Predicting next steps for AI companies like Nvdia

Is artificial intelligence getting ready to stumble? If so, how will that impact leading AI players like Nvidia and others?

It was just a few short years ago Nvidia NVDA was struggling along with many other new players. Today, it’s explosive growth has suddenly made it king of the hill. However, over time AI has grown in fits and spurts. So, what can we expect next?

As an industry analyst, I have been following industries like wireless, telecom and new technology like AI for decades. I have been advising them on the direction the industry is heading.

Most investors do not realize this, but AI has been with us for many decades already. Some periods were hot with rapid growth, but most were not. We called the slower times AI Winter. Then things picked up once again. This happened over and over.

Remember IBM’s Watson?

Let me give you an example. You remember IBM Watson. Watson was AI before the world was using the term AI. Watson burst onto the scene as a contestant on the TV game show “Jeopardy.” It was being developed for years prior. After that introduction, Watson seemed to explode with growth for years.

A few years later I attended the IBM World of Watson event in Las Vegas in 2016. I think this was the peak of interest for Watson. However, as exciting as this was, things quickly unwound over a few years. Today, we don’t think of IBM IBM as a leader in AI. That was IBM’s mistake.

They didn’t talk about AI. They talked about Watson. Now they are paying the price as the growth wave moved forward without them. Today we talk about AI … not one company’s name for the technology.

Then a year and a half ago, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT. This was a big surprise. All the pent-up demand juiced the next growth wave once again. Since that time, it seems many big brand-name companies and lots of smaller ones as well see their future is in a wide variety of AI technologies.

Seeing that happened to IBM and knowing AI has gone through wave after wave of hot growth then AI Winter leads some industry followers to believe today’s growth adventure is just part of this cycle of ups and downs over time.

Billions of dollars being invested by companies in AI

True, AI has grown faster than ever before. Today, billions upon billions of dollars are being invested by companies to bring their company into the AI future.

Let me first say I believe the future of AI is real. It’s not going away. However, I do not know whether we will experience the continued ebb and flow of growth going forward, or whether we have passed the point of no return and investment will only continue. We will all have to keep our eyes on what’s coming next.

In the meantime, there are many large, brand name companies in the AI space, plus there are countless smaller companies as well. They all need to be seen and heard. This is easier for the big players and very difficult for the smaller ones.

The reason is smaller companies have a hard time being seen and heard as the industry churns with news from the larger players. According to McKinsey & Company, 55 percent of companies and organizations have already begun to adopt AI technology.

The good news is there is still plenty of growth potential in AI moving forward. The only question is around the pace of that change.

AI companies to keep an eye on

Obviously, two leaders in the AI space include OpenAI and NVIDIA which have been responsible for so much recent growth.

Plus, large and small companies like Google GOOG or Alphabet, Amazon and AWS AMZN , Apple AAPL , Microsoft MSFT , IBM, Meta META , Oracle ORCL , Anthropic, C3.ai, Baidu, Databricks, H2O.ai, Salesforce CRM , Synthesis AI, Telsa TSLA , Adobe ADBE , Alibaba BABA , Intel INTC , Darktrace and so many others.

And then there is xAI, Cohere, CoreWeave, Xaira Therapeutics, Figure AI, Cyera, Augment, Glean, Cognition AI, Celestrial AI, Perplexity AI

That being said, there are countless smaller and midsize companies with a larger potential upside. I have interviewed and spoken with many of these. Look for more information on them in this column going forward.

Read more: How AI and 5G wireless are impacting every company and every industry