Forget PLTR: These 3 AI Stocks Have 5x Potential

Most AI stocks at the moment are at nosebleed valuations. Even the names that once looked reasonable now trade at prices that feel almost punitive unless the future unfolds perfectly as expected and then some.

Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) has turned into the poster child of AI stocks. That title belonged to Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) a year before, though the company’s earnings have caught up. For PLTR, though, the premium you’re paying is massive, even if you value it based on cash flow and take the highest estimates.

The business is solid, the moat is real, but the price already assumes most government agencies and Fortune 500 companies will stampede into its platform. It’s very unlikely PLTR stock will get you triple-digit returns in short order.

The following three AI stocks can.

ACM Research (ACMR)

ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR) is still quite under-the-radar. The stock is up 90% year-to-date, but it is still down over 34% from its 2021 high. ACM designs and sells tools to clean silicon wafers, and it has quietly become one of the fastest-growing suppliers to the global semiconductor supply chain. It’s not a niche business by any means, as each new leading-edge fab contains dozens of these cleaners, and every node shrink requires even more stringent cleaning steps.

Beyond cleaning, the company has added electroplating, thermal atomic layer deposition, and advanced packaging tools that broaden its share with each customer. Revenue increased 40.2% to $782.1 million in 2024, and EBITDA increased 55.88% to $160.97 million.

On the balance sheet, it has $467.8 million in cash and ~$237 million in debt. Despite all that growth and the solvency, it still trades at just 13 times forward earnings. It gets even better, since ACM Research has a Shanghai subsidiary, of which it owns 81.1%. ACM Research Shanghai currently trades at CNY 50.2 billion, or $7 billion. The parent company (the one being discussed) has a market cap of just $1.89 billion!

Lasertec (LSRCY)

Lasertec makes the inspection systems that verify every layer of a high-end chip before it ever powers a data center or a car. It has a monopoly-like position in the EUV mask inspection tool market. This is more niche, but it does give it more sway and pricing power due to the monopoly it has.

Accordingly, the net margin is at 31.2%, better than almost 96% of all semiconductor companies. Revenue has surged from $266 million in FY 2019 to $1.35 billion in FY 2024. The balance sheet has $361 million in cash and no debt.

Recent growth metrics have been more volatile due to the Japanese yen’s decline, but the Yen has finally started to strengthen this year.

The new mid-term plan targets 400 to 500 billion yen in sales by 2030 with an operating margin of “more than 35%.” That’s well over double the 213.51 billion yen in FY 2024 sales and would lead to solid upside if management hits the target.

LSRCY stock is down 38.3% in the past year but has reversed course in April and is up 55.93% since.

Serve Robotics (SERV)

This is a very high-risk, high-reward play, but a 5x would be easy due to the small market cap of $626.6 million here. Serve Robotics (NASDAQ:SERV) uses autonomous robots for delivery through sidewalks, using small AI-powered drones. These delivery robots already have a presence in certain cities, but they are still not very common in the U.S.

Large-scale expansion is likely across most states and major cities in the future, as these robots are a very cost-effective way to deliver food.

Serve is operationally independent today, but it was spun out of Uber in 2021 and still delivers almost exclusively for Uber Eats under a multi-year agreement.

The current fleet is tiny but growing fast. At the end of 2024, there were roughly 100 Gen 2 units in Los Angeles and a pilot handful in Miami.  Management has already built and deployed 250 new Gen 3 robots in the first quarter of 2025, and it is on track to have 2,000 Gen 3 units live by year-end across Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, and Atlanta. Each Gen 3 robot costs about half as much to manufacture as its predecessor, carries 30% more cargo, and runs 50% longer per charge.

Once it reaches 2,000 robots, it expects $60 million to $80 million in annual revenue run rate, expected next year. It is likely that this company could have tens of thousands of robots or more in the long term. Uber claimed it had a million U.S. drivers around six years ago. That number is likely higher, though not all of those drivers are doing deliveries.

Regardless, even 20,000 robots give you a $700 million annual revenue run rate. By then, revenue per robot could be even higher.

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