AI optimism is powering industrials stocks, too

The AI trade goes well beyond tech, according to Amanda Ross, an equity trader with Goldman Sachs Global Banking & Markets.

She points out that many of the top-performing industrials stocks are generating investor excitement for their AI ventures. Strikingly, the stocks of industrials companies most exposed to AI have more than doubled since the start of 2023.

These include companies that manufacture or cool the data centers that power AI workloads. But a wide array of industrials companies are looking to capitalize on the technology; 32% of the sector mentioned AI on their fourth-quarter earnings calls.

“The next time someone asks you about AI,” Ross says, “you can tell them that it’s not just a tech story.”