{"id":438787,"date":"2026-09-25T06:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T23:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/morgan-stanley-says-its-time-to-look-beyond-chips-as-ai-benefits-spread-to-airbnb-home-depot-and-more-438787\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T06:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T23:22:18","slug":"morgan-stanley-says-its-time-to-look-beyond-chips-as-ai-benefits-spread-to-airbnb-home-depot-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/morgan-stanley-says-its-time-to-look-beyond-chips-as-ai-benefits-spread-to-airbnb-home-depot-and-more-438787\/","title":{"rendered":"Morgan Stanley says it&#8217;s time to look beyond chips as AI benefits spread to Airbnb, Home Depot and more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The note gives investors a reason to rotate, not to sell: the money moving out of crowded AI hardware positions would go to software and non-tech adopters, not out of the AI theme altogether. That could support a broadening of US equity gains beyond the megacaps. The weakest point in the argument is the scarcity thesis for hardware, which rests on bottlenecks like energy shortages and politics that could ease or tighten quickly. Regulation risk now sits alongside those bottlenecks. <a href=\"https:\/\/investinglive.com\/stocks\/trump-johnson-to-meet-tech-ceos-on-ai-september-29-as-pressure-to-regulate-builds\/\" rel=\"follow\">Tuesday&#8217;s White House meeting<\/a> with tech CEOs on AI is a near-term test. Adopters and infrastructure software look less exposed to any rules on frontier models than the model builders whose spending drives chip demand.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\nMorgan Stanley&#8217;s advice is to keep the AI hardware winners but stop relying on them alone. Scarcity should keep chips profitable for longer, while the next gains come from companies actually putting AI to work.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Summary:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>Morgan Stanley recommends a &#8220;barbell&#8221; AI strategy: holding core enablers while adding AI adopters across industries<\/li>\n<li>The analysts see demand for computing power outstripping supply for years, with the build-out slowed by energy shortages, local backlash and politics<\/li>\n<li>Nvidia and Broadcom are preferred chip picks, but investors are advised to be selective with hardware<\/li>\n<li>Preferred software picks: Microsoft, Snowflake, Datadog, Cloudflare and Dynatrace<\/li>\n<li>Adopters highlighted include iRhythm and Airbnb, which put numbers on their AI gains, plus Home Depot, Procter and Gamble, GE Aerospace and Coca-Cola<\/li>\n<li>Sectors flagged for AI entrants include healthcare, real estate, autos, transportation and consumer services<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\nMorgan Stanley is urging investors to take a &#8220;barbell&#8221; approach to artificial intelligence, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/heres-how-to-position-your-portfolio-for-the-next-ai-wave-according-to-morgan-stanley-ac8f8a4a\" rel=\"follow\">MarketWatch<\/a> reported. That means holding on to the chipmakers and infrastructure names at the core of the build-out, while branching into a broader set of companies that are starting to see real gains from the technology. The recommendation came in a Thursday note from a team of analysts led by Stephen Byrd.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">On one side of the barbell sit the AI enablers. Chip and infrastructure stocks have broadly outperformed the S&amp;P 500 since the AI wave began. The analysts still see room for further gains, although they advise being selective to free up space for new ideas. Semiconductor analyst Joe Moore said demand from data-centre customers remains exceptionally strong. He named Nvidia and Broadcom among his preferred picks, on the back of spending by AI model developers.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The team expects demand for computing power to outstrip supply for years. In earlier technology cycles, market leadership typically rotated from one sector to the next as a trend matured. This time, the analysts argue, the build-out has been slowed by local backlash, energy shortages and politics. That should keep hardware scarce and give its suppliers a longer window to profit.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">On the other side of the barbell are early software enablers and AI adopters, and the analysts say now is the time to start adding exposure to them. In software, analyst Adam Wood favours infrastructure names including Microsoft, Snowflake, Datadog, Cloudflare and Dynatrace. These companies provide the underlying systems on which AI applications run.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Beyond technology, the note points to new AI entrants across healthcare, real estate, autos and consumer services. The analysts argue that the rapid scaling of large language model capabilities points to a broad opportunity for value creation. They highlight companies that are putting numbers on the benefits:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>Healthcare firm iRhythm Holdings says AI will cut the time clinicians spend reviewing medical records by almost half.<\/li>\n<li>Airbnb says its AI assistant now resolves 40% of issues without a human agent and has sharply reduced booking times.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The bank also holds positive ratings on a range of adopters in more traditional industries, including Home Depot, Procter and Gamble, GE Aerospace and Coca-Cola. Transportation and real estate are also flagged as sectors to watch.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The call comes as investors weigh how long the concentrated rally in AI hardware can run. By arguing that enablers and adopters can both work, Morgan Stanley is offering a way to stay with the AI theme while spreading bets more widely across the market.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>                            This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The note gives investors a reason to rotate, not to sell: the money moving out of crowded AI hardware positions would go to software and non-tech adopters, not out of the AI&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}