These AI stocks have seen the biggest jump in popularity among the pros

Artificial intelligence names have become some of the most widely embraced stocks among professional investors, with several AI-linked companies seeing the biggest jump in ownership by active U.S. equity mutual funds in the past year, Bank of America found. The bank’s latest analysis of portfolio holdings found that technology firms tied to the AI boom dominated the list of S & P 500 names with the largest increase in “ownership breadth,” or the share of funds holding a stock. Bank of America said the data is based on a monthly analysis of the holdings of actively managed U.S. large-cap equity mutual funds. The firm aggregates those positions into a bottom-up composite to gauge how professional portfolio managers are positioned in U.S. equities. Defense tech play Palantir Technologies led the ranking, with ownership among active large-cap mutual funds climbing to 32% from just 7% a year ago. Other AI-exposed companies also saw a sharp rise in popularity among professional investors. Broadcom and GE Vernova both registered roughly 16-percentage-point increases in fund ownership, while Amphenol , a maker of fiber optic connectors, and software stock AppLovin each climbed by about 12 percentage points. Networking and infrastructure players such as Arista Networks and Western Digital also made the list, reflecting strong investor demand for companies tied to the build-out of data centers and AI computing. The list also included large technology platforms such as Meta Platforms and Netflix , which saw ownership breadth rise as fund managers increasingly view AI as a key driver of future growth in areas such as advertising, content recommendation and productivity tools. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.