Ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT took the world by storm late last year, investors have been tripping over themselves to try to capitalize on the explosive trend. Corporate leaders, meanwhile, have been scrambling to prove to investors that they’re cleverly harnessing the technology to drive revenue growth, improve operational efficiency, and more. In companies’ first-quarter earnings calls, they mentioned AI and related terms more than twice as often as they did a year ago.

And it’s no wonder: AI fervor this year has been responsible for all of the S&P 500’s gains, according to a new analysis by Societe Generale. The investment bank's research shows that without the gains of “AI boom stocks”, the S&P 500 would actually be down 2% this year, rather than up 8%.

That’s not entirely surprising when you consider that stocks of companies perceived as AI winners – think: Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, and so on – have been on an absolute tear. Nvidia's stock price has almost doubled so far this year, while shares in Microsoft – which invested $10 billion in OpenAI back in January – have surged by almost 30%, leaving them not far from their all-time high. Google parent Alphabet, meanwhile, saw its shares spike by more than 10% last week alone after it announced plans to integrate AI into its search engine and a whole host of other products.

Societe Generale says investors wanting to ride the AI hype might want to consider owning the defensive growth stocks held by the top AI ETFs, like the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (ticker: BOTZ; expense ratio: 0.69%). But, for more concrete ideas, you can check out Stéphane’s Insight on how to invest in AI and my most recent Insight, which ranks the stocks set to benefit the most (and least) from AI, according to researchers.