Up until the market opened on Friday, Dec. 13, America was home to seven technology companies worth $1 trillion or more: Apple: $3.7 trillion. Nvidia: $3.3 trillion. Microsoft: $3.3 trillion. Amazon: $2.

Market researcher IDC forecasts that global AI-related spending could hit $337 billion next year and jump to a whopping $749 billion by 2028. As a result, technology companies selling AI-related hardware and software should ideally witness healthy growth in their businesses next year.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is proving to be a game-changing technology and with it, several companies are emerging as winners in this sector of the economy. The stocks for many of these companies have already seen large gains.

This plus the fact that more than three-quarters of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks are heading for gains this year shows that many industries contributed to this movement. But one particular area has stood out as the star of 2024,

Two prominent companies in this area are quantum computing company IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) and semiconductor-giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). Through Dec. 11, IonQ's share price was up around 140%, and Nvidia's had risen about 180% in 2024.

Detailed price information for Qualcomm Inc (QCOM-Q) from The Globe and Mail including charting and trades.

Artificial intelligence stocks have helped propel the markets to all-time highs, but can the momentum really keep going?