A year ago, chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) was really riding high. Sales of its chips were jumping as it transformed itself from a maker of computer chips used for computer gaming into something much more profound: It had become ground zero for artificial intelligence.

Nvidia is set to benefit from increased AI infrastructure spending. The company has created a wide moat through its CUDA software platform. Even after its strong performance in the past few years, the stock remains attractively valued.

There's no doubt that the world's second-most valuable stock is important. But the AI harbinger has taken on a different role of late as other stocks have supplanted the "Magnificent Seven" as the engine of this year's gains.