AI-related stocks, as tracked by the Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF CHAT, surged Monday ahead of the highly awaited NVIDIA Corp.’s NVDA GPU Technology Conference (GTC) event which will kick off later today (Monday).

The event, dubbed as the “AI Woodstock” by Bank of America analysts, underscored the growing excitement around artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to reshape the technology landscape.

Bank of America’s Vivek Arya highlighted the increasing influence of generative AI and the concept of omniverse/digital twins across a broad spectrum of industries.

Arya suggested the potential to re-architect a staggering $1-$2 trillion of global computing infrastructure with accelerators, envisioning a market that could grow to $250-$500 billion annually over the next three to five years. This expansion is further supported by growing enterprise use cases and demand from various sovereign entities.

This optimistic view led the investment bank to raise its price target for Nvidia from $925 to $1,100, showcasing a stronger-than-consesus call on the major AI player.

Price expectations are “justified given stronger growth opportunities ahead as gaming cycle troughs and data center demand potentially faces strong, long-term demand dynamics,” Arya wrote in a recent note.

However, with Nvidia’s stock soaring by 85% year-to-date and 250% over the past year, the market is on the lookout for other AI-related companies that could follow Nvidia’s trajectory or unveil their hidden potential.

Goldman Sachs Identifies Next AI Growth Phases

Goldman Sachs analysts, including Ryan Hammond, recently delineated what the company called the “next phases of the AI trade.” According to Goldman Sachs, future growth in AI would focus on AI infrastructure providers and AI-enabled companies that could leverage AI to enhance their products and services.

Despite Nvidia’s dominant position and significant returns, Goldman Sachs suggested the broader AI infrastructure ecosystem, including semiconductors, cloud services and data center REITs, would constitute the next phase of AI investment.

“History demonstrates the challenges of maintaining rapid sales growth and extremely high margins,” Goldman Sachs wrote, after pointing out Nvidia emerged as the best short-term beneficiary in the AI sector, with its earnings fueling a 522% increase in returns since the beginning of 2023.

The AI infrastructure ecosystem phase would include industries ranging from semiconductors and cloud providers to data center REITs and utilities.

Among those positioned to benefit were tech giants such as Microsoft Corp MSFT, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, and Alphabet Inc. GOOGLGOOG, alongside semiconductor leaders such as Broadcom Inc. AVGO, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. TSM, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD. Security firms like Palo Alto Networks Inc. PANW and CrowdStrike Holdings Inc CRWD, as well as utilities like NextEra Energy Inc NEE, were also highlighted as potential beneficiaries in this phase AI’s growth.

Looking further ahead, the third phase of AI adoption is set to focus on software and IT services. Companies within this domain were forecasted to be instrumental in empowering others to utilize AI technology effectively. Key players such as Meta Platforms Inc. META, MongoDB, Inc. MDB, Intuit Inc. INTU and ServiceNow, Inc. NOW were identified as having strong correlations with Nvidia’s path, indicating their potential pivotal roles in this advancing sector.

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