5 Technologies to Invest in with Scary Potential

The technology sector is constantly evolving, offering new and huge investment opportunities for you to take advantage of.

There’s hardly any sector that is untouched by technology, which leads to a very big landscape to keep an eye on. Given that it’s such a large segment that advances at a rapid pace, it’s not easy for anyone to keep track of all that’s going on in it, let alone capture the most lucrative options.

So, we have created a list of the top five technological innovations that promise exciting opportunities, high returns, and a better future. No, without wasting any time, let’s jump right in!

1. Neuralink (Elon Musk’s Company under Tesla Inc., TSLA) – Human Brain-Machine Interfaces

Disturbance Factor: 10/10

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is known for various innovative technology initiatives, such as Tesla (TSLA -2.59%), SpaceX, OpenAI, and The Boring Company. However, among them all, Neuralink, in particular, stands out for aiming to “unlock human potential” by connecting humans and AI.

It is a subsidiary under Tesla Inc., which is a $827.6 billion market cap company whose shares are trading at $261.67, as of writing, up 4.44% year-to-date (YTD). It has an EPS (TTM) of 3.65 and a P/E (TTM) of 71.16.

One of Musk’s most ambitious projects, Neuralink, has captured a lot of attention, but at the same time, it has been the subject of controversy and public censure. After all, the company is putting chips inside human brains.

Founded in 2016, Neuralink was valued at about $5 billion last year. The neurotechnology startup is focused on developing an implantable brain-computer interface (BCI), which provides a link between the brain and an external device for communication. The BCI captures brain signals and analyzes them before translating them into commands that are communicated to devices that then carry out desired actions.

Neuralink’s BCI chip, called N1, is the size of a coin and is implanted in the skull surgically using the R1 machine. The device is powered by a small battery that gets charged wirelessly from the outside. The N1 implant has 1024 electrodes distributed across very thin and flexible 64 threads to record neural activity.

The startup is currently working on its first product, called Telepathy, which lets people control their phones or computers “just by thinking.” Because the chip is implanted in the part of the brain that controls motor function, it would also enable people to overcome neurological disorders like autism and schizophrenia.

Earlier this year, Neuralink achieved a big milestone when it successfully implanted the first person with a chip who then operated a computer mouse just with their thoughts. Then, a few months ago, the second patient, who lost control of limbs after a spinal cord injury, got the Neuralink brain chip and used it to play Counter-Strike 2.

Just last month, Neuralink’s experimental implant that aims to restore vision also received a “breakthrough device” tag from the FDA. Most recently, Musk talked about developing an implant to alleviate neck and back pain.

While Musk has grand ambitions for Neuralink, this road to progress hasn’t been a smooth one. The company has faced delays in getting regulatory approval for human trials, with concerns being the device’s lithium battery and impact on the brain, in addition to cybersecurity, surveillance, ethical, and privacy concerns.

So, for Musk’s brain chips to gain widespread acceptance, which he predicts will happen within the next decade, they must be able to maintain their efficacy and safety.

“If all goes well, there will be hundreds of people with Neuralinks within a few years, maybe tens of thousands within 5 years, millions within 10 years.”

– Musk posted on X

With Neuralink making gradual progress towards its bold long-term objective of enabling “symbiosis” between humans and AI, this company could be one of the biggest technological investments in the coming decades.

Disturbance Factor: 9/10

This one specializes in software platforms for big data analytics. It is also involved in predictive policing technologies that aggregate vast amounts of personal data to predict criminal behavior before it happens.

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Palantir was co-founded in 2003 by Bitcoin investor Peter Thiel, who’s known for his success as a PayPal co-founder and CEO and the first outside investor in Facebook.

Now, Palantir is a $100 billion market cap company whose shares (PLTR:NYSE) are currently trading at $44.91, up 161.68% YTD. It has an EPS (TTM) of 0.17 and a P/E (TTM) of 264.29. For Q2 2024, the company reported a revenue of $678mln, an increase of 27% YoY, while closing 27 deals over $10mln. Its customer count jumped 41% YoY. Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term US treasury securities meanwhile were $4bln.

The company offers its services across industries ranging from anti-money laundering (AML), data protection, defense, govt financial management, semiconductors, supply chain, automotive & mobility, energy, and ecosystem.

While Palatir is used by organizations around the world to uncover human trafficking rings, find exploited children, and unravel complex financial crimes, the potential misuse of such technology could actually lead to widespread invasion of privacy, dystopian surveillance states, and wrongful profiling based on machine predictions rather than actual behavior.

