Why the ‘Last Call’ on These 2 AI Boom Stocks Could Be Your Biggest Win VIEW IN BROWSER Tom Yeung here with your Sunday Digest. There’s a common saying among frequent travelers... If you’ve never missed a flight, you’re probably spending too much time at airports. That’s because every consultant, salesperson, and other frequent flier knows that airlines will always book you on the next available flight, especially if you have coveted “status” with them. There’s a Delta flight every hour between New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Atlanta. So, missing one of those shuttles is a minor inconvenience, especially if you (or your company credit card) spend enough money with them. (It also leaves some time to enjoy the airport bar.) That’s why I’m not usually worried about missing out on any individual opportunity. We all know that the best time to invest in Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) would have been in late 2022, ideally a month before ChatGPT’s release. Every $10,000 invested then would be worth $140,000 today. But those who jumped in a year later, when I gave Nvidia a split-adjusted $160 target price, still would have walked away with a 125% profit. There have also been subsequent opportunities to profit from artificial intelligence. Shares of AI software firm Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) have risen fivefold in the past year. And the three AI recommendations I made last week are already up double digits on average, even after Thursday’s selloff: - Albemarle Corp. (ALB): +6%
- Plug Power Inc. (PLUG): +13%
- USA Rare Earth Inc. (USAR): +14%
You’ll notice, however, that these picks become increasingly risky as the clock ticks down. Much like showing up late to the last Delta flight of the day, there’s a growing chance that investors will miss out entirely if they don’t act soon enough. That’s why I highly recommend you watch Wall Street legend Louis Navellier’s brand-new free presentation. In it, he explains why artificial intelligence is creating a boom in copper, and why a major trend in mining could be one of the last great investments to make at this point in the AI Revolution. Click here to watch it now. In addition, I’m adding two more companies to the group I suggested last week. Though getting in later involves additional risk, that’s the tradeoff for taking one of the last flights out. The Albemarle Competitor Last week, I noted how the mad dash for AI resources had put utility-scale batteries back on the drawing board. AI data centers require enormous amounts of backup power, and their operators have turned to almost every imaginable technology to fill that need. That includes lithium-ion batteries, which could finally emerge from a multiyear slump. Since mid-June, lithium prices have inched up 6%, reversing a downward trend that’s been in place since 2022. The safest winner from this trend is Albemarle Corp. (ALB), a Chilean lithium miner I recommended last week as a company to buy. The firm owns some of the lowest-cost assets in the world, so it should remain profitable even at low lithium prices. The firm produces lithium through salt brine assets in Chile and the U.S., as well as through two joint ventures in Australia. Even at today’s depressed prices, analysts expect ALB to comfortably generate 20% EBITDA margins and positive free cash flow. It should be able to fund its dividends at 2022 levels, where they were before the lithium price crash. In addition, Albemarle owns the only active lithium mine in the U.S., in Silver Peak, Nevada, giving it significant protection from potential American tariffs. It’s a firm with the best of both worlds. Albemarle’s U.S. mine, however, will soon be joined by another American lithium producer: Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC). This mining startup is currently constructing a mine at Thacker Pass, Nevada – one of the world’s largest lithium assets. Once complete, the site could produce 160,000 metric tons of lithium annually – twice as much as Albemarle is allowed to extract from its Chilean assets. Lithium Americas’ stock is also cheap thanks to a multiyear selloff in lithium and an investor pivot away from “risk-on” assets. Shares have fallen from the $15 range in 2022 to under $3 today, pegging its market capitalization at just $600 million. LAC’s enterprise value (thanks to zero debt) is under $500 million. That makes the mining startup worth less than a 10th of the value of ALB, despite having similar long-term potential. Perhaps most importantly, Lithium Americas will be a pure play on U.S. lithium production – an industry that could surge as U.S. regulators add tariffs on AI-based metal imports. On Tuesday, President Trump announced he would slap a 50% tariff on copper imports. Then on Thursday, the Department of Defense announced it was making a $400 million investment