How We'll Find the Real Winners in the AI Economy

Editor's note: Wall Street is always changing... and so are we.

Starting Friday, February 27, This Week on Wall Street will hit your inbox with a different name and a different format. I'll explain more below, but beginning next week, we're calling this publication Top Stocks.

Your first issue will hit your inbox on Friday afternoon like always. But as you'll see, I'm going to take a different approach to delivering you all the financial insights you'll need.

Dear subscriber,

For the past four weeks, I've been sharing our company's 2025 investment results in our annual Report Card series.

If you missed our performance, be sure to check out Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV of this year's Report Card.

It's important. If you're a Stansberry Research reader, you need to know how well (or poorly) we've been doing.

But I picked a hell of a few weeks to take "off"...

The market is changing.

Since early 2023, stocks have been rewarding... but boring.

There has been really only one story: artificial intelligence. And it has driven all kinds of stocks up.

That goes for technology stocks, utilities, commodities, energy... If it was tied to AI or the AI build-out, shares rose.

And even if it wasn't tied to AI... well, most stocks were still doing well. AI promised businesses lower costs, better efficiency, and wider profit margins.

That changed at the end of January.

AI leader Anthropic released its new Claude Cowork tool. It makes Claude more than "just a chatbot" and will reportedly deliver some long-hyped efficiency gains for knowledge workers.

Claude Cowork can handle complex, multistep tasks... organize, analyze, and edit user files... and scan dozens of PDFs to create a comprehensive report.

That spooked investors.

Of course, Anthropic's Claude Code poured some fuel on the fire with advances in cowriting. (Yes, the AI is now writing its own code.)

The result: ripples of disruption throughout the market.

Software stocks got hammered first... because who needs software companies if anyone can write their own customer code?

That question erased $300 billion worth of market value in a day – and software stocks are still in decline...

But it didn't stop there.

Folks used to say that data was the new gold. But if it's easier to track and manage complicated data, you may not need services like the ones FactSet Research Systems (FDS) and S&P Global (SPGI) offer...

And if AI's going to do everyone's job... then we don't need places for people to work. AI doesn't need an office. So commercial real estate stocks started tanking dramatically, too...

And then, last week, trucking stocks got hammered...

On this front, the Wall Street Journal reported...

The sell-off appears to have been sparked by a news release from a Florida firm called Algorhythm Holdings, which said its SemiCab unit had boosted customers' freight volumes more than 300% "without a corresponding increase in operational headcount."

Prior to August, the company's main business was selling karaoke machines, according to securities filings. It said it sold the karaoke business in August and changed its name to Algorhythm, from The Singing Machine Company.

While the airlines, railroads and trucking firm stocks tanked Thursday, Algorhythm's own shares rose 30% to trade at about $1.08.

(I mentioned this story in last week's Report Card installment as well.)

If that final example doesn't leave it unsaid, I'll say it...

This washout is getting ridiculous.

Chuck Akre – an underappreciated investing legend who has run Akre Capital Management for two decades – focuses on holding a few high-quality stocks with conviction.

He owns AI victim Salesforce (CRM), and he's buying more. As he explains...

We have spent our time as a research team actively trying to shake our conviction, to understand the vulnerabilities to AI that the market is ascribing. So far, we have failed to do so... Given our conviction, we are doing the only thing that makes sense to us in the face of this fear-driven AI stampede over the dominant businesses we own: leaning in and buying more of these great businesses.

It feels like too much, too fast. And I've seen this before.

But there will be winners. And there will be losers.

This Isn't the Same AI Boom

The game has changed. We can no longer bet on a promised utopian AI future of high growth and high profits.

It's clear now that there will be winners and losers. And everyone is trying to figure out who is who.

Goldman Sachs (GS) says you should buy software firms with "regulatory entrenchment, integration complexity, or human accountability"... but short those with "workflows that AI could increasingly automate or rebuild internally."

That's a start.

But this isn't going to affect just software. All kinds of companies will battle with new competitors, new challenges, and new technology.

You've got to be on the right side of it.

That's why we're setting This Week on Wall Street up for a new era...

We need to dig deeper into specific stocks. We need to understand the businesses operating in this new market... and the steps they're taking to survive and thrive in this new economy.

As such, we're renaming this letter Top Stocks.

Each week, I'll bring in an expert from our stable to analyze a particular company you need to know about.

We'll have a conversation (one which we'll record live for you to watch on our YouTube channel). And give you an inside look at how we work through a company and judge whether it's investment worthy or not.

It'll be condensed and straight to the point... And we'll always recap the key points from each interview.

Rest assured, if you read (and watch) Top Stocks each week, you'll soon have a deep and valuable store of knowledge about dozens of important investment opportunities to help you grow your wealth.

We'll kick off on Friday, February 27, so stay tuned.

I can't wait for you to join us.

What Our Experts Are Reading and Sharing... 

• The recent AI-driven market crash is just one more reason for this technology to become a massive political issue. Power prices are going up due to data centers. People are worried about their jobs. And now, as the Financial Times reports, Republicans are facing a "revolt in the MAGA heartlands" over AI fears. "I have grandchildren... It does concern me that they're being drawn into a world that isn't real," says one Trump supporter.

• You are paying for tariffs. That's no surprise, if you've followed my work. But real economic data hasn't necessarily shown it... until now. A new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently found that 90% of the tariff costs fell on U.S. companies and consumers last year.

• As I've long said, you need to buy real assets and companies that own them. Gold. Factories. Chemicals. As my colleague Corey McLaughlin wrote in the Stansberry Digest earlier this week, investors are starting to realize that... AI has folks scrambling for companies that make real stuff.

New Research in The Stansberry Investor Suite...

I can't tell you much about the newest recommendation in Stansberry Innovations Report.

This month's pick is predicated on the fact that the company has a major hit in the works. It will release a new product this year that will blow sales records away. We're talking billions and billions in revenue.

It's likely the most successful product, in its category, of all time.

Everybody knows it.

And if I tell you more, I'll give away the stock.

But the question isn't whether this product will be a hit. It's whether or not it will make the stock go up.

Stocks are priced on expectations. So some of this blockbuster is already "priced in" to shares.

But the team thinks that once sales start rolling in, this company's shares could conservatively jump up to 60%.

Stansberry Investor Suite subscribers can read the entire report here.

On a final note, if you're a Stansberry Investor Suite subscriber, keep an eye on your inbox.

As This Week on Wall Street converts to Top Stocks, we also have some big changes coming to your subscription.

For starters, you won't get your research via this e-mail any longer. Instead, you'll now receive a special e-mail from each of the services in your subscription sent directly to you.

Next, we're doubling the amount of high-value research you receive so you can continue to protect and grow your wealth in this changing market environment.

You should receive more information in the next few days, so be on the lookout.

Until next week,

Matt Weinschenk
Publisher and Director of Research

What do you think about This Week on Wall Street? Send any and all feedback to thisweek@stansberryresearch.com. We read every e-mail you send in.