At the close of trading on December 13, nine companies had a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion. In order from largest to smallest, these are the following companies:
The common thread that connects all these companies is artificial intelligence (AI). In areas such as software, hardware, cloud computing, social media, e-commerce and more, all these companies are playing an important role in the AI revolution.
Dan Ives, managing director and senior analyst at Wedbush Securities, recently published his top 10 predictions for the tech sector in 2025. While it’s clear Ives is optimistic about the sector as a whole, he foresees AI driving the tailwind. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)And Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) to the $4 trillion club next year. Let’s break down the AI catalysts that could help these tech giants soar further next year.
If you’re surprised to see Apple on this list, I wouldn’t blame you. For much of the past two years, the company has been suspiciously quiet about its AI ambitions. Meanwhile, the “Magnificent Seven” counterparts couldn’t have been more vocal about their respective AI roadmaps.
Apple’s first major foray into AI is the new Apple Intelligence software, which leverages ChatGPT across Apple’s ecosystem of hardware devices and services, such as the voice assistant Siri.
During Apple’s most recent earnings call, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook shared the following with investors: “With the introduction of Apple Intelligence, we are starting a new era for the iPhone.”
To me, it’s pretty clear that Apple’s next phase of growth will depend heavily on a successful launch of the iPhone 16. During the Q4 2024 earnings call, Cook also shared that during the period (ending September 28), iPhone revenue set a new record for the company as these rose in every geographic segment.
While this is encouraging, I think Apple needs a few more quarters of AI adoption before I think it’s appropriate for the stock to rise significantly. Ives expects a massive upgrade cycle among iPhone users (known as a super cycle), as consumer purchasing power gradually strengthens amid an improving macroeconomic picture.
Since making a $10 billion investment in ChatGPT developer OpenAI a few years ago, Microsoft has quickly integrated AI improvements across its ecosystem. In my opinion, the main catalyst driving Microsoft’s growth is now in its cloud computing infrastructure. Although it faces stiff competition from Amazon, Alphabet and OracleMicrosoft has demonstrated how AI fuels new opportunities and helps navigate the competitive landscape.
For the first quarter of 2025 ended September 30, Microsoft generated $24.1 billion in revenue from its intelligent cloud segment. Within this division, revenue from the Azure Cloud platform grew by 33%. But more importantly, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood pointed out that “Azure’s growth included approximately 12 points from AI services.”
Azure’s impressive growth is only part of the story. Microsoft’s ability to attribute growth to its AI services will become increasingly important as competition increases. But as Hood noted when talking about Azure, “demand continues to exceed our available capacity.” This is a good problem to have.
I think unmet demand for cloud capacity will continue to drive Azure’s growth next year, thanks in large part to Microsoft’s focus on AI integration for its customers.
It should come as no surprise that Nvidia joins the list of companies that Ives predicts will reach a $4 trillion valuation by 2025.
Over the past two years, Nvidia has become a household name thanks to its influence in the AI movement. The graphics processing units (GPU), data center services and CUDA software together provide customers with an unparalleled end-to-end AI technology stack. High demand for its products has made Nvidia the second most valuable company in the world (tied with Microsoft at the time of writing).
While you might think that Nvidia’s momentum has to slow down at some point, Ives doesn’t expect that to happen until 2025. Nvidia recently launched the first GPUs made with the next-generation Blackwell architecture. To give you an idea of how much demand there is for this new hardware, Blackwell chips are reportedly sold out for next year.
Additionally, Ives is also calling for more than $1 trillion in spending on AI infrastructure in the near term. Considering that Nvidia customers including Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Amazon have all explicitly stated that their AI-related capital expenditures (capex) will increase next year, Nvidia is extremely well positioned to gain greater market share and even to become even more dominant. .
If I had to pick three companies that I think are most likely to reach a $4 trillion valuation, I would pick the same as Ives. The only detail I disagree with Ives on is that I predict Nvidia will be the first to reach this milestone, followed by Apple and Microsoft shortly after.
The bigger idea here, however, is that each of these mega-cap tech companies is benefiting from different tailwinds that could lead to significant upside for patient investors.
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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, a director at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. The Motley Fool holds positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls to Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls to Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Meet the 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Dan Ives Says Will Become the First Members of the $4 Trillion Club by 2025, originally published by The Motley Fool
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