A 'historically opportune moment': Why investing pros say to buy into a new tech boom after a brutal first quarter

• Tech stocks could be primed for a rally to fresh records, according to several investing pros.
• Tech valuations are near pre-ChatGPT levels after a difficult first quarter.
• It's a "historically opportune moment" to buy into the AI trade, Futurum CEO Daniel Newman said.

A surge in software stocks to start this week might be the tip of a much larger rally in tech stocks following a brutal decline in the opening months of this year.

Oracle led gains in software and the broader tech sector on Monday, with shares soaring as much as 12%, but tech stocks more broadly could be on the verge of a rally to new records, according to a growing chorus of investing experts. Their renewed bullishness follows a decline that's taken the sector down toward pre-ChatGPT valuations.

Some on Wall Street are saying the time to buy the dip has come, and the current market setup is laying the groundwork for a new tech-stock boom after the sector's rocky start to 2026.

"Tech valuations are now LOWER than they were when ChatGPT was announced," Adam Kobeissi, founder of the Kobeissi Letter, said. "As the Iran War drives markets lower, AI is only getting bigger. Record highs are on the horizon."

Daniel Newman, CEO of Futurum, told Business Insider that Kobeissi is "spot on," calling it a "historically opportune moment" to buy into the AI trade.

From the war in Iran to the AI apocalypse, tech stocks had a tough start to 2026. The tech sector kicked off the first quarter as one of the worst-performing sectors, down over 9%.

Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok also noted that valuations have tumbled to around where they were before the AI boom kicked off when ChatGPT debuted in 2022.

"Tech valuations have compressed from 40x to 20x, and we are back at levels last seen before the AI boom began," Slok wrote.

Futurum's Newman reposted Kobeissi's comments, saying the wartime downturn in tech stock valuations is "a reset before the next leg up."

He told Business Insider that the gains won't be distributed evenly across tech, with companies that are seen as non-disintermediated by AI poised to gain, as he shared in his guide to picking AI stock winners.

Newman flagged some Magnificent Seven names, including Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia, as fitting the bill.

With first-quarter earnings season set to kick off, Ryan Detrick, Carson Group's chief market strategist, said that while the tech sector has pulled back, earnings haven't, and the coming results will be a fresh catalyst.

"Technology is expected to lead this upcoming earnings season. We don't think that's going to miss," Detrick told Business Insider, adding that earnings will help in "justifying why we do think the technology could take back the baton."

Wedbush's Dan Ives, one of Wall Street's most vocal AI bulls, told clients to focus on tech winners that are now "on sale" during "turbulent" market action as the war in Iran drags on.

Ives named CrowdStrike, Palo Alto, Zscaler, Checkpoint, and Rubrik as favorite cybersecurity stock picks as well as Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Palantir as top tech picks.

Goldman Sachs on Monday pointed to "secular growth" stocks, or those whose profits aren't explicitly tied to the fate of the broader economy. The bank said on Monday that it sees these names—many of which are concentrated in tech—as poised for a new chapter of growth. It listed stocks like Nvidia, Meta, Broadcom, and Micron Technology among those set for an earnings-related boost.