Is Celestica Inc. (CLS) the Hidden Gem in AI Data Center Infrastructure Investment? - InvestingChannel

Is Celestica Inc. (CLS) the Hidden Gem in AI Data Center Infrastructure Investment?

We recently published a list of 20 AI News and Analyst Ratings You Should Not Miss. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Celestica Inc. (NYSE:CLS) stands against the other AI news and analyst ratings that you should not miss.

The artificial intelligence (AI) market continues to show tremendous growth, with significant advances across sectors. According to a report by McKinsey on the AI industry, the AI revolution is driving innovation across industries, with investment in AI increasing sevenfold in recent years despite economic downturns in other tech sectors. This surge is primarily fueled by the growing demand for AI applications in data analysis, content generation, and predictive modeling. In particular, generative AI has drawn the most attention, revolutionizing industries like marketing, customer service, and product design​. Moreover, high-performing companies are heavily investing in AI to gain a competitive edge. These firms, often referred to as AI high performers, allocate a significant portion of their digital budgets – over 20% – to AI technologies. They prioritize AI not only for cost reductions but also for new revenue streams.

Read more about these developments by accessing 33 Most Important AI Companies You Should Pay Attention To and 20 Industrial Stocks Already Riding the AI Wave.

The market for AI applications is set to expand even further, with several industry reports predicting that by 2030, AI could contribute up to $13 trillion to the global economy. Over a course of the next decade, informed estimates by investment advisors at Goldman Sachs indicate that these AI tools could drive a 7% increase in global GDP, worth nearly $7 trillion, and lift productivity growth by 1.5 percentage points overall. Moreover, the bank expects established businesses around the world to spend nearly $1 trillion on developing AI infrastructure in the coming years

Prominent businesses have taken note of these developments. Latest reports suggest that investment titan BlackRock, in partnership with tech giants is likely to launch a more than $30 billion fund focused on AI. The fund will invest in artificial intelligence infrastructure to build data centers and energy projects. The need for energy is a source of particular interest to the business community as AI models require substantial computational power, leading to higher energy consumption.

The sheer scale of computational power required for AI workloads has also forced tech giants to build supercomputer clusters, stringing together expensive chips, cooling systems, networking tools, and other high-tech gear to crunch data. These AI data centers will likely consume a growing amount of energy as the use cases of AI expand. McKinsey estimates that by 2025, 15% to 20% of all data center workloads will be AI-driven, compared to less than 5% in 2020. Furthermore, according to a report from the International Energy Agency, AI data centers could account for as much as 13% of global electricity demand by 2030 if current growth trends continue. Tech giants are thus investing billions of dollars into expanding their AI infrastructure.

Our Methodology

For this article, we selected AI stocks based on the latest news and analyst ratings. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

A close-up of a circuit board with components depicting the intricate electronic componentry products the company produces.

Celestica Inc. (NYSE:CLS)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 38 

Celestica Inc. (NYSE:CLS) offers a range of product manufacturing and related supply chain services. The company is involved in the manufacture and marketing of connectivity products for AI data centers, which include 400G and 800G switches, and storage solutions. In the second quarter earnings call, Rob Mionis, the CEO of Celestica Inc. (NYSE:CLS), noted that there was strong demand for the Hardware Platform Solutions marketed by the firm, comprising storage, compute, and networking products. This healthy demand, likely to increase in the coming months as hyperscalers invest in AI data centers, had helped the firm post a more than 50% year-to-year increase in connectivity revenues in the second quarter.

Celestica Inc. (NYSE:CLS) recently earned a ratings upgrade from Stifel, which boosted the stock to Buy from Hold with an unchanged price target of $58. In an investor note, Stifel analysts noted that the shares of the manufacturing firm were down since July because of concerns of slowing artificial intelligence investments from hyperscale customers following key supplier earnings reports. However, the note added that the fiscal 2025 earnings per share estimate of $4 remained entirely achievable and already reflected an expected decline in server sales due to a technology transition at top customer Google.

Overall CLS ranks 13th on our list of AI news and analyst ratings that you should not miss. While we acknowledge the potential of CLS as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CLS but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

 

READ NEXT: $30 Trillion Opportunity: 15 Best Humanoid Robot Stocks to Buy According to Morgan Stanley and Jim Cramer Says NVIDIA ‘Has Become A Wasteland’.

 

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

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