AI Is About to Change the PC Market: 2 Stocks to Buy Now

The market for artificial intelligence (AI) is in high demand in the enterprise arena, but AI has yet to boost the consumer PC market. Worldwide PC shipments have fallen from 341 million in 2021 to 241 million in 2023, according to Statista.

However, conditions for a PC recovery are on the horizon. Microsoft will be ending support for Windows 10 next year, which is expected to drive adoption of next-generation PCs optimized for AI applications. Gartner expects AI PCs to make up 43% of PC shipments in 2025, up from 17% in 2024, which implies a strong upgrade cycle.

Here are two stocks that can help you profit from this opportunity.

1. Micron Technology

Micron Technology's (NASDAQ: MU) leadership in memory and solid-state drives (SSDs) is creating robust growth opportunities in the data-center market. The company just completed its fiscal year with record data-center revenue, driven by demand from both traditional and AI servers. The stock's recent pullback is a great buying opportunity, since more powerful AI-optimized PCs will require more memory and storage capacity, which should provide another catalyst for Micron's business.

Micron expects the end of support for Windows 10 and the launch of Windows 12 to trigger strong sales next year. New AI applications may require people with older PCs to upgrade. For example, new AI PCs will require around 32 gigabytes (GB) of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) to run smoothly, which is higher than the 12 GB average for all PCs last year. This should drive demand for Micron's latest SSD and memory products that can handle resource-intensive software.

Even with weak PC demand this year, Micron's data-center business helped drive strong growth last quarter, with revenue up 93% year over year, as the company is starting to emerge from a down cycle. AI is the catalyst that is driving growth for Micron, and a recovery in PC shipments next year could have the company firing on all cylinders in 2025.

Micron's outlook calls for accelerating growth in the second half of calendar 2025. Wall Street analysts expect the company's earnings to increase by 42%. If Micron shares trade at their historical average price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 16, the share price could reach $204 next year, implying upside of 94%.

2. Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) stock has climbed higher over the last year but recently was trading 32% off its highs. It is a tale of two businesses: AI-driven demand in Dell's server business is overshadowing weak performance in the PC business; half of Dell's business is dependent on the PC market, where revenue from the client-solutions segment fell 4% year over year in the second quarter.