Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
Generative AI has become the most hyped technology since the smartphone, and ChatGPT is the biggest reason why.
The technology has wowed everyone from CEOs to technologists to ordinary users, performing a wide range of activities like writing poetry and computer code or explaining complex subjects in neatly packaged paragraphs. It's also passed high-level exams for law school, medical licensing, and MBA programs, and it continues to get better with regular updates.
ChatGPT (the name stands for "Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer") uses a simple chat interface to answer questions directly and is as easy to use as Google Search. The free artificial intelligence (AI) chat interface signed up 100 million users in just two months after its November 2022 launch, and it has the potential to disrupt industries from internet search to content creation. It now has 800 million weekly users.
In this article, we'll discuss the implications for ChatGPT and generative AI chatbots more generally, how you can get exposure to it as an investor, and whether you should invest in ChatGPT.
ChatGPT isn't publicly traded, and OpenAI, the company that built it, isn't either. However, there are a number of ways to get exposure to ChatGPT.
The most direct one is through Microsoft (MSFT +0.04%), the tech giant that has had a strategic partnership with OpenAI since 2019 and has invested billions of dollars into the AI startup. After ChatGPT was unveiled in late 2022, Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI, showing both the company's confidence in OpenAI's potential and its belief that artificial intelligence is the next major computing platform.
Following a recent restructuring that established OpenAI as a for-profit company, Microsoft owned 27% of the ChatGPT-maker, a stake that was worth $135 billion, as OpenAI was recently valued at $500 billion in an insider stock sale. While the new agreement gives each company more freedom to form new AI partnerships, their futures in AI are still likely to be closely tied together.
Another way to get exposure to ChatGPT is through Nvidia (NVDA +3.65%). Nvidia is one of the world's most valuable semiconductor companies and the leading producer of graphics processing units (GPUs). Its GPUs and accelerators are essentially the building blocks of artificial intelligence, training large language models like ChatGPT and processing large amounts of data. They are a key component in many machine learning models, and they have been in such high demand that there have been frequent shortages. Nvidia and OpenAI also signed an agreement recently in which Nvidia will progressively invest as much as $100 billion in OpenAI as it deploys Nvidia GPUs.
Nvidia dominates the market for data center GPUs, and it has thus far resisted competition from peers like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +6.70%) and Intel (INTC +3.25%).
Finally, Arm Holdings (ARM +0.46%) is also a good choice for investors looking to get exposure to ChatGPT and the broader generative AI revolution. Arm is a close partner with Nvidia and licenses its central processing unit (CPU) designs to Nvidia and other partners who prize it for its efficiency.
Arm's CPU designs excel at conserving power, which is why they're used in 99% of smartphones and why they're becoming popular for AI data center components. Running AI applications like ChatGPT demands a lot of power, and as that industry scales, demand for Arm's CPUs is likely to rise as well.
There are also a number of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that broadly offer exposure to stocks related to ChatGPT and generative AI.
Microsoft is best known as a diversified global tech giant. It makes money from a wide range of products, including its Windows operating system, Azure cloud infrastructure service, subscription products like its Office software suite, hardware like Surface, gaming products under Xbox, and the LinkedIn professional social network.
However, more recently, Microsoft has been getting attention for its strategic partnership with OpenAI since the company has bet big on OpenAI and ChatGPT. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has called AI the next major computing platform and has already leveraged the power of ChatGPT and OpenAI's tools in a number of products, including Azure and Copilot, Microsoft's new AI assistant.
Its partnership with ChatGPT is also delivering results in its AI partnership, as Microsoft has seen traction in Azure OpenAI. More than 80% of the Fortune 500 now use Azure OpenAI, and midway through 2025, the company said it had more than 800 million monthly active users of its AI features across its products.
If you're looking for the company that's most closely connected with OpenAI and ChatGPT, Microsoft is your best choice. However, the company is big enough that only a relatively small amount of the business is exposed to ChatGPT.
Nvidia's stock has taken off over the last decade as its graphics processing chips have become a vital part of everything from gaming to self-driving cars to artificial intelligence.
AI comes with extraordinary computing demands, and Nvidia's chips are able to handle the workload better than its competitors. Demand for its chips has skyrocketed over the last two years and is still soaring as the company sells the building blocks for AI platforms. More than two years after ChatGPT's release, Nvidia has emerged as the biggest winner from the AI boom, since cloud infrastructure companies and others need its chips to run AI models. Its revenue more than doubled over five consecutive quarters, and while it's slowed to a more moderate rate, its growth is still robust.
