Top Five Yearly Popular Stocks in US Stock Market Released, Which Ones Could Possibly be the "Code to Financial Freedom" in 2025?

investors will definitely remember the stocks that benefited from the AI boom in 2024, as well as those stocks that unexpectedly plummeted due to specific issues despite riding the AI wave. Investors who are fond of US tech stocks will have a deeper impression of 2024. The bullish sentiment for "AI trading" was increasingly crazy in this year, with major tech giants and index heavyweights like NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) and Meta Platforms (META.US) leading the S&P 500 index to significant gains for two consecutive years and reaching new highs together with the benchmark index. In addition to major tech giants, there are also many other types of hot stocks trading. With large investments from tech giants like Microsoft Corporation, Amazon.com, Inc., and Alphabet Inc. Class C in AI, the stocks of AI infrastructure supply companies such as AI chips, data center network equipment, power equipment, and server manufacturers have soared. This has also boosted the stocks of software companies focusing on AI applications, power giants that provide massive power support for data centers, such as Vistra (VST.US), and tech companies with a large amount of data for developing AI models, such as Reddit (RDDT.US), which is called "the American version of Baidu Tieba". Scott Yushak, Managing Director of Stock Strategy Department at Truist Advisory Services, said, Tech companies that have not benefited from the AI boom like NVIDIA Corporation and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR are beginning to see both performance and stock price growth. Currently, AI is a focus area in tech stocks, but we expect that by 2025, tech stocks will have a broader range of stock price performance compared to recent years, with some tech companies beyond the major tech giants and chip stocks showing very outstanding performance." In the US tech stock market, many dramatic events similar to Hollywood movies have occurred in this year. One of the most popular AI hardware companies and also one of the super bulls of AI in 2023, Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI.US), saw its stock price continue to plummet due to severe accounting issues, even threatening whether the company could continue to trade on the US stock exchange. An old-school US chip giant, Intel Corporation (INTC.US), also benefited from the AI boom, but compared to its long-term competitors NVIDIA Corporation and AMD, it can be considered one of the biggest losers in the AI arms race. The most critical setback was the company's plan to turn its losses into profits hitting a major obstacle, leading to a continuous deterioration of its fundamentals and a sharp drop in stock price, ultimately forcing its CEO to resign. Below is the 2024 annual summary of the 5 hottest stocks trading in the US stock market and frequently appearing in financial media headlines, as well as the outlook for their stock price trends in 2025, according to the general views of Wall Street analysts. Based on their performance in 2024, Reddit, Palantir, and Vistra saw their stock prices soar due to the large-scale expansion of their AI-related businesses, while Intel Corporation and Super Micro Computer, Inc. experienced frequent drops in stock prices due to specific issues within the companies. Reddit Social media company Reddit, known as the "American version of Baidu Tieba," received a warm welcome from global investors in its IPO in March, but few expected the investment returns since then to be so crazy. Since going public, the stock price of this social media network owner has surged by an astonishing 382%, partly due to training data license agreements signed with leaders in the AI field such as OpenAI and Alphabet Inc. Class C. These companies use Reddit's vast exclusive data resources to train their large language models. In addition, special investments by Reddit to better monetize its user base have led to an incredibly strong quarterly performance report and outlook in October, driving the company's stock price to continue to soar. According to a recent research report released by Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak, Reddit's stock performance in the past six months far surpasses that of Meta and other social media peers, and it still has a very broad upside potential in 2025. He upgraded the stock rating to "hold" earlier this month and stated that training agreements with AI leaders, user engagement enhancements, and advertising initiatives will continue to drive performance and stock price growth. Morgan Stanley raised its 12-month target price for Reddit from Wall Street's lowest target price to nearly double Wall Street's highest target price, up to $200. In comparison, Reddit's stock closed at $163.720 on Thursday. Morgan Stanley wrote in this bullish research report, "Our pessimistic view on Reddit so far this year was wrong." "But as we look to 2025, we do not think we have completely missed this rapidly scaling platform launching a series of user interactive modes and new advertising plans." Statistics show that social media company Reddit had the best monthly performance in October, with a high rise of 81%, as its performance and future prospects far exceeded expectations. This indicates its strong performance in advertising and future outlook.Investment in technology is yielding positive returns, and high-value user-generated content on Reddit is providing Alphabet Inc. Class C and other AI