Among these concerns, Palantir aims to build a future in which public institutions, commercial enterprises, and non-profit organizations can use data to deliver value.

Besides selling software to governments, the primary driver of Palantir’s growth this year has been its growing focus on AI. It uses AI to gain insights from data. With the AI market exploding, Palantir is taking full advantage of this narrative, which is projected by PwC to add $15.7 trillion to the global economy by the end of this decade.

Palantir released its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) in 2023 to harmonize its data mining tools with AI LLMs to provide real-time insights for risky combat situations for the US and its partners. This government-focused platform is called Gotham, and the company caters to businesses in the private sector via Foundry.

Thanks to enabling the real-world implementation of AI, AIP has already attracted commercial customers, and “therein lies our entire opportunity in the market,” said CEO Shyam Sankar. If Palantir is able to successfully capture this massive AI market, it can completely transform its fortunes and, by extension, those of its investors.

Recently, the company also joined the S&P 500 index, one of the most popular indexes that cover the 500 largest companies in the US by market cap, which adds to its legitimacy and can lead to increased investment from index-tracking funds as well as retail investors.

Against the growing global uncertainty, Palantir’s government connections, continued profitability, AI adoption, and inclusion in the S&P 500 make it a great addition to your investment portfolio.

3. Boston Dynamics (Owned by Hyundai, HYMTF) – Robot Soldiers

Disturbance Factor: 8/10

We have all long been exposed to humanoids in movies, but they are finally becoming a reality. And if you’ve been looking to invest in such technology, then Boston Dynamics is your best bet. Having said that, you can’t really buy its stocks as Boston Dynamics itself isn’t public, but you can buy the shares of its parent company, Hyundai.

That’s right, the South Korea-based automotive giant has acquired Boston Dynamics. Hyundai Motor Group acquired a controlling interest (about 80%) in the company in Dec. 2020, valuing Boston Dynamics at $1.1 billion, which the automotive company called a major step “toward its strategic transformation into a Smart Mobility Solution Provider.” Meanwhile, SoftBank maintains a 20% stake in it.

“Advanced robotics offer opportunities for rapid growth with the potential to positively impact society in multiple ways,” it said at the time. Hyundai is a $42.68 billion market cap company whose shares (HYMTF:OTCPK) are currently trading at $58.52, up 35.53% YTD.

Now, the robotics market is fast-growing, projected to grow from $64.8 billion in 2024 to $375.82 billion in the next decade. Service robotics, according to Statista, dominates this market with a projected volume of $36.20 bn in 2024.

Boston Dynamics is best known for its humanoids, which are robots with human-like appearances and animal-like robots.

It was founded in 1992 as a spin-off from MIT and has managed to survive for a long time now, during which we saw many companies shut down. It initially worked on robotics projects primarily funded by the military before it was acquired by Google in 2013, only to be sold to Japanese investment giant SoftBank in 2017 for $165 million.

During this past decade, Boston Dynamics has made a lot of progress with its product line, including Spot, a robot dog that has automated sensing and inception, captures data, and went on sale in 2019. Then there’s Stretch for warehouse operations.

Its adult-size humanoid is called Atlas, and it is designed for real-world applications. It is made of a mixture of titanium and aluminum 3D printed parts, weighing 89 kg and having a height of 1.5 m. It boasts a speed of 2.5 m/s while having a custom battery, 28 joints, and compact hydraulic systems to achieve high mobility.

In April this year, the company launched a fully electric version of Atlas, which can flip, spin, jump, and do much more. This upgraded humanoid robot “is not a person in a bodysuit” and is stronger and more flexible than its hydraulic predecessor.

In 2022, Boston Dynamics AI Institute (BDII) was launched to “spearhead advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics.” This month, Boston Dynamic partnered with Toyota Research Institute (TRI) to utilize its expertise in large behavior models (LBMs). This will help it bring AI-based robotic intelligence to Atlas. So, you better prepare for that future!

Click here for a list of top ten robotics stocks.

Disturbance Factor: 7/10 

Did you know that human DNA can be altered? Well, technological advances have allowed scientists to edit the very molecule that contains our genetic information, which dictates our development and function.

Well, this technology isn’t that new. In fact, it has been in existence for close to four decades now. But it has been in recent times that this innovative technology has begun getting the attention that it deserves.

Interestingly, the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for developing CRISPR-Cas9, a gene-editing tool that allows for the precise alteration of DNA in animals, plants, and microorganisms.

