Palantir (PLTR)
PLTR jumped nearly 40% in one week and acted as a catalyst that pulled money into technology, shifting the AI trade toward software. Earlier in the year AI money focused on semiconductors and infrastructure build. In the last couple weeks it moved to software, and PLTR showed it can build AI into a company's existing data sets and change how the business runs.
One example is City Wealth. Their compliance staff had trouble cross-checking client records, and bringing on a new client could take days. After they plugged in PLTR's solution, that time dropped from 9 days to seconds, and a process that used to need up to 50 people now needs one. A compliance job that took 50 bankers 9 days became a single click. That kind of change is the next stage of AI excitement.
Warby Parker (WRBY)
The core business is already appealing. LensCrafters has around 1,000 stores; WRBY has only 300, so there is a lot of room to grow store space.
The bigger story is the partnership with Google Glasses. The launch is a few weeks away. The first version of Google AI Glasses will be audio only, so it will not be the killer app yet. Retail buyers still want to see how AI fits into daily life. Next year Google AI Glasses will have a built-in display, the real next step. One shown feature is live translation, giving on-screen captions of a spoken language in real time, so a traveler does not need to learn a new language.
This will pull traffic into WRBY stores. People will want to try on the glasses and test them. Even shoppers who do not buy AI Glasses may decide they need new sunglasses or readers. More traffic means more sales growth.
Chewy (CHWY)
CHWY started as a pandemic-era hype growth stock and is now turning into a value and efficiency play. The pet business is mostly recession-proof. CHWY gains because it runs an online duopoly, mainly against Amazon (AMZN), with 35% market share. 84% of its revenue comes from auto ship, giving recurring revenue quarter after quarter, which is rare in retail.
CHWY has spent 7 years slowly building a vet and health business and now plans to speed it up. That gives room to expand margins and lift EBITDA margins from 5% to 10%. The result is a steady business with an added lift that can widen margins and speed up growth in a recession-proof market.
