A technical strategist says Mag 7 stocks are now 'dead money.' Here's what he thinks investors should buy instead.

• Technical strategist Bran Shannon thinks investors need to look for opportunities outside big tech.
• He said the Magnificent 7 cohort of AI giants is past its prime, labeling it "dead money."
• In a recent podcast appearance, Shannon shared the other sectors he says investors should pursue.

As Wall Street tries to move past the unexpected sell-off in software stocks that hit markets earlier this month, one strategist is urging investors to look outside tech altogether.

In a recent appearance on the The Noble Update Podcast, Brian Shannon — founder of the technical-analysis platform AlphaTrends — argued that the dominant era of the Magnificent 7 is fading.

"I don't want to short Microsoft but I certainly don't want to buy it," he told the podcast host, George Noble. "It's dead money at best. Maybe it gets a bounce but there's bigger money flowing out of it on longer term time frames."

Shannon also ascribed the "dead money" label to Nvidia, highlighting what he sees as a lack of real growth. He also noted that the stock has essentially been stuck between $165 and $200 per share since August of 2025, and will likely stay around there.

He added that, in his view, other chipmakers such as Sandisk and Micron have taken Nvidia's mantle and have substantially outpaced it since August. But Shannon still cautions investors, using Sandisk's bull run to illustrate the trend of companies surging before a correction.

"When a pullback comes, don't be surprised if its drops to $450 over a three of four day period because that's what these stocks do," he noted. "This is a big volatile beast and a lot of people are going to get burned by it by chasing it up here."

Shannon's views echo those held by Noble himself, who has been an outspoken AI bear in the past.

Now that he's looking past the AI trade, Shannon sees more opportunity in overlooked sectors that many investors don't seem to be focused on: energy and utilities.

"Everyones obsessed with the tech stocks that are breaking down and that fact that bitcoin has been having a lot of difficulty," he stated. "But there are places out there to make money. The energy names have been on fire, now the utilities. Things are not as bad as people always say."

Both Shannon and Noble highlighted the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF as a great way to gain exposure to the booming energy sector. Shannon advised investors who aren't invested in the fund yet to wait for a pullback but noted that he sees significant growth ahead for it.