Author John C. Maxwell once wrote, “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” This quote rings especially true when it comes to technology.
Tech has been evolving for thousands of years. In 3000 B.C., people relied on horse-drawn carriages for travel. Today, we use cars powered by gasoline or electricity for transportation. And now, flying sportscars may be an option for travelers in 2026.
However, with artificial intelligence, growth isn’t optional. It’s inevitable.
AI is improving at an exponential rate. And we’re quickly reaching a tipping point where the future will look nothing like the past.
This point is known as artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Artificial general intelligence refers to AI that can mimic human cognitive abilities. Or, to put it simply, AI becoming smarter than the smartest human. It is a point of no return for developing AI technology and for humanity.
There are already some signs of what AGI will look like. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, claims that its most advanced AI models are now bordering on the second of five levels of “Super AI.” As it stands, many people can no longer tell the difference between AI chatbots and human-generated text responses.
So, AGI is coming in fast to alter life as we know it. And on its way, it will be altering entire industries.
In fact, there are seven industries that I believe AGI is going to impact in ways many folks – including those on Wall Street – have never even considered. They are industries that I also believe everyone should consider investing their capital in right now. They are data centers, raw materials and metals, energy, software, semiconductor chips, robotics, and healthcare.
These seven industries will be critical profit hotspots in the market and are set to soar on The Road to AGI.
Let’s dive in…
Road to AGI Hotspot No. 1:
Data Centers
AI technologies require enormous processing power from data centers, or “hyperscalers.”
Because this new source of demand is surging, the companies that operate data centers are ramping up their capacity by building new centers and/or boosting the capacity and speed of existing centers.
In 2024, hyperscalers like Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), and Meta Platforms Inc. (META) will invest about $200 billion in data centers, hardware, and other technologies required to deploy AI models.
This massive investment caps a multiyear data center construction wave that has doubled the total capacity of hyperscale data centers during the last four years, according to Synergy Research Group. The Group predicts capacity will double again during the next four years, as 120-130 new hyperscale centers come online each year.
Amazon’s $10 billion “Project Atlas” data center campus, under development just north of Jackson, Mississippi, will span as much as 1,700 acres once complete. The first building alone will cover 3 million square feet, or about 55 football fields. Google, too, is converting many of its existing data centers into similar behemoths.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and OpenAI have partnered to house an AI supercomputer called “Stargate” in a $100 billion data center planned for a little-known place called Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. This is costs 100 times more than current data centers. The project, which will likely be financed by Microsoft, will be significantly more expensive than the company’s previous year’s capital spending.
The land suitable for data centers is quickly becoming the subject of heated bidding wars. In fact, right now, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon are all racing to build data centers right outside Mount Pleasant, which is home to just 11,000 people.
So, as AGI advances, even more data centers will be required to house the technology.
Road to AGI Hotspot No. 2:
Raw Materials and Metals
Artificial intelligence has added a powerful tailwind to platinum demand… a tailwind that AGI will kick in to high gear.
At present, electronics and technology end-uses account for only 3% of total platinum demand. However, thanks to AI, the tech sector’s platinum consumption could grow by the double digits for several years in a row.
According to research from Metals Focus, a boom in demand for AI applications will create an echo-boom in demand for the high-specification semiconductors and sensors that enable AI technologies to operate optimally.
Much of this next-gen hardware contains platinum. As the World Platinum Investment Council explains…
The performance of the myriad of miniature transistors and capacitors embedded into an integrated circuit is enhanced by the deposition of thin platinum films onto semiconductor wafers…
These platinum films are created using a technology known as sputtering, where platinum particles are ejected and deposited onto a surface, creating a thin (only a few atomic or molecular layers thick) platinum layer.
AI-driven platinum demand could add an additional kicker to any new bull market that emerges.
The rise of AGI is also boosting demand for copper, because data centers use enormous amounts of copper for power and cooling systems. Even moderately sized data centers can require several thousand tons of the metal.
All this makes copper a very attractive business to be in – for mining companies and investors alike.
Road to AGI Hotspot No. 3: Energy
The energy sector already plays a pivotal role in powering AI’s digital revolution.
In 2023, global investment in all forms of energy hit a record-high $2.8 trillion, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Of that total, fossil fuel investments accounted for about $1 trillion, while renewable energy investments accounted for the remaining $1.8 trillion.
By 2030, overall electricity demand is projected to surge up to 20%. AI data centers alone are expected to consume an additional 323 terawatt hours of electricity demand; that’s seven times greater than New York City’s 48 terawatt hours of electricity demand.
According to a Goldman Sachs report released in April, the surge in demand from AI and data centers will be met by a mix of energy sources. While natural gas is expected to fulfill 60% of this increased demand, renewables would cover the remaining 40%.
Wells Fargo projects a seismic shift in gas consumption due to AI’s significant energy needs, which will be driven further by AGI’s growth. By 2030, daily gas demand could surge by a staggering 10 billion cubic feet (bcf). To put this in perspective, that would represent a 28% jump from the current 35 bcf/day used for U.S. electricity generation. This would boost the nation’s total gas consumption by 10%, pushing it well beyond the current 100 bcf/day mark.
Electricity-hungry AI giants like Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms are currently signaling a natural gas boom. However, massive, trillion-dollar investments continue to flow into all forms of energy generation and storage – both fossil fuels and renewables. So, thanks to AGI’s advance, the stage is also being set for renewable energy’s resurgence. Many stocks in both sectors could soar.
