MW Fund manager who 'pounded the table' to own Nvidia in 2017 now likes these AI stocks
By Barbara Kollmeyer
Find the 'S-curve' sweet spots, says T. Rowe Price's Tony Wang.
The AI emerging tech story is not going away, and recent stock pullbacks are an opportunity for longer-term investors, says T. Rowe Price's Tony Wang.
Nvidia was in the sights of Tony Wang long before the words ChatGPT were even uttered.
"I have been a portfolio manager for two to three years, but I was the analyst that covered Nvidia and pounded the table to own the stock in 2017-18," Tony Wang, who runs T. Rowe Price's top-performing $13 billion Science & Technology Fund PRSCX, told MarketWatch in an interview on Monday.
Wang's sharp eye turned T. Rowe Price into a top Nvidia shareholder, while he also led early investments in Apple $(AAPL)$ and Tesla $(TSLA)$.
His faith in Nvidia and other big tech stocks that top his fund - Microsoft $(MSFT)$, Broadcom $(AMD)$, Meta $(META)$, Alphabet $(GOOGL)$, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)- hasn't wavered even as investors increasingly question whether AI investments will pay off.
He brushes aside the most recent ripple, that Google's AI chips, used to train its highly rated new large language model, potentially will challenge Nvidia's dominance. "What matters is that overall AI capex is rising, not shrinking and Nvidia remains at the key platform of that spend," he said in follow-up email comments.
Wang considers recent selloffs in big tech names part of a technical derisking from extreme positioning, but sees that as "an opportunity to lean in" for longer-term investors. He argues that mature, big tech companies are still growing and compounding value, with the scale and distribution to leverage AI.
Wang's Science & Technology Fund is up 23% this year, over a 14% gain for the S&P 500 and an 18% rise for the Nasdaq 100. And that means he must keep finding the budding Nvidias, and for the fund he's "constantly rotating into the best opportunities."
The secret to his success is to invest near the start of a company's S-curve, which tracks how a business will grow over time. The sweet spot lies in being in the 20% 30% of that S-curve progression, "where most of the returns are," he said.
Tony Wang, portfolio manager for T. Rowe Price's Science & Technology Fund
So where is he casting that sharp eye now? Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), up 78% this year, is an AI chip stock that he thinks is worth they hype. "They're designing systems in a really clever way. I think they could earn a lot more than the Street expects," with expected traction in its products, he said.
Next he believes Alphabet's Google could become a winner in the AI space, a technology that some thought would disrupt the tech giant. Instead it's becoming a leader in the AI model, with Gemini, has the computing power to do that and digital properties to monetize it, with properties including Google, YouTube and Gmail, said Wang.
A newer investment he flags is KLA $(KLAC)$, which makes the tools that make semiconductors. "I would say that one is interesting because when technology gets harder, the inspection requirements go up," he said. "So their tools essentially are the fix for a lot of the process issues, so they're certainly going to be more important."
Another holding, Cisco $(CSCO)$, which designs, sells and manufactures networking equipment and software, is potentially an underappreciated value growth story that could have a place in AI, Wang said.
Celestica $(CLS)$, which offers design, manufacturing and supply-chain solutions for tech companies like Alphabet, could be a prime AI contractor for these big data-center build-outs, he believes. "They've been moving up the value chain with their software and are well-positioned in making these AI boards and systems," he said.
Helped by Alphabet's shifting fortunes, Celestica shares are up over 200% this year.
Not a big AI player yet, but e-commerce group Shopify (SHOP) should be owned for its "multiple S-curves," with penetration in the U.S. and internationally and a payments business poised for more adoption as well, he says.
Read: Nvidia says it's not Enron. Michael Burry makes a different dot-com parallel.
The markets
U.S. stock futures (ES00) (YM00) (NQ00) are edging lower after the best day for tech in six months. Gold (GC00) is higher, while bitcoin (BTCUSD) is dropping.
Key asset performance Last 5d 1m YTD 1y S&P 500 6705.12 0.49% -2.47% 14.00% 11.99% Nasdaq Composite 22,872.01 0.72% -3.24% 18.44% 20.03% 10-year Treasury 4.044 -6.90 6.40 -53.20 -26.60 Gold 4137.3 2.27% 3.51% 56.76% 57.53% Oil 58.49 -2.06% -4.97% -18.62% -15.33% Data: MarketWatch. Treasury yields change expressed in basis points
The buzz
Retail sales and producer prices for September, delayed from the shutdown, are due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Also on tap: the S&P Case-Shiller home price index at 9 a.m., and consumer confidence and pending home sales at 10 a.m.
Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) climbed toward fresh highs after a report that Meta (META) may buy billions worth of Google's custom chips. Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD shares (AMD) each fell.
SanDisk shares $(SNDK)$ rallied on news the computer-storage device maker will join the S&P 500 on Friday.
HP $(HPQ)$, NetApp $(NTAP)$, Dell $(DELL)$ and Autodesk $(ADSK)$ report after the bell.
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These were the top-searched tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 a.m.:
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-Barbara Kollmeyer
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November 25, 2025 06:57 ET (11:57 GMT)
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