Tesla (TSLA -4.43%) has been a wild ride over the last few months.

Shares of the electric vehicle (EV) maker soared following the election of President Donald Trump in November as CEO Elon Musk closely aligned himself with Trump during the campaign. Investors seemed to believe that having a friendly ear from the president would translate into a win for the company.

However, since the inauguration, Musk has proven himself to be a lightning rod for controversy, due to the layoffs and cost cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is issuing and his other political statements. Now, there is evidence that could be affecting Tesla's business. January registrations, a proxy for sales, for Tesla in Europe dropped 45% even as overall EV sales were up 37%.

As you can see from the chart below, the stock nearly doubled in the weeks after the election, though it has since given up nearly all of those gains.

TSLA data by YCharts

For investors looking for artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, better options are available. Keep reading to see two of them.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. The Trade Desk

The Trade Desk (TTD 0.64%) has been a top adtech company for over a decade. It's the leading independent demand-side platform (DSP), meaning it helps ad agencies and brands optimize their ad campaigns, and the company is increasingly leaning on AI to innovate and improve its platform.

The Trade Desk's new AI platform, Kokai, uses deep learning algorithms distributed across the buying process, and uses data from more than 13 million advertising impressions every second.

The Trade Desk acknowledged some missteps with its rollout of Kokai in its recent earnings report, as the stock plunged after the company missed its own revenue guidance. The rollout has been slower than anticipated, but it expects to convert all its customers from Solimar, its previous platform, to Kokai this year.

Meanwhile, the sell-off in The Trade Desk stock sets up a good buying opportunity as shares are now down nearly 50% from their peak in the fall. While the fourth-quarter results were disappointing, the company is still growing rapidly with revenue up 22% to $741 million and adjusted earnings per share up 44% to $0.59. With that kind of growth and new AI innovations strengthening its competitive advantages, the stock should be able to rebound over the rest of 2025.

2. Microsoft

Another rock-solid AI stock trading at a discount is Microsoft (MSFT 0.03%). The tech giant was regarded as an early winner in AI due to its partnership with OpenAI, but after an initial surge, the stock has lagged the broader market. In fact, the stock is down over the past year as Microsoft has faced skepticism over its growing capital expenditures, and its valuation had been looking stretched.

However, with the stock now down nearly 20% from its peak and the company continuing to deliver solid growth quarter in and quarter out, the stock now looks more reasonably priced at a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.5, just modestly more expensive than the S&P 500.

Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to deliver steady growth and its competitive advantages are self-evident. It's more diversified than any other big tech company, with businesses like Windows, the Office productivity software suite, and a wide range of software programs like Teams and Dynamics, games with Xbox, its LinkedIn social media business, and GitHub coding repository. Not to mention the Azure cloud infrastructure business, which anchors its Intelligent Cloud segment, which grew 19% in the most recent quarter and is Microsoft's fastest-growing segment.

Microsoft's overall revenue rose 12% and operating income rose 17%, which should quell concerns about a lack of growth. Meanwhile, Microsoft seems poised to capitalize on growth in AI no matter what direction it goes as it has several different businesses that can benefit from it. It's a close partner of OpenAI and has launched several of its own AI tools including Copilot, and it's a partner in the new Stargate Project, which proposes to spend up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure.

If the AI revolution lives up to investor hopes, Microsoft will almost certainly be a winner.