Nvidia isn’t the biggest AI winner two years after ChatGPT’s debut

In the two years since the launch of ChatGPT, stocks have soared to new highs, megacaps have ballooned in size and AI chipmaker Nvidia has become the second-largest stock in the U.S. by market value. But the biggest winner has in fact been a little-known Ohio-based cooling technology stock named Vertiv Holdings. Vertiv has benefited since the debut of the widely accessible chatbot in late Nov., 2022 as investors scoured the market for secondary winners from the buildout of large language models and gargantuan data centers. The first order of attention was what became the megcap technology companies. Nvidia was the 13th largest company in the U.S. when the AI craze took off, notes Jefferies’ sales desk. The S & P 500 has rallied about 49%. But while megacap technology stocks have dominated investor attention since the dawn of mass market AI, Jefferies highlighted Vertiv as one of the biggest stock winners, rallying 861% over the past two years. In 2023 alone, the stock surged 165% and it’s more than tripled in size since the start of 2024. Vertiv makes cooling equipment and infrastructure for power-hungry data centers that are fueling the AI boom. Demand has climbed as customers search for ways to manage every aspect of data center needs. VRT 1Y mountain Vertiv shares over the last year In an October interview with CNBC’s ” The Exchange ” following Vertiv’s latest earnings report, CEO Giordano Albertazzi defended the surge in the stock, and highlighted why the future still looks bright. ‘We believe we are in a very strong position to really enjoy the benefits — the acceleration of demand that AI is driving to the entire data center industry, and we are a leader in datacenter infrastructure,” he said. “I’m very optimistic about the future.” Nvidia is the second best performer, with shares up 722% since ChatGPT’s launch. Jensen Huang’s company has become the poster child for all things AI, with its graphics processing units underpinning the technology’s large language models. Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom have also benefited from the trend, surging 90% and 208% each since ChatGPT was introduced. So far in 2024, AMD is down about 4% while Broadcom has rallied 50%. NVDA mountain 2022-12-02 Nvidia shares over the last two years As a group, Jefferies notes that the Magnificent Seven stocks (Nvidia plus Microsoft , Apple , Tesla , Meta Platforms , Amazon and Alphabet ) stocks have soared 203% while semiconductors have gained 77% in the past two years. Capital spending on artificial intelligence has outpaced the S & P 500 by 230%, according to the firm. Beyond Vertiv, Modine Manufacturing is another under-the-radar AI winner. The air cooling stock has advanced nearly 550% over the past two years and have more than doubled in 2024 alone. Jefferies also highlighted some AI losers, including several education technology platforms such as Chegg as well as call center companies, which are now deemed threatened by the advent of AI. Intel has also underperformed, with shares down 19%.