As such, investing alongside AGI gives us some huge energy plays we can make. If you look into where the wealthy are positioning their chips right now, energy is where you’ll find hundreds of millions of dollars flowing.
Wall Street is not yet pricing in the real impact of AGI, so energy stocks are way underpriced across the board.
Road to AGI Hotspot No. 4: Software
Software programs are the foundational building blocks of AGI. These programs help AI technology increase efficiency, automate processes, and make decisions quickly… all things that will become further developed on the Road to AGI.
In fact, the New York/San Francisco-based startup Cognition AI has already created what it calls the world’s first fully autonomous AI software engineer, called Devin. Some even claim that it is the first AGI agent.
Devin can start and complete software projects all on its own. All it needs is a starting prompt.
In a demo put out by the company, Devin is asked to evaluate Llama 2, the large language model (LLM) from Meta Platforms. It first makes a seven-step action plan for itself. Devin has its own command line (a text-based interface used to interact with a computer’s program), code editor, and browser. Devin then searches its browser to learn how to better answer its user’s prompt. When it runs into an unexpected error, Devin debugs its code. Finally, the AI software engineer creates a website as a visual answer for the original prompt.
Highly intelligent and autonomous AGI like Devin could continue to develop advanced software programs that could bring about even more technological progress.
Road to AGI Hotspot No. 5: Semiconductors
The need for semiconductor chips has exploded over the past year, as AI depends on the chips to run the technology. As such, every major AI player has started creating their own in-house semiconductor chips.
In June alone, three tech giants announced their own in-house chips. Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) revealed “Rubin,” which will succeed its previous model, “Blackwell,” announced just a few months previously. At the same time, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) revealed two upcoming series of chips, MI350 and MI400. Intel Corp. (INTC) also announced its upcoming sixth-generation Xeon chip a few days after Rubin was debuted.
Earlier this year, Google announced its own processors, called Axion, at the company’s Cloud Next event. They are an ARM-based CPU, which, simply put, is a specific type of chip architecture. ARM-based CPUs are extensively used in smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The processors are specifically designed to manage AI tasks and reduce the company’s reliance on external companies, like Nvidia. The chips are already powering YouTube ads and the Google Earth Engine.
Additionally, Microsoft created its own chip called Athena, a nod to the Greek goddess of wisdom and handicraft. The chip is designed for Microsoft’s data center servers that train and run LLMs.
The semiconductor craze exploded with the advent of artificial intelligence, and will continue to grow as we head down the Road to AGI.
Road to AGI Hotspot No. 6:
Robotics/Automation
Thanks to AGI, robots may just start to take over… at least on the factory floor.
Figure AI, a startup backed by OpenAI, released a video in August showing its latest humanoid robot, called Figure 2.0, successfully completing tasks at a BMW production plant. Figure AI had been testing its robots on a variety of chores at the Spartanburg, South Carolina, factory, and videos showed the bipedal machines handling sheet metal and operating machinery.
This marks a step forward in factory automation... and AGI. Figure 2.0 machines are designed to learn from their mistakes. So, these robots become better with time and feedback.
In mid-2023, Intel Corp.’s (INTC) venture capital arm gave a $9 million infusion into Figure AI’s Series A round, making it the first significant tech firm to invest in the startup. The other Big Tech giants jumped in with more funding this year.
The Road to Agi will continue to create avenues for success in robotics and automation, like Figure 2.0.
Road to AGI Hotspot No. 7: Healthcare
As AI infiltrates the medical field, the U.S. healthcare industry is on track to grow faster than any other sector in the United States economy.
Companies are converging with AI to bring about massive amounts of innovation in this industry. And as the healthcare industry enters the “Age of AGI,” the opportunities to capitalize on it are popping up like weeds in a garden… or perhaps like bacteria in a Petri dish.
In the biotech sector, for example, AI could revolutionize the economics of drug discovery.
First, it could boost the success rates of new therapies by prequalifying potential drug candidates more expertly than traditional trial-and-error processes could. Second, it could reduce the average expense and timeline of advancing these candidates through clinical trials by shortening the drug-development time frame.
AI could impart a game-changing efficiency to the drug-development process, and thereby shower pharmaceutical companies, in particular, with a pixie dust of enormous prosperity.
Collectively, the pharmaceutical industry seems to be banking on the pixie dust scenario. For example, all 10 of the top holdings in the iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) are actively integrating some facet of AI into their drug-development processes.
Many of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world are paying tens of billions of dollars to snap up promising biotech companies. You could call it a biotech gold rush.
The volume of M&A deals in the global healthcare sector surged about 22% in 2023, according to data provider Dealogic, even though M&A activity across all industries dropped about 23%.
I believe that the pharmaceutical industry, in aggregate, will reap handsome rewards from the expansion of AI in healthcare, especially as AGI continues to advance.
Overall, I expect AGI to impart fantastic benefits to the healthcare industry.
Summing Up
AGI has world-alerting potential, especially within the seven industries we’ve reviewed here.
It is a technology so powerful it could either end the world as we know it or usher in an unprecedented utopia.
To further discuss the implications of AGI (and how to profit), I’ve put together a presentation that dives deeper on the Road to AGI.
When you watch it, you'll get the name and details of an under-the-radar $4 stock I believe could grow their revenues 100-fold in the era of AGI.
During the presentation, you'll also get an exclusive peek into Big Tech's secretive frontier AI labs and discover why this moment marks one of the most lucrative opportunities in stock market history.
If you want to be on the right side of this technological revolution, this is your chance.
Click here to stream The Road to AGI now.
Regards,
Eric Fry
Editor, Smart Money