverage in the space so far.

3. Nvidia stock is trading for a bargain

Similar to the other stocks mentioned in this piece, shares of Nvidia are also trading well off their highs. As of this writing (May 7), Nvidia stock has plummeted 24% off its 12-month high — losing nearly $1 trillion in market cap in the process.

But unlike IonQ, Rigetti, D-Wave Quantum, and Quantum Computing, Nvidia stock trades at a reasonable valuation. As seen below, the compression in the company’s forward price to earnings (P/E) multiple could suggest that expectations around Nvidia have either normalized or that growth investors could be souring on the stock.

NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts. PE Ratio = price-to-earnings ratio.

Despite some near-term uncertainty as it pertains to the ongoing tariff situation and Nvidia’s prospects in China, I would not write off the company. For now, Nvidia remains in control of the AI chip market, and as explored above, quantum computing represents a longer-term opportunity worth tens of billions of dollars for the company.

I think investors with a long-term horizon should consider taking advantage of Nvidia’s current depressed price action and buy the stock hand over fist.