Investors searching for artificial intelligence winners beyond semiconductor chips are increasingly directing attention toward software and cybersecurity companies.
Silvant Capital Management has identified Snowflake Inc. (NYSE: SNOW), CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD), and Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: PLTR) as key beneficiaries of accelerating AI adoption across industries.
Michael Sansoterra, chief investment officer at Silvant Capital Management, said Thursday that all three companies are carving out valuable positions within the broader AI ecosystem.
Sansoterra noted that the three companies are meeting or beating investor expectations while simultaneously benefiting from rising demand tied to AI infrastructure buildout.
Silvant holds all three positions through its Virtus Silvant Large Cap Growth strategy, giving clients concentrated exposure to what the firm views as core AI infrastructure plays.
Sansoterra highlighted Snowflake as a standout example of a company that has successfully adapted its business model to capitalize on the AI boom unfolding across enterprise markets.
Snowflake originally focused on helping companies manage data separately from computing infrastructure, but has increasingly shifted its platform toward AI-driven workloads, Sansoterra told CNBC.
That strategic shift is enabling customers to manage and analyze data more efficiently while dismantling the traditional data silos that slow down large-scale AI model deployment.
“These companies that can find a spot in the AI chain or add real value like a Snowflake” can benefit from the rapidly changing technology landscape, Sansoterra said.
Sansoterra pointed to Snowflake’s recent growth figures as evidence that this repositioning is gaining meaningful commercial traction with enterprise clients.
Beyond data infrastructure, Sansoterra sees cybersecurity becoming an increasingly critical layer as AI models grow more powerful and their deployment becomes more widespread across industries.
He argued that companies face a growing responsibility to manage data safely as AI technology evolves, and that dynamic directly supports the investment case for CrowdStrike.
Sansoterra cautioned, however, that the AI landscape is shifting rapidly, requiring investors to maintain a clear understanding of the companies they own and the expectations already baked into valuations.
He stressed that investors should balance businesses carrying high expectations against those facing lower expectations, reducing the risk of being caught off guard by any earnings disappointment.
For Sansoterra, the central question driving his conviction across all three positions is whether these companies can continue beating expectations as overall AI spending continues to expand.
The broader investment thesis reflects a growing consensus on Wall Street that the next phase of AI-driven returns will be captured not by chipmakers alone, but by the software and security platforms built on top of that hardware foundation.