in an American miner of rare-earth metals. That means American lithium could be next. Though shares of LAC remain risky for its startup nature, the AI metals revolution tells us the payoff could still make it worthwhile. Utility-Scale Energy Storage In 2018, Siemens AG (SIEGY) and The AES Corp. (AES) created a joint venture to offer electricity storage systems to industrial-scale customers. They named the entity Fluence Energy Inc. (FLNC), and the venture quickly became an incredible growth story. Revenues rose sixfold from $92 million in 2019 to $561 million in 2020… then doubled again by 2022. Investors were understandably excited in 2021 when Fluence went public. Clean-tech stocks were the talk of Wall Street, and dozens of startups were notching multibillion-dollar valuations… even ones without working products. Fluence’s valuation quickly rose to $7 billion, a 10X multiple of sales. The price boom proved unsustainable at the time. In the following years, dozens of electric vehicle companies would collapse, including Nikola Corp. (NKLA) – a firm accused of filming its trucks rolling down a hill to make it appear they had a working product. EV charging compan Blink Charging Co. (BLNK) lost 98% of its value. Fluence’s share price wasn’t immune to the crash. The stock lost as much as 90% of its original value as investors fled the sector. It remains 75% below its original IPO price. Yet, the Northern Virginia-based company has continued to grow. In 2024, it saw revenues rise 24% after inking significant deals, including a 2.2-gigawatt (GW) project with Excelsior Energy Capital. The company has continued to add more deals in 2025, including a 1 GW deal with Cordelio Power and several smaller ventures in Europe. We’ll see a temporary slowdown in momentum in 2025 as FLNC pauses $700 million of contracts to assess the impact of tariffs. But analysts expect topline growth to resume at 27% in 2026 as these projects move back online. Fluence has $4.9 billion in its backlog – enough to fuel two years of revenues. In addition, power demands from AI are adding a massive strain on municipal electricity grids. Electricity bills are expected to rise 20% in the Mid-Atlantic PJM territory this summer – a region that serves over 60 million customers – and officials in the region are warning of shortages as soon as 2026. Similar situations are unfolding across the country, prompting the Department of Energy to warn that power outages could increase 100-fold by 2030. That would provide a long-term tailwind for Fluence. Utility-scale solar and battery farms can take as little as eight months to build, compared to two years for gas-fired plants and 10 years for nuclear power. The Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group, expects solar installations will grow 12% from 2027 to 2030 – an impressive figure given the removal of a 30% solar tax credit on residential installations. That means we’re going to see far more batteries needed in addition to gas, wind, hydrogen, and every other power-generating technology out there. And given Fluence’s low starting price, don’t be surprised if this AI-powered “train” soon leaves the station. The Last Flight Out of LaGuardia Most travelers heading to Atlanta will want to avoid the last Delta flight out of LaGuardia. The delays from earlier in the day tend to accumulate, so only 58% of these 8:30 p.m. flights leave on time. A third of these are more than 30 minutes late, compared to just 7% of shuttles leaving earlier in the day. Besides, how many people want to arrive in Atlanta at 11 p.m.? However, these holdups can be a blessing in disguise for travelers running behind schedule or stuck on slow connecting flights. A couple of extra minutes is the difference between getting home that night or suffering on an airport bench until the following morning. The metals and infrastructure companies of the AI Revolution are similar in that regard. These companies are unattractive in normal times because of their high capital investments and long payback periods. The average metals and mining company has returned just 14% annually over the past decade, compared to a 29% figure for software firms. Among utility companies, returns are just 7%. These same factors, however, mean institutional investors have largely overlooked this sector. Valuations remain relatively low, even as growth looks like it’s just around the corner. But Louis wants to change that by bringing this opportunity directly to investors like you. So once again, I encourage you watch Louis’s special free broadcast, where he outlines why this forgotten sector is so critical to powering artificial intelligence... And how there’s still time to catch that last flight out. Don’t miss out – click here to watch now. Until next week, Tom Yeung, CFA
Market Analyst, InvestorPlace | 
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