2 AI Stocks Under $10 That Could Lead to Long-Term Gains

The article highlights continued AI-related upside potential in SoundHound AI and Aurora Innovation, despite both being speculative, sub-$10 stocks. SoundHound reported Q1 revenue of $44.2 million, up 52% year over year, reaffirmed full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $225 million to $260 million, and expects LivePerson to add $100 million in annual revenue by 2027 if integration succeeds. Aurora said it expects more than 200 driverless trucks by end-2026 and expanded its McLane agreement to allow driverless trips in Texas, but it remains high-risk with just $3 million in 2025 revenue.

Analysis

The market is increasingly treating “AI” as a broad multiple category rather than a single earnings curve, which is why the second-order winners here are not the obvious chip leaders but the companies that can convert AI into a distribution moat or a regulated operating advantage. In that framework, WMT’s AI exposure is the least speculative because voice/agentic interfaces can compress customer-service and merchandising labor without requiring customers to underwrite a binary technology bet; that should support modest multiple expansion even if the broader AI trade cools. By contrast, LPSN looks like the structurally weaker asset: if SoundHound can absorb it at a depressed valuation, the target’s standalone equity is effectively a rescue trade, not a growth trade.

AUROW is a different kind of optionality: the key inflection is not revenue, it is proof of safety and repeatability at scale. The first 200+ driverless trucks matter more as a validation milestone than a unit economic milestone; once enterprise shippers believe the system is operationally reliable, adoption can re-rate from “science project” to “infrastructure layer.” The risk is that any high-profile incident resets that trust curve by 12-18 months, which is why volatility will remain elevated even if operating metrics improve.

The contrarian read on SOUN is that the market may be underpricing how much acquisition integration can matter relative to headline revenue growth. If the LivePerson asset is absorbed cleanly, the combined entity could look less like a standalone software story and more like a scaled conversational layer with better cross-sell economics, which could justify a valuation step-up long before GAAP profitability arrives. The flip side is that a single quarter of missed expectations or integration slippage can compress the multiple hard because these names trade on narrative momentum, not durable free cash flow.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long WMT vs. short the basket of speculative AI software names over 3-6 months; best risk/reward if the market rotates from narrative AI to monetizable AI, with downside limited by WMT’s defensive earnings profile.
• Avoid outright long LPSN; if forced to express the theme, use it only as an M&A optionality trade via a small position and treat any post-deal pop as a liquidity event rather than a core holding.
• For higher-risk capital, initiate a tactical long AUROW position on dips with a 6-12 month horizon, but size small; the trade works only if execution milestones reduce perceived autonomy risk faster than cash burn erodes optionality.
• Sell covered calls on SOUN into strength or use a call spread, 1-3 months out; the setup is attractive but the stock is prone to air pockets if guidance or integration execution disappoints.
• Pair trade: long BRK.B / short AUROW as a quality-vs-optionalty hedge if you want exposure to transportation AI without taking full single-name volatility; this isolates the adoption thesis while dampening drawdown risk.