Looking for some top S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) stocks to tap into the massive growth potential presented by the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI)?
Read on!
With an eye on that growth potential, shares in generative AI chip maker Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) have soared 209% over the past 12 months. That gives the US tech giant a market cap of US$3.0 trillion!
And AI has helped fuel some strong outperformance across the tech sector. Here in Australia, the S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) is up 28% over 12 months, far outpacing the 9% gains posted by the ASX 200 over this same time.
But you don't have to stick to ASX 200 stocks in the tech space to potentially capture outsized gains from the mass adoption of AI.
Below I look at four top companies outside of the tech space that Bell Direct market analyst Grady Wulff says offer investors attractive exposure to the booming growth of AI.
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ASX 200 stocks tapping into the AI revolution
First up, we have real estate investment trust (REIT) Goodman Group (ASX: GMG).
The ASX 200 stock has the potential to capitalise on AI by providing the fast-growing technology with the space it needs to do its thing. Namely data centres.
Citing Goodman's latest results, Wulff noted that as at 31 March:
Goodman has $12.9 billion of development work in progress (WIP) across 82 projects with 40% of the WIP projects representing data centres currently under construction.
Goodman's global power bank increased by 0.3GW in Q3 to 4.3GW across 12 major global cities… The global expansion of GMG in the high-demand data centre market makes the industrial property REIT an attractive AI exposure investment opportunity in 2024.
The Goodman share price is up by around 77% in a year.
The second ASX 200 stock Wulff flags to benefit from the rollout of AI is biotech company Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: TLX).
Telix "is leading the way in the use of AI, through its acquisition of Dedicaid in April 2023," she said.
According to Wulff:
Dedicaid's core asset is a clinical decision support software (CDSS) AI platform capable of rapidly generating indication specific CDSS applications from available data sets for use with specific types of imaging modalities.
She added that AI could help drive efficiencies and trim Telix's costs:
AI has the ability to accelerate Telix's testing and clinical trial scope by adding predictive AI capabilities to automate the classification of lesions and enhance efficiency in the imaging workflow … to reduce the high costs associated with such processes.
The Telix share price is up around 55% in a year.
This brings us to my third ASX 200 stock outside the tech space that could achieve significant benefits from AI; supermarket giant Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL).
Wulff said:
Using AI, Coles has pioneered an AI journey that helps the company to predict the flow of units and even streamline the checkout process by scanning fresh produce that comes up immediately, saving the customer scrolling through pages upon pages of product options to find the correct item.
She added that Coles is also employing AI technologies "to personalise the delivery of promotions and suggested purchases to customers through its Flybuys customers every week".
The Coles share price is down by around 6% in a year.
Rounding off my list of ASX 200 stocks to buy now for the AI revolution is the biggest company on the index, BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP).
Wulff pointed out that the Aussie mining industry is already employing AI "across a vast array of operations from safety to assay testing and more".
As for BHP, she said:
BHP launched a collaboration with Microsoft to utilise AI and machine learning for improving copper recovery at the world's largest copper mine, the Escondida Mine in Chile. Given copper's growing use in the green energy transition globally, declining grades at existing copper mines and fewer new discoveries made, the use of AI and machine learning at the Escondida Mine unlocks greater production and value potential for BHP.
BHP is also using AI to optimise and increase operation efficiencies in the loading process of iron ore exports from WA by reducing spillage and damages to rail infrastructure during times of unexpected surges in volumes.
Shares in the ASX 200 mining stock are down around 2% in a year.