leaders like OpenAI with rich sources of data to train large language models, which is also a key driver of the company's growth.Reddit has greatly increased its profitability through diversification of revenue sources, such as AI training data licensing and advertising business, as well as user growth. In addition, various generative AI applications on the Reddit platform not only significantly improve the experience and loyalty of Reddit users, but also open up new revenue channels, greatly enhancing the company's financial stability. Palantir Technologies Few software companies are able to sustain sales growth of over 50% from AI services, but Palantir (PLTR.US) is a typical exception. Strong demand from the US government and major enterprises for its AI products integrated with Palantir's data analytics ecosystem has fueled growth, with overall sales expected to grow by 26% in 2024, higher than the previous year's 17%. In 2024, the company's stock price surged by 332%, with its market value skyrocketing from $37 billion at the beginning of the year to nearly $170 billion currently. Next week, the tech stock will officially join the Nasdaq 100 index, meaning that the "AI super bull stock" Palantir will officially be included in the stock coverage of the high-demand Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ.US), which tracks the Nasdaq 100 index. Focused on "AI + data analytics," data software giant Palantir exceeded analysts' revenue expectations in the third quarter and raised its revenue outlook, mainly due to the increasing demand from the US federal government and enterprises for its generative AI-based application software. Palantir's Q3 revenue was $7.26 billion, surpassing expectations with a 30% year-over-year growth, almost doubling net profit to a new high for the company; more significantly, Palantir expects US commercial revenue to increase by over 50% in 2024. Palantir's generative AI platform "AIP" integrates fully with Palantir's existing data analytics software ecosystem, allowing customers to access Palantir's core modules and functions through simple queries, enabling organizations to effectively use generative AI for data analysis, enhancing insights and operational efficiency. The platform supports a range of AI-driven applications, from automation of material shortages, logistics, and supply chain optimization to predictive maintenance and threat detection in complex computational scenarios. Despite a meteoric rise in stock price this year, some Wall Street analysts remain cautious about the stock. However, the analyst team at Wedbush believes that with significantly increased growth expectations driven by AI, the stock will bring even greater investment returns in 2025. According to Bloomberg's compiled analyst statistics, Palantir's price-to-earnings ratio exceeds 150x, making it the second most expensive stock in the S&P 500 index, only behind Ventas, Inc. Of the 22 Wall Street analysts tracked by Bloomberg, only three have given Palantir a "buy" rating, highlighting Wall Street's cautious stance on Palantir's stock, which continues to reach new highs. Vistra With artificial intelligence applications such as ChatGPT sweeping across the globe, the massive energy demands of data centers worldwide have brought some long-overlooked utility stocks into the sights of top Wall Street investment firms this year. The accelerating demand for AI computational power closely linked to artificial intelligence training/inference is expected to drive a substantial increase in the electricity resources required by data centers, which are already "power-hungry beasts." Behind the exponential expansion of energy-consuming AI data centers lies the core foundation of power supply, giving rise to the market view that "power is at the heart of AI." According to predictions by the Boston Consulting Group, the share of electricity consumption by data centers in the US alone is expected to double, from 126 terawatt-hours in 2022 to 390 terawatt-hours in 2030. A terawatt-hour is used to describe the largest levels of power consumption, usually for national-level energy statistics, large-scale energy project planning and assessment. Large industrial facilities, like super steel plants, may consume less than 10 terawatt-hours of electricity in a year. Electricity producer Vistra Corp. was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 index in 2024, with a staggering increase of 256%, surpassing even NVIDIA Corporation's year-to-date increase of 164%. Palantir, with an even stronger performance, was only added to the S&P 500 index in September. Vistra's revenue has significantly increased since 2024 due to the massive energy consumption of data centers. With some government agencies and US tech giants committing to investing heavily in the AI field next year, especially in the construction and expansion of energy-consuming data centers, the outlook for power and other infrastructure providers seems very optimistic. Data centers are arguably the most core large-scale infrastructure projects of the AI era, vital for the efficient operation of generative AI applications like ChatGPT and the updating iterations of large AI models like GPT-4o. According to the latest forecast data from Wall Street financial giant Citigroup, capital expenditures related to data centers by the four largest tech giants in the US are expected to increase by at least 40% by 2025. These massive capital expenditures are largely linked to generative AI, indicating that the demand for computational power for AI applications like ChatGPT