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With shares in Nvidia and Palantir looking expensive, I’ve been looking at some less obvious artificial intelligence (AI) names for my Stocks and Shares ISA. And a few look quite interesting.
The chorus of investors voicing concerns over an AI bubble seems to be growing. But I think there could still be opportunities in what looks like an industry that is likely to have huge long-term growth ahead.
Cooling
The fact that AI data centres have high electricity requirements is well-documented. The need for cooling has, by comparison, gone largely under the radar – but this is starting to change.
Enter The Chemours Company (NYSE:CC) which makes (among other things) chemicals used in liquid cooling systems. And this is the direction data centres have been heading in, away from air cooling.
This isn’t showing up in the firm’s financials yet, but the company is signing deals and partnership agreements for 2026. So if the AI infrastructure build continues at pace, this could be a big winner.
Ongoing settlements connected to the firm’s environmental impact create risk. But investors looking for an AI name that’s not (yet) making headlines should check out this one.
Smelting
Data centre building also takes a lot of aluminium. But since 2015, the number of smelters operating in the US has more than halved and tariffs have made it hard to replace this production.
At first sight, this makes it a good time to be Alcoa (NYSE:AA), which operates two of the four active aluminium smelters in the US. But tariffs have actually been a problem – and remain a risk.
A lot of Alcoa’s aluminium is produced elsewhere and it imports aluminium oxide for its US smelters. That makes tariffs a challenge for it, but the firm could be in an excellent position if things change.
For now, I think it’s one for the watchlist. But things can change quickly on this front and investors interested in the company should make sure they’re ready if they do.
Chips
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) isn’t exactly going under anyone’s radar. And yet I think the market might be underestimating the significance of its potential in the development of AI going forward.
I’ve got my eye on Trainium – Amazon’s custom AI chips. Compared to Nvidia’s GPUs, they offer better performance, but this comes at the cost of less adaptability on an ongoing basis.
Right now, that’s a big drawback, but this could change as AI progresses from training to inferencing, applications become more settled, and power demands are lower. And I’m not convinced the market realises this.
Antitrust is always a risk with Amazon and the next legal case always feels like it’s just around the corner. But with the stock down this year, I think investors should at least take a look.
AI strategies
There are lots of ways to invest in order to participate in the growth of AI. But the stock market has preferred some industries to others.
Chemours, Alcoa, and Amazon could all happily go on an investor’s watchlist right now. Despite the current focus on AI, there might still be undiscovered opportunities waiting to be found. We just need to think differently.
