Chips and Data Centers Are Built. Who Turns AI into a Service Enterprises Will Keep Paying For?
A group of software companies that Morgan Stanley has recently been watching gives this question a more concrete set of subjects.
In a client report, Morgan Stanley divided AI-related opportunities into three directions: large cloud computing platforms, data centers and their supply chain, and software enablers and AI adopters. Snowflake, Datadog, ServiceNow, Cloudflare and Palantir appear on its software watchlist. This is a research view, not a disclosure of actual purchases or changes in holdings by the institution.
Hardware orders reflect demand for computing power, while software business is closer to how enterprises actually use AI. Which tasks in finance, customer service, R&D, and operations can be handed to AI, how much time that saves, and how much it is worth paying for are beginning to shape software vendors’ products and revenue structures. All five companies have enterprise customer bases, but they take different paths to turning AI usage into revenue.
