Just when investors have a firm grasp on artificial intelligence (AI), the rules of the game are changing again. According to Deloitte’s Global “TMT Forecast 2026” report, inference will account for two-thirds of AI computing by 2026.
Inference marks the next stage in AI adoption. Training AI builds the intelligence of a model, while inference focuses on how the model performs in real-world use cases. A good example is the recent OpenClaw AI agent that runs autonomously on people’s computers.
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The main difference between AI training and inference is how they are computed. While AI inference may shift priorities from maximizing raw computing power to efficiency, there is an important conclusion: the world may need more chips, not fewer.
Here are two AI stocks poised to benefit from the inference explosion that’s just begun.
NVIDIAGPU chips have always been well-suited for heavy workloads, making them ideal for training AI models. That’s why Nvidia has dominated the data center AI chip market since early 2023. but Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) is becoming a legitimate challenger to the GPU king. Broadcom has long focused on networking chips. In artificial intelligence data centers, they help GPU clusters communicate and process information quickly.
However, Broadcom has branched out and started designing application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for: letter and anthropic. These AI hyperscalers are among Nvidia’s largest customers. Custom chips built for specific tasks are even more efficient than high-end general-purpose chips. In fact, the AI chip market is already large and still growing, so Broadcom won’t take away Nvidia’s lunch money. It does open the door for Broadcom, though.
Broadcom’s price-to-earnings ratio is as high as 70 times, so it’s certainly not cheap. That said, the company’s success with custom chips has significantly boosted long-term growth expectations over the past year. Analysts now expect Broadcom’s future earnings to grow at an annualized rate of over 30%, which could justify buying and holding the stock at current levels. Consider nibbling into the stock and saving some cash to buy on the dip. Broadcom is expected to be the big winner in the field of artificial intelligence reasoning.
The core of the AI chip and the broader chip space is located in Arm Holdings (NASDAQ: ARM). The company licenses its instruction set architecture to companies that make central processing units (CPUs) and other microchips. You can think of it as the language the chip speaks. No matter which company made the chip or what it did, it listened, spoke and acted in that language. Arm owns some industries, such as smartphones, and is expanding its presence in others.
Arm’s market share in data centers is heading toward 50%, with top hyperscalers including Amazonalphabet, meta platformand Microsoftall using Arm-based server chips. Arm also sees AI inference as a huge opportunity. Inference requires stable and efficient calculations, which is what CPUs are good at. A GPU chip is like an exotic sports car: great for driving fast, but it’s not as practical for everyday driving. In the past few years alone, Arm’s global market share has increased from 44% to 50%.
Value-focused investors might cringe at the stock’s price-to-earnings ratio of 172. Its sky-high stock price reflects the company’s wide competitive moat, eye-popping 94.8% gross margin, and long-term growth opportunities. Analysts expect Arm’s earnings to grow more than 32% annually over the long term. If adversity or broader market turmoil strikes, that may not be enough to boost Arm stock. As with Broadcom, it might be wise to keep a little cash on hand to look for better buying opportunities. Arm is a top stock that rarely comes cheap, so any dip is all the more notable.
Before buying Broadcom stock, consider the following factors:
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Justin Pope works at Alphabet and Microsoft. The Motley Fool owns and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Nvidia. “Motley Fool” recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Forget AI training: AI reasoning is the real money maker in 2026. Here are 2 stocks worth owning. Originally posted by The Motley Fool