UBS (UBS +0.51%) estimated that 10,000 Nvidia GPUs were used to train ChatGPT, and some analysts estimate that 30,000 of its GPUs were being used to run OpenAI's chatbot, though that number is likely in the hundreds of thousands or even millions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has praised Nvidia's hardware on multiple occasions. The ChatGPT creator is also working closely with Nvidia, Microsoft, and Arm on the new Stargate Project, a $500 billion plan to build new AI data centers and promote AI research and development (R&D) in the United States.
Additionally, Nvidia has teamed up with Microsoft to build a massive cloud AI computer using tens of thousands of Nvidia GPUs and other Nvidia AI software tools.
Given Nvidia's strength in AI computing power, it looks like a good AI stock to own if you're looking for an investment that will benefit from the growth of artificial intelligence.
Arm Holdings has seen its growth rate accelerate as AI demand begins to flow. The company is benefiting from its low-power CPU architecture, which is more efficient than the x86 alternative from Intel and AMD.
Arm operates with a unique business model, earning revenue from licensing its designs and then from royalties once those products come to market. For example, one of its customers is Microsoft, which uses Arm architecture for its new Cobalt CPU. Cobalt runs cloud-native and general-purpose workloads, and reflects increasing demand for its products in the AI era.
In its recent reports, management noted strong AI demand and rising adoption of compute subsystems (CSS) across major market segments, showing it's advancing its technology to meet increased AI demand.
Arm's fortunes seem closely tied to AI demand, as the speed with which generative AI technology, including ChatGPT, gains adoption will influence the company's growth.
Although there aren't ETFs with direct exposure to ChatGPT or OpenAI, investing in ETFs can get you exposure to some of the stocks and related companies working with ChatGPT or developing their own generative AI programs. Let's take a look at a few:
If you're looking for a broader approach to a generative AI ETF, the iShares Future AI & Tech ETF (NYSEMKT:ARTY) could be a good option.
This ETF holds 48 stocks and is one of the largest ETFs focusing on AI. The fund seeks to track an index of stocks that provide products and services that are expected to contribute to artificial intelligence.
Its top three holdings include Vertiv Holding (VRT +4.92%), AMD, and Broadcom (AVGO +1.96%).
ChatGPT and OpenAI continue to be in the driver's seat of the AI boom as OpenAI is now valued at $500 billion. Naturally, there are benefits and risks to investing in such a juggernaut.
There are a number of factors that investors should take into account when looking at AI stocks. Some of those are similar to what you'd find with almost any AI stock.
If an AI stock is the leader in its category, delivering strong growth, gaining market share, and has solid long-term prospects, it looks like a good bet to be a winner.
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ChatGPT continues to release new updates, improving its product rapidly to try to stay ahead of the competition.
OpenAI introduced the latest version, ChatGPT-5, in August. The new model makes a significant leap in intelligence, according to OpenAI, and knows when to respond quickly and when to spend more time thinking to provide a detailed answer. It has a deeper reasoning model, outperforms previous models, answers questions more quickly, and is more useful for real-world questions.
Investors should expect OpenAI to continue to update ChatGPT and release new models. In fact, in December, CEO Sam Altman called for a "code red" in the company to respond to new competition, including Google's Gemini 3.
There hasn't been much talk about an initial public offering (IPO) from OpenAI, but that also seems likely at some point in the future. The company is now worth $500 billion, and investors expect an exit, or a way to get their money back at some point. The only reasonable way to do that at the current valuation would be through an IPO. The recent restructuring will make it easier for OpenAI to go public.
*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.
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Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF (CHAT +3.08%) was the first ETF designed to track generative AI stocks. Roundhill believes that generative AI will be one of the most important technological innovations of the future as it delivers significant productivity growth.
Its top three holdings are currently Alphabet, Nvidia, and Microsoft. The fund began trading in May 2023, making it one of the newer ETFs available on the market. It has an expense ratio of 0.75%.
While you can't invest in ChatGPT directly, the ideas below can help you determine if you should invest in stocks that have exposure to it.
The Invesco AI and Next Gen Software (IGPT +2.26%) focuses on AI stocks that are closely related to generative AI and ChatGPT.
Its top three holdings, for example, are Nvidia, AMD (AMD +6.70%), and Meta Platforms (META +0.29%), three companies that are all investing heavily in generative AI.
The ETF is based on the STOXX World AC NexGen Software Development Index, which comprises companies with significant exposure to technologies that contribute to advancements in software development. The ETF has been around for almost 20 years and charges an expense ratio of 0.56%.