AI Stocks Face High-Stakes Earnings as Nvidia, Palantir, CoreWeave and Snowflake Battle for Market Leadership

AI Stocks Face Critical 'Show Me' Moment: Nvidia, Palantir, CoreWeave, Snowflake in Focus

The AI stock scene is shifting. Investors are cautious amid concerns about a potential AI market correction. Key players like Nvidia (NVDA), Palantir (PLTR), CoreWeave (CRWV), and Snowflake (SNOW) are under the microscope. Giants such as Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) see generative AI as both an opportunity and a risk.

Many companies are now highlighting AI roadmaps, but the real value lies in those using AI to improve products or gain a strategic advantage. Cloudflare (NET), for instance, has surged 86% in 2025 after introducing options to block AI crawlers, protecting web content from unauthorized AI scraping.

AI Stocks to Watch: Earnings and Market Moves

Palantir's stock has gained 134% this year but recently pulled back over 6% from its August peak. CoreWeave, a newer AI cloud services player renting Nvidia GPU servers, soared 150% in 2025 but fell sharply after its IPO lock-up expired and earnings were released. At its June high, CoreWeave shares were up 367%.

Nvidia's earnings report is due August 27, alongside Snowflake and CrowdStrike (CRWD). Wall Street expects Nvidia earnings per share to rise 47% to $1 and revenue to jump 53% to $45.8 billion. Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider expects a strong quarter driven by increased hyperscaler spending and the Blackwell GPU ramp.

In a rare move, Nvidia and AMD agreed to let the U.S. government take 15% of their revenue from certain AI chips sold to China. Nvidia, a bellwether in AI chips, has gained 34% in 2025 despite setbacks linked to China-based AI models. AMD, by contrast, has seen its stock dip 3%. Meanwhile, Broadcom (AVGO) is up 31% this year, supplying custom AI chips to major players including Google, Meta, and ByteDance, with Apple, OpenAI, and xAI as potential clients.

Cloud Computing Drives AI Chip Demand

Tech giants’ cloud infrastructure investments continue to fuel AI hardware demand. Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google spent nearly $100 billion on data centers, chips, and AI equipment in their latest quarter. Microsoft and Google reported cloud revenue growth beating expectations, while Amazon’s cloud revenue growth lagged but still maintains higher profit margins than its e-commerce business.

Oracle (ORCL) has also benefited from its cloud computing efforts, especially its partnership with OpenAI's Stargate project, with stock up 49% this year. Data center infrastructure companies like Arista Networks (ANET) have risen 24%, driven by the need for faster network switches in hyperscale data centers.

Software Plays Show Mixed Results

Software companies face challenges turning AI pilots into commercial success. Many are shifting focus from conversational "copilots" to autonomous, goal-driven AI agents. Firms like Palantir, Snowflake, and Databricks excel in data management, essential for training AI models and building AI applications. Snowflake stock has risen 29% this year.

However, some large-cap software stocks lag behind. Concerns exist around traditional per-seat licensing models, as AI-driven productivity gains could reduce the number of users. Salesforce (CRM) and ServiceNow (NOW), for example, are down 27% and 18%, respectively, in 2025. Salesforce plans to acquire Informatica for $8 billion to strengthen its AI capabilities. Adobe (ADBE) and HubSpot (HUBS) are also trading lower this year.

Meta’s Major Investment in Scale AI

Meta shares have gained 34% in 2025 as the company reshapes its AI strategy. Meta invested $14.9 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI, which specializes in data labeling to train large language models. Scale’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, recently joined Meta's new AI research lab focused on pursuing advanced AI capabilities.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined five growth pillars for AI: enhanced advertising, richer social media experiences, business messaging, the Meta AI app, and AI-powered devices including spatial computing. The Meta AI app, launched in April with the Llama 4 model, offers chatbot and web search features and is integrated into Instagram and WhatsApp.

Apple’s AI Progress Trails Peers

Apple released its open-source Llama 4 AI model family in April but delayed the rollout of its powerful Llama 4 Behemoth model. Apple stock has fallen nearly 8% in 2025. The company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June revealed no major AI breakthroughs, and it continues to lose AI talent.

Speculation surrounds Apple potentially acquiring Perplexity to boost its generative AI efforts. With the iPhone 17 launch expected in September 2025, analysts are watching closely to see how Apple will enhance its AI features, including the voice assistant Siri, which remains behind competitors in AI sophistication.

OpenAI’s Growing Influence

Valued at $300 billion after a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank, OpenAI builds large, multimodal foundation models. Its partnership with Microsoft remains complex but critical. JPMorgan analyst Brenda Duverce warns that OpenAI’s innovations could disrupt hardware, software, and advertising sectors, creating new markets and business models.

Competition among AI models is intense, focusing on reasoning, multimodal capabilities, and computing efficiency. Anthropic, valued at $61.5 billion with backing from Amazon, is another AI model developer to watch. While “training” AI models drives current capital spending, the market is expected to shift toward “inferencing,” or running AI applications, over time.

AI Stocks to Watch by Industry

• Nvidia (NVDA): Leading semiconductor fabless company supplying chips for cloud AI workloads. Holds a strong edge over AMD.
• CrowdStrike (CRWD): Security software innovating with AI chatbots to automate threat detection and response.
• Arista Networks (ANET): Provides high-speed network switches essential for hyperscale data centers supporting AI growth.
• Microsoft (MSFT): Major investor in OpenAI; drives revenue through Azure cloud and AI-powered business tools like Office 365 Copilot.
• Salesforce (CRM): Shifting focus to autonomous AI agents, exploring new subscription models.
• Amazon (AMZN): Upgrading Alexa and collaborating with AI rivals Anthropic, Hugging Face, and Falcon 40B on cloud AI services.

For IT, development, and product teams, these AI stocks reflect ongoing shifts in cloud infrastructure, data management, and AI application development. Staying informed on these companies' moves can guide strategic decisions in AI adoption and investment.

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