Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks have been a driving force behind the S&P 500 's impressive performance recently. The benchmark index has climbed over 21% year to date and gained more than 34% in the past 12 months.

The artificial intelligence trend has supercharged the growth of many tech stocks over the past year, including semiconductor giants Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Arm Holdings (NASDAQ: ARM). So far in 2024, Nvidia shares climbed 144%, and Arm stock rose 91%.

Companies that were once reliant on call centers to address customer queries now have a variety of alternatives, from self-service portals and social-media-based customer service to omnichannel support and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions.

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After several decades of innovation, rolling out new products, and making acquisitions, ASML is the clear leader in lithography systems today. It introduced its first prototype of an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machine in 2010, which uses a shorter wavelength that allows for smaller chip features that make them faster and more powerful.

Many analysts project impressive forecasts for AI’s growth and its expected impact on US GDP. But how much AI-related business exposure is embedded in public equity markets? Read more here.