Analysts only expect MicroStrategy’s revenue to have a CAGR of 1% from 2023 to 2026, as it stays unprofitable on a GAAP basis. But the value of its Bitcoin holdings could keep growing — and its generative AI business could experience a sudden growth spurt like Innodata if it locks in more customers.

Lumen, the telecom company formerly known as CenturyLink, suffered five consecutive years of revenue declines. It was also unprofitable over the past two years and suspended its dividend in 2022. That’s why its stock price dropped below $1 this June.

Unlike many of its telecom peers, Lumen didn’t expand into the wireless market to reduce its dependence on wireline connections. Instead, it doubled down on the slow-growth wireline market and bundled more cloud, security, and collaboration services with its business wireline plans.

It also expanded into the higher-growth fiber market. Lumen originally expected to generate slow but stable growth as economies of scale kicked in, but its declining business wireline revenue consistently offset its rising fiber revenue. As a result, its rising costs overwhelmed its declining revenue and its losses widened.

But over the past few months, Lumen struck a series of AI connectivity deals worth $5 billion — including one to upgrade the data center infrastructure of Microsoft‘s Azure cloud platform to handle more generative AI applications.

Those new deals lit a fire under Lumen’s stock and drove it back to about $9. But even after that rally, its enterprise value of $25.5 billion is less than 2 times higher than its projected sales for 2024. Analysts expect its revenue to decline again in 2024 and 2025, but its new AI contracts could help it clear those low expectations. If that happens, Lumen’s stock could go parabolic as it attracts more value-seeking investors.

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Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Go Parabolic was originally published by The Motley Fool