It's been an excellent year for stock market investors. The S&P 500 index has delivered an excellent 26% return thus far in 2024, driven by resilient macroeconomic conditions, record corporate earnings, and growing optimism about artificial intelligence's (AI) transformative potential across the economy.

For me at the moment, the stock I'm wishing I held in my portfolio is Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR). Why do I wish I were a Palantir Technologies shareholder? There are several reasons why I'm wishing I owned Palantir Technologies.

Palantir Technologies stock (NASDAQ: PLTR) has had a solid run, rising by almost 4x since the beginning of the year to about $66 presently.

Ken Griffin of Citadel sold 5.1 million shares of Palantir, reducing his stake by 91%. Meanwhile, he bought 4.7 million shares of Nvidia, increasing his stake by 194%. Nvidia is the second largest position in Citadel's portfolio, excluding options contracts and index funds.

After Nvidia’s roaring success in recent years it may be time for the wider software sector to “get in on the AI party.” That’s the view of Wedbush analysts, who have become increasingly bullish on software stock Palantir Technologies.

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tech stock that has captured Wall Street's imagination in 2024. With a market cap of nearly $150 billion, Palantir stock has returned 280% to shareholders year-to-date.

Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) is one of the hottest stocks of 2024, but I think there is another hot artificial intelligence (AI) software stock that investors should consider as well. AppLovin's (NASDAQ: APP) stock price is up more than 650% so far this year,