The artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem was rocked recently by news that Chinese start-up DeepSeek had developed a cost-effective and competent large language model on the cheap. That revelation called into question the tens of billions of dollars that are being poured into the buildout of AI infrastructure,

Currently valued at $3.08 trillion. There is no guarantee that Microsoft will beat Apple or Nvidia to the $4 trillion milestone, but here's why I think it has the most potential to not only get there eventually but stay there for the long term.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the hottest sector on Wall Street for more than two years. First up is IonQ (NYSE: IONQ). As of this writing, shares of IonQ are up more than 275% over the past 12 months.

Such terminology gives potential investors unrealistic expectations. The stock is 46% off its 2024 all-time high, but it is still more than 500% higher than at the beginning of 2024. The stock initially rose swiftly before being crushed by the 2022 tech dive due to some financial question marks.