remains significant. The Citigroup analysis team emphasizes that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is still in the early to mid stages, especially with the hot AI application of "AI agents" on the enterprise side, driving a surge in demand for AI applications and consequently robust computational resource requirements, prompting tech giants to significantly expand and build new global infrastructures.Data center.Vistra and its electricity peer Constellation Energy Corp (CEG.US) stand out in the US utility industry because of their positioning as independent power producers, meaning that they sell electricity at market prices, which is different from some regulated utility companies in the US. Intel Corporation As we enter 2024, chip stock investors' optimism has boosted the stock price of Intel Corporation, as they believe that the operating conditions of this struggling veteran chip manufacturer will be completely reversed due to the improvement in chip manufacturing services and the growth in AI PC penetration. However, this bet this year has proven to be completely wrong, as while chip manufacturing services and AI PC may lead Intel Corporation out of its slump, definitely not this year. Intel Corporation's stock price has fallen by 62% so far this year, lagging further behind competitors in the PC and data center chip sector such as NVIDIA Corporation and AMD, while facing increasing costs from building new factories and investing in 2nm and below chip production technology. In August, the company could no longer withstand the long-time cash burn pressure from chip manufacturing services, suspending its dividend distribution that had been in place since 1992 and announcing a plan to lay off up to 15,000 employees. CEO Pat Gelsinger was forced to resign early this month. During the board's search for a permanent successor for Gelsinger, Intel Corporation is being run by two interim co-CEOs. With a lack of a core helmsman, the future path of Intel Corporation seems more uncertain than ever. Questions about whether the chip manufacturing strategy will change, especially if Intel Corporation will continue chasing after the chip manufacturing king Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR's ambitions, and whether the company will split to alleviate the cash flow crisis, may not be answered in the coming months. Out of over 50 Wall Street analysts tracked by Bloomberg, only 7 recommend buying Intel Corporation stock. Some analysts bullish on Intel Corporation point out that the 18A high-end chip manufacturing process will be the key to determining the future of Intel Corporation's chip manufacturing business. "18A" refers to the series of chip manufacturing processes, both indicating Intel Corporation's planned 1.8nm chip technology and the 3D chiplet advanced packaging technology roadmap. Intel Corporation's Senior Executive Naga Chandrasekaran stated at an event hosted by UBS Group AG in early December that despite facing some technical challenges and execution difficulties, they have reached several key milestones. "There are no substantial challenges at this point. The remaining are mostly overcoming yield and defect density challenges." In Intel Corporation's chip manufacturing plan, the company will manufacture chips for any company, including long-time competitors NVIDIA Corporation and AMD. Gelsinger once predicted that by 2030 Intel Corporation's chip manufacturing business would be the second largest globally, trailing only slightly behind the chip manufacturing king Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR. Super Micro Computer, Inc. Super Micro Computer, Inc., still seemed unstoppable in the first half of the year as xAI founded by Musk and other major leaders in artificial intelligence continued to place orders for AI servers with the company, leading to a significant increase in demand for AI servers in their data centers. Due to Super Micro Computer, Inc.'s close partnership with NVIDIA Corporation over the years, with its deep integration with NVIDIA Corporation, Super Micro Computer, Inc. has relied on its strong supply chain and long-term partnership with NVIDIA Corporation to often obtain larger volumes of NVIDIA Corporation's AI GPU shipments, and Super Micro Computer, Inc. has long been known in the server space for its customized server solutions. However, all this took a dramatic turn in the second half of this year due to an accounting scandal, with NVIDIA Corporation even redirecting its orders at Super Micro Computer, Inc. to other server suppliers. The company's stock reached its peak in March, and a few days ago the company was included in the S&P 500 index, with a market value of $66 billion. However, in August, the company became a target of well-known short-selling institutions. A day later, the company postponed the release of its annual report citing an internal control review, putting its listing status on Nasdaq at risk. In October, its auditing firm unexpectedly resigned, leading to a steep decline in the stock price. Most recently, the Nasdaq 100 index announced its annual component stock adjustment results, Super Micro Computer, Inc. was removed from the index.Since reaching a historic stock price in March, the company's stock price has now dropped significantly by 74%. Super Micro Computer, Inc. has promptly hired a new auditing firm to obtain an extension from NASDAQ and must now submit financial reports by February 25th. Meanwhile, it has been reported that the company has hired the top Wall Street investment bank Evercore to help raise funds.