While Charpentier only received this prestigious award a few years ago, she founded CRISPR Therapeutics back in 2013, where the CRISPR/Cas9 discovery was translated into potential therapeutics, a year after she, along with Doudna and others, wrote the historic scientific paper on this gene editing tool.

CRISPR is a $4.168 billion market cap company whose shares are currently trading at $48.94, down 21.82% YTD. It has an EPS (TTM) of -3.21 and a P/E (TTM) of -15.27. For 2Q24, CRISPR reported non-material total collaboration revenue while recording net collaboration expenses of $52.1mln, a net loss of $126.4mln, R&D expenses of $80.2mln, and general and administrative expenses of $19.5mln. Its cash position during the quarter was just over $2bln.

In 2023, the company got approval in the US, UK, and Bahrain for the first-ever CRISPR-based therapy in collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals to treat sickle cell disease. CRISPR Therapeutics is also busy developing next-generation gene editing and for that, it has created a dedicated team called CRISPR-X, which is also researching new delivery modalities like all-RNA gene correction.

Now, gene editing has several possible uses, including reducing the spread of disorders and editing inherited deficiencies. Here, CRISPR/Cas9 tech, in particular, offers great potential in genetically modifying specific mutations that would not be treatable with conventional treatments, providing healthier lives for people.

However, there are concerns among people regarding its misuse, such as human enhancement, ‘designer babies,’ and unintended consequences in the human gene pool. Then, there’s the high cost involved in these therapies and off-target editing, which presents major challenges to this sector.

Having said that, CRISPR’s technology has great advantages, which are simply too big to ignore, and its potential to improve human lives significantly by curing genetic diseases makes it a great addition to one’s investment portfolio, especially for the long term.

Click here for a list of the top five CRISPR stocks to invest in.

5. Veritone (VERI -3.95%) – Deepfake Technology

Disturbance Factor: 6/10 

One of the greatest recent technological advancements has been AI, without any doubt. While research into artificial intelligence has been going on since the 1950s, it was in 2022 when it exploded into popularity.

In Nov. of that year, ChatGPT was launched, and everyone wanted to try this new hot trend, which sent this gen AI chatbot’s users to 100 million within just a month. This adoption rate was faster than that of TikTok.

But this mania didn’t end there; it only got bigger. However, while you can find almost every other company utilizing or offering AI in some capacity, not every business is the same. Veritone is among those who are really making use of this disruptive technology.

It is a $140.89 billion market cap company whose shares are currently trading at $3.70, down 104.42% YTD. It has an EPS (TTM) of -1.60 and a P/E (TTM) of -2.31. For 2Q24, Veritone reported $31mln in revenue, an increase of 11% from 2Q23. Its annual recurring revenue, meanwhile, was $67.9mln, a loss from operations of $17.7 million, and a net loss of $22.2mln.

Most recently, Court TV signed a deal with Veritone to use its “Digital Media Hub” to offer easy access to its content. Veritone will also license Court TV’s content to podcasters, documentarians, and filmmakers to “capitalize on new revenue opportunities by offering its unique content to an even broader audience.”

The AI tech company, which was founded in 2014, is an enterprise AI software, applications, and services provider. Its AI platform offers hundreds of AI engines for data, biometrics, audio, speech, text, and vision.

Using Veritone Voice, anyone can create synthetic voices, while Veritone Avatar can be used to create custom, ultra-realistic, 3D digital images. With that, Veritone has the potential to capture the fast-expanding deepfake AI market, which, thanks to offering the ability to seamlessly integrate any character, scenario, or setting, is expected to surpass $5bln by 2030.

While Veritone’s AI-driven content creation offers users the ability to make the most of their digital environment, which is fast becoming the new reality, it also carries the potential to fuel misinformation and fake news at an unprecedented scale.

In that regard, Veritone emphasizes the ethical use of its tools to create deepfake content and has teamed up with the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to help protect their famous clients from having their likenesses deployed in unauthorized deepfakes.

While there are ethical, security, and privacy concerns surrounding AI, interest in AI is not going away; rather, it is expected to grow significantly. According to Stanford’s AI Index report, funding for gen AI increased nearly 8 times from 2022 levels to reach $25.2 billion. So, if you want to capture this AI trend, too, then you may want to look at Veritone.

Conclusion

These are the technologies that have significant potential to transform the future. To make profitable investments, it is critical that you recognize the potential of emerging technology early on. And these technological advancements and companies offer valuable opportunities in different sectors for you to invest in.

So, good luck exploring these exciting ventures and deploying the appropriate size to maximize your gains!

Click here for a list of top ten undervalued disruptive tech stocks.