Gartner, Inc.

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Bullish +75

10 Best Rising AI Stocks to Buy Now

AI-generated analysis

๐Ÿš€ Gartner projects worldwide AI spending will reach $2.52 trillion in 2026, representing a 44% year-over-year increase.

๐Ÿ› ๏ธ A significant portion of this spending is directed toward infrastructure, with AI-optimized servers and semiconductors alone accounting for over $597 billion.

๐Ÿข Enterprise adoption is shifting from pilot programs to operational use, with worker access to AI rising by 50% in the past year.

โšก Scaling AI now depends heavily on power availability, chip supply, workflow redesign, and implementation discipline alongside model quality.

๐Ÿ“ˆ Gartner indicates incumbent software providers will likely serve as the primary channels for enterprise AI adoption in 2026.

๐Ÿ“‰ BWS Financial raised its price target on A10 Networks to $28 and maintained a Buy rating following strong financial results.

๐Ÿ’ฐ A10 Networks reported record fourth-quarter revenue of $80.4 million and full-year revenue of $290.6 million, up 11% year over year.

๐Ÿค– NETSCOUT Systems extended its Omnis AI Insights offering to communications service providers to turn network traffic into AI-ready data.

๐Ÿ“ก NETSCOUT aims to help telecom operators deploy AI agents for predictive maintenance and security while reducing operational risk.

๐ŸŽฏ The selection of these stocks was based on criteria including a market cap over $1 billion and recent positive stock price momentum.

๐Ÿ† These companies are popular among analysts and elite hedge funds, with the underlying research showing significant outperformance against benchmarks.

๐Ÿ“… NETSCOUT plans to showcase its new offering at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from March 2-5, 2026.

Bullish Signals
  • Global AI spending projected to reach $2.52 trillion in 2026, representing a 44% year-over-year increase.
  • The market is seeing a shift from pilot programs to wider operational use of enterprise AI, with weekly ChatGPT Enterprise messages increasing roughly 8x over the past year and structured workflows rising 19x year-to-date.
  • A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) reported record fourth-quarter revenue of $80.4 million and full-year 2025 revenue of $290.6 million, up 11% year over year.
  • Investment firm BWS Financial raised its price target on A10 Networks to $28 from $24 and maintained its Buy rating, citing a growth outlook through 2028 that is stronger than its outlook for 2026.
  • NETSCOUT announced that it had extended its Omnis AI Insights offering to communications service providers on February 19, 2026.
  • McKinsey survey data cited in the release indicates that 64% of telecom executives are scaling AI efforts, presenting a significant opportunity for NETSCOUT's solutions.
  • The company is positioned to help telecom operators deploy AI agents for predictive maintenance, service assurance, and security while reducing costs and operational risk.
  • NetScout will showcase its extended offering at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on March 2-5, 2026, providing visibility to a major industry event.
  • NETSCOUT's portfolio of observability, AIOps, cybersecurity, and DDoS protection solutions serves enterprises, service providers, and public sector organizations.
  • The company's data-centric approach addresses a key barrier to scaling AI identified by 45% of executives in the McKinsey survey as the main hurdle for growth.
Risk Factors
  • A large share of the $2.52 trillion projected AI spending in 2026 is going into infrastructure rather than finished business outcomes, suggesting potential capital inefficiency.
  • Only 34% of organizations are truly reimagining their business around AI despite high adoption rates, indicating a significant gap between deployment and organizational redesign.
  • AI processing semiconductors alone will account for $267.9 billion in 2026 infrastructure spending, raising concerns about concentration risk and potential supply bottlenecks.
  • Scaling the industry now depends heavily on power availability, with data-centre electricity consumption projected to nearly double from 415 TWh in 2024 to 945 TWh by 2030, driven primarily by AI.
  • The industry faces implementation discipline challenges as adoption broadens unevenly across enterprises and sectors.
  • Data remains the main barrier for scaling AI efforts according to McKinsey survey results, with 45% of telecom executives identifying it as a critical hurdle.
Full Analysis
The AI industry is experiencing rapid expansion in early 2026, with Gartner projecting worldwide AI spending to reach $2.52 trillion, representing a 44% year-over-year increase. Despite this growth, the sector remains heavily invested in infrastructure rather than finished business outcomes, with AI-optimized servers and AI processing semiconductors expected to account for significant portions of that spend. Enterprise adoption is shifting from pilot programs to operational use, with Deloitteโ€™s 2026 enterprise AI report indicating a 50% rise in worker access to AI in 2025 and a projected doubling of companies running at least 40% of their AI projects in production within six months. However, only 34% of organizations are fully reimagining their business around AI, suggesting that deployment is advancing faster than organizational redesign. OpenAIโ€™s 2025 enterprise report supports this trend, noting an eightfold increase in weekly ChatGPT Enterprise messages and a 19-fold rise in the use of structured workflows like Projects and Custom GPTs year to date. Analysts emphasize that infrastructure burdens will continue to grow, with data-center electricity consumption projected by the IEA to rise from 415 TWh in 2024 to approximately 945 TWh by 2030, driven primarily by AI demand. Scaling the industry now depends on power availability, chips, workflow redesign, and implementation discipline rather than model quality alone. To identify investment opportunities within this landscape, a screener was applied to select technology stocks with a market cap over $1 billion, price changes between 5% and 30% in three months, and positive moving average crossovers. The strategy involves imitating top hedge fund picks, a method that reportedly generated a 498.7% return for a newsletter since May 2014 by selecting stocks with recent noteworthy developments and high analyst interest. A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) emerged as a key selection following BWS Financialโ€™s February 20, 2026 price target raise to $28 from $24, citing benefits from AI-related network traffic growth. The company reported record fourth-quarter revenue of $80.4 million and full-year 2025 revenue of $290.6 million, with GAAP net income of $42.1 million and non-GAAP net income of $66.3 million. Management projects revenue growth of 10% to 12% for 2026, driven by AI infrastructure demand and customer data center buildouts. NetScout Systems (NASDAQ:NTCT) was also highlighted after announcing on February 19, 2026, that it extended its Omnis AI Insights offering to communications service providers to help transform raw network traffic into AI-ready smart data. The company plans to showcase this technology at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from March 2-5, 2026, aiming to assist telecom operators with predictive maintenance and service assurance while reducing operational risk.