A story from the Australian bush holds a big lesson for investors looking for the next wave of AI winners.
Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by artificial intelligence).
Editor’s note: Today’s guest article, Joe AustinHe spent four decades on Wall Street as a research analyst in the technology sector, a senior portfolio manager overseeing more than $10 billion in assets, and a hedging analyst for a $5 billion hedge fund.
It has seen a lot of market cycles. Now he’s keeping an eye on an AI-driven trend that he says most investors are completely ignoring.
per day Smart moneyJoe explains why the biggest profits from the AI boom may not come from the names you already own — and why a new tool from a 60-year-old Wall Street legend Mark Chaikin They may be able to help you find the next generation of winners before the public catches their eye.
Mark and Joe are unveiling this gadget – an “AI-powered time machine” – at a free event today Wednesday 24 June. You can join the hotlist for free here.
Here’s Joe…
Deep in the Australian bush, a coal mine has almost stopped working.
No one saw him coming.
Mines depend on extensive networks of conveyor belts. These snakes work underground and across open land, transporting ore from extraction to processing. If the belts stop, the mine will stop too.
In this coal mine, that’s exactly what was about to happen. AI-powered sensors on the belt drives indicated something strange: the conveyor drive bearing was deteriorating faster than it should.
The perpetrator was carrying a flute. This is when electrical current leaks through the bearing instead of flowing through the grounding system. It silently destroys the bearing from the inside – until it’s too late.
A physical examination may have detected abrasion, but it would not have revealed the urgency. Sensors done.
They caught the problem early enough to trace it back to a grounding issue and fixed it and replaced the bearing before the belt fell off. As a result, the site avoided 10 hours of unplanned downtime and approximately $191,000 in production losses.
Most importantly, fixing the root cause – not just the symptoms – extended bearing life and reduced long-term maintenance costs.
The sensors didn’t just memorize direction. They saved the whole operation.
This is part of a broader topic I’ve been considering…
AI and machines do work that people can’t do, or do better.
The main concept is to make this increasingly possible.
Industrial Artificial Intelligence Foundation
I’m talking about the Internet of Things – the Internet of Things.
It has quietly become one of the defining technologies of our generation.
Not long ago, a thermostat was just a thermostat. Today, it’s a connected device that shares data with your phone, HVAC system, and the cloud. The Internet of Things is reshaping how people, machines, and processes communicate.
In the early 1980s, programmers at Carnegie Mellon University outfitted a Coca-Cola vending machine on campus with the Internet so they could check whether the drinks were cold before walking on them. In 1999, Kevin Ashton of MIT gave this kind of thing a name: the Internet of Things.
Ashton’s argument was simple: machines shouldn’t wait for humans to provide them with data. People can be slow, distracted, and error-prone. If computers could collect information themselves and track the physical world in real time, we would be able to eliminate waste, detect problems early, and know the status of everything – at all times.
We now live in the world he imagined.
The numbers reflect this shift
According to industry research firm IoT Analytics, 18.6 billion devices were connected to the Internet of Things in 2024. By 2030, that number is expected to grow to 39 billion — and reach 55 billion by 2035.
The IoT market generated revenues of approximately $550 billion in 2025. It is expected to reach more than $865 billion by 2030.
But industrial applications are driving much of this growth, and this is where it gets interesting for investors.
The market for the Industrial Internet of Things — such as sensors, connected machines, and automated systems in factories — was worth nearly $326 billion in 2025. By 2034, it is expected to nearly triple to about $945 billion. This is nearly double the growth rate of the broader IoT market.
This makes sense. It is the physical industries that will benefit most from machines that can sense, communicate and act without human intervention. AI is only accelerating what these machines can do.
Here’s the number that really caught my attention: By 2030, nearly half of IIoT revenue is expected to be based on AI. This is a fundamental shift in how factories, mines and power grids operate – and, according to some estimates, could unlock up to $70 billion in new market value.
The data supports this. According to a 2025 survey of about 18,000 private sector companies, companies investing in artificial intelligence alone saw an increase in productivity of 10.4%. Companies investing in IoT alone saw a 6% decline. But companies that invested in both AI and IoT together recorded an 18.9% increase in productivity — nearly double the gains from AI alone.
Simply put: AI without physical contact is only half the story. Physical contact without AI also lags behind.
Artificial intelligence is getting closer to the machine
Until recently, most artificial sensors had no artificial intelligence at all. This is changing quickly.
Manufacturers are now building AI directly into sensors, gateways and equipment on the factory floor. Instead of sending data to the cloud and waiting for a response, devices process the information instantly. The result is faster decision-making, fewer failures, and fewer humans required to manage the entire system.
This is what happened in an Australian coal mine. It happens in factories, oil fields, shipping ports and energy grids around the world.
Folks, I’ve seen this pattern many times in my 40 years on Wall Street.
The biggest names in artificial intelligence – companies like Meta Platforms Inc. (dead) and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) – Get the most attention. They face enormous pressure to prove that trillions of dollars in AI investment will eventually pay off.
But you don’t have to chase major names to find great investments in this big trend.
In fact, some of the best opportunities in every major technology cycle have come from the companies that build the infrastructure that makes it all possible — not the companies that get the most airtime on CNBC.
Think of the Internet boom. Yes, Alphabet Company (Google) and Amazon.com Inc. (Amzn) They became huge winners. But so did the companies that made routers, fiber cables, and server hardware—the picks and shovels that supported the entire construction process.
The convergence of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things offers a similar opportunity. The companies that are best positioned to win are not necessarily those that already have it.
How to find the next wave of winners
This is exactly the place Mark Chaikin Come.
Mark has spent 60 years on Wall Street developing the kind of analytical tools that can cut through the noise and find stocks with real momentum behind them. for him Force meter We’ve been doing this for decades.
But on June 24, Mark and I will reveal something new, something neither of us has shown to the public before.
It’s an AI-powered platform that we call… Time machine. It works by “going back in time” through decades of market data to find today’s stocks whose financial and technical DNA closely matches stock profiles such as Nvidia company (NVDA)Amazon and Meta are at the beginning of their historical journey.
In backtesting, I identified stocks that went on to post gains of 995%, 1,406%, and even 3,804% — all while the “underlying” stocks they mirrored recorded much more modest returns.
I’ve spent 40 years trying to get ahead of major technological shifts. This is the most powerful tool I’ve seen to do exactly that.
Building industrial AI is real, it’s massive, and it’s still early days. The question is whether you’re in a position to take advantage of it – or whether you’ll watch from the sidelines as the next generation of big winners takes shape.
On June 24, Mark and I will show you exactly which stocks Time Machine is pointing to right now — for free.
To access, all you have to do is Reserve your place now. When you do, you’ll get early access to Time Machine’s beta platform, so you can start exploring it before the free stream. You can type in any bar and see how it compares to the biggest stock market winners of all time.
This is it Chaiken Analytics The first ever AI-powered product – and charter space will be limited.
Register for this free event here.
good investment,
Joe Austin
Senior Analyst, Chaiken Analytics
note: Joe has spent four decades watching the evolution of major technology cycles. He says the convergence of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things is one of the most important investment opportunities he has seen. But the window to get in early doesn’t stay open forever. Marc and Joe’s event on June 24 will be free — and when you are Reserve your placeYou can get early access to the Time Machine beta now, no purchase necessary.
