If There Is a Stock Market Crash, Here Are 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks I Am Loading Up on

The article argues that SpaceX (SPCX) and Intel (INTC) look like potential “buy-on-a-dip” plays amid macro worries of a possible market crash. SpaceX reported Q2 revenue up 92% YoY to $7.8B, with AI-related revenue up 247.5% YoY to $2.6B, but the stock is flagged as highly overvalued (market cap ~$1.9T, P/S 65). Intel reported Q2 revenue up 25% YoY to $16.1B and adjusted EPS of $0.42 (vs -$0.10 a year earlier), yet is also described as overvalued at 72.5x forward earnings versus 20.9x for IT, with a downturn viewed as the catalyst for better entry points.

Analysis

This is less a “buy these names” setup than a liquidity test. The market will reward the same story only as long as discount rates keep falling; in a drawdown, the highest-duration AI-linked assets and any private-market mark will be the first places where optimism gets marked down, regardless of headline growth.

For Intel, the consensus is missing how little of the supposed agentic-AI upside is proprietary. If CPU demand really rises, the incremental economics likely accrue to the vendors with the best socket share, power efficiency, and platform stickiness — not automatically the incumbent with the heaviest manufacturing baggage. That means the real beneficiaries are probably AMD and hyperscalers optimizing capex mix, while INTC still has to prove gross margin durability, not just top-line growth.

SpaceX’s operating leverage is more interesting for competitors than for the stock itself. Lower launch cost and higher satellite cadence are structurally bearish for legacy launch and satellite-connectivity incumbents, but the benefit to adjacent listed names is indirect and may be overhyped. The key contrarian point: if Starship progresses, the surplus mostly accrues inside SpaceX, while public-market proxies can still derate if launch economics compress faster than end-demand expands.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Do not chase INTC after strength; use any 10-15% rally to initiate a 1-3 month call-spread hedge or outright short into strength unless management raises gross-margin guidance.
• Pair trade: long AMD / short INTC for 3-6 months. Thesis: AMD captures incremental AI-server share with cleaner execution, while INTC remains exposed to capex-heavy turnaround risk. Falsifier: sustained INTC server-share gains or a clear FCF inflection.
• Treat SpaceX as a non-actionable private-market story unless secondary pricing resets materially; if you need public exposure, prefer to wait for a broader risk-off event before buying any space-adjacent proxy basket.
• Watch satellite/connectivity incumbents (e.g., VSAT, IRDM) for sympathy weakness if launch-cost declines accelerate; that is a cleaner public-market expression than chasing SpaceX narrative premium.
• Set an alert on the next quarterly guide: if INTC/EPS revisions stop improving or margins miss, the current rerating likely reverses quickly over 1-2 quarters.