We recently published a list of Top 9 Trending AI News Investors Probably Missed. In this article, we are going to take a look at where John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) stands against other top trending AI news investors probably missed.
Battle lines on artificial intelligence supremacy and dominance have been drawn. Fresh from touting the success of DeepSeek on the development of cost-effective AI models, China has made it clear it won’t sit back and play second fiddle to US dominance on AI innovations.
The country’s top economic officials are in the process of setting up a state-backed fund that will support technological innovation focusing on advanced technology like AI. According to Zheng Shanjie, head of China’s state economic planner, the state venture capital fund could attract $138 billion in capital over the next 20 years.
Most of the funding comes from local governments and the private sector and will accelerate the development of high-end chips. The capital injection should also support China’s ambitions for artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing. China has already made significant progress in the rapid growth of microchips and AI large language models as it looks for ways to bypass US export control regulations.
“Scenes once only seen in science fiction are now becoming reality. We are steadily moving toward the global frontiers of technology and innovation,” Zheng said. “This proves that the suppression and blockade attempt by certain forces only serve to accelerate our drive for independent innovation,” he added in an apparent reference to the United States.
When DeepSeek unveiled its R1 large language model in January, it caused a stir in the world’s stock markets. However, it could almost match its competitors’ capabilities, including OpenAI’s GPT-4. This took observers aback since the US has been trying for years to limit China’s access to high-power AI chips due to national security concerns.
Even as China ramps up AI investments, the US is not sitting back and letting its dominance fizzle in thin air. The US, under President Donald Trump, continues to provide a friendly investment environment to attract investment from the public and private sectors. Trump and tech companies have collaborated more and more since his election in November of last year, with Trump keen to demonstrate that his administration is more business-friendly than Joe Biden’s.
The $500 billion Stargate project for enhancing data center capacity underscores how the US remains a top investment destination amid the AI boom.
“This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefits for the entire world. This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies,” OpenAI said in a statement about the Stargate Project.
In Texas, the first data centre for the Stargate project is in the pipeline. OpenAI maintains in a policy white paper that investments in US AI infrastructure can guarantee that US AI tools outperform Chinese technology and generate new economic opportunities and jobs. As a result, the parent company of ChatGPT is pleading with the US government to develop a fundamental plan to guarantee that infrastructure spending maximizes access to AI and benefits the greatest number of people. According to the brief, $175 billion in global funds are waiting to be invested in AI projects.
Our Methodology
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds in Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (WLY): Resilient Recurring Revenue- AI Licensing Drives Margin Expansion!
A high tech printing press, producing professional-grade physical books.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 26
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) is a research and learning company. It offers scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals and related content and services. On March 6, the company delivered third-quarter fiscal 2025 results that affirmed significant margin expansion.
While total revenue in the quarter dropped to $405 million from $461 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, adjusted revenue was up by 1.2% at constant currency. A 5.2% revenue increase in the research segment was one of the bright spots that affirmed the long-term prospects of the company’s AI licensing agreements. The increase came as John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) continued to capitalize on the growing demand for scientific research and responsible AI model development.
“Our recurring revenue Research business has not only proven to be resilient across economic cycles but poised for continued expansion; our authoritative content and data-driven insights are increasingly coveted by corporations for their research and development initiatives, including AI enablement; and our strong execution and cost re-engineering efforts continue to deliver tangible results, with significant margin and cash flow improvement this year and raised margin expectations for Fiscal 2026,” said Matthew Kissner, Wiley President and CEO.
Overall, WLY ranks 5th on our list of top trending AI news investors probably missed. While we acknowledge the potential of WLY as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than WLY but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
