Discover the best AI penny stocks under $5 driving innovation in healthcare, education, defense, and digital advertising.
Sectors & Industries
October 30, 2025
Table of Contents
Artificial intelligence has become the defining megatrend of this decade—but the opportunity isn’t limited to trillion-dollar tech giants. Across the NASDAQ and NYSE, a group of low-priced AI penny stocks are building real businesses around voice AI, data infrastructure, defense analytics, and generative retail tech—often flying under the radar until a key contract or breakthrough sends shares soaring.
We spotlight the best-performing AI-focused penny stocks trading under $5 per share in 2025. Each company featured is U.S.-listed (no OTC stocks), actively developing or commercializing AI technologies, and has recently experienced a sharp rally or growing investor interest.
TriSalus is a clinical-stage oncology company focused on getting immunotherapies where they actually need to go: inside solid tumors that are notoriously hard to penetrate. Its core platform—Pressure-Enabled Drug Delivery (PEDD™), used with FDA-cleared devices like TriNav®—is designed to temporarily alter tumor hemodynamics so more medicine reaches the target while limiting spillover to healthy tissue. In liver and pancreatic cancers, PEDD has shown the ability to increase intratumoral delivery and change the tumor microenvironment, a key hurdle in checkpoint-inhibitor era oncology.
Where the “tech” shows up is in the delivery science: PEDD uses interventional radiology guidance and pressure-modulated infusion to counter high interstitial pressures that block drug uptake. Peer-reviewed and conference data suggest the approach can boost local concentration and improve immune modulation signals when paired with agents like SD-101 (a class-C TLR9 agonist, also called nelitolimod). While not an “AI company” per se, TriSalus is building an algorithmic, data-driven delivery discipline—standardized protocols informed by hemodynamic modeling and real-world procedure data—that aims to make tumor dosing more predictable across patients.
The pipeline centers on SD-101 delivered via PEDD to liver mets and pancreatic tumors, often in combination with checkpoint inhibitors. Early studies and real-world series have reported feasibility, target engagement, and encouraging signals that PEDD can re-open compressed tumor vessels and enhance intratumoral exposure—an approach TriSalus is now advancing in prospective trials. Publications and posters across Journal of Vascular & Interventional Radiology, Surgery, and AACR meetings outline the mechanistic and preclinical/clinical rationale.
The investment idea: If PEDD continues to show better delivery better response in hard tumors, TriSalus could carve out a defensible niche at the intersection of interventional oncology and immunotherapy—where platform economics can come from devices, drug-device combinations, and potential partnerships. Key risks are typical of clinical-stage biotechs: trial execution, regulatory timelines, and proving that delivery gains consistently translate into survival benefits at scale.
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Neuronetics develops NeuroStar®—an FDA-cleared transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) system for Major Depressive Disorder. The commercial edge is an integrated platform: hardware deployed in clinics, cloud-connected software, and one of the largest real-world outcomes registries in TMS, which the company uses to refine protocols and support payers and providers. In aggregate datasets spanning thousands of patients, NeuroStar has reported strong response/remission rates and durability in adult MDD, with expanding evidence in adolescents and young adults.
This is where the AI/data story fits: NeuroStar’s ecosystem continuously captures session-level treatment data (coils, dose, session counts, schedules, outcomes). Publications and company materials discuss iterative algorithms for setting motor thresholds and dose targeting, and best-practice analytics showing, for example, that completing the full 36-session acute course materially improves outcomes—insights that feed back into product guidance and clinic workflows. While Neuronetics doesn’t market NeuroStar as an “AI cure,” its data network + protocol optimization enable increasingly personalized, evidence-guided TMS—a practical form of AI-adjacent, decision-support in neurohealth.
Operationally, Neuronetics generates revenue from capital equipment placements and recurring per-treatment utilization (treatment “clicks”), with growth levers in new indications, adolescent populations, and payer coverage expansion. Recent communications highlight millions of treatments delivered and ongoing registry publications (e.g., JAACAP Open for younger patients), which can reinforce adoption and reimbursement. Execution risks include competitive TMS systems, clinic economics, and the need to keep building high-quality evidence to convert “data exhaust” into standardized care improvements.
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Nerdy is the parent company of Varsity Tutors, one of the largest online learning platforms in the United States. At its core, Nerdy uses artificial intelligence to personalize education, matching students with tutors, classes, and self-guided modules based on real-time assessments of their skills and progress. Its AI models analyze data from thousands of learning sessions to recommend the most effective learning path for each student, creating a dynamic system that adjusts as the student improves. This adaptive approach sets it apart from traditional tutoring models, which rely heavily on static curricula and manual scheduling.
The company has built a comprehensive digital ecosystem that includes live 1-on-1 tutoring, group classes, test prep, and subscription-based on-demand lessons. Its AI tools power the Smart Matching engine, which identifies the most suitable tutor or class for a student based on subject area, learning style, and performance trends. Nerdy also uses AI for automated content generation, allowing it to quickly expand its catalog of practice materials and study guides. By combining human expertise with AI-driven personalization, Nerdy is able to scale individualized learning in a way that would be impossible with human tutors alone.
Beyond consumer tutoring, Nerdy has expanded into enterprise and institutional partnerships, bringing its AI-powered education solutions into schools, universities, and corporate training programs. The company offers subscription services that provide unlimited access to lessons and practice materials, creating a recurring revenue stream. In the longer term, Nerdy aims to position itself as a leader in AI-enabled lifelong learning, serving not only K-12 and college students but also adult learners seeking professional development. This diversification strengthens its growth potential beyond the cyclical demand of test preparation and tutoring.
Nerdy remains speculative but compelling. The global e-learning market is projected to exceed $400 billion by 2030, and AI-driven platforms are expected to take an increasing share of that market. For a sub-$5 stock, Nerdy provides exposure to both the growth of online learning and the broader trend of AI-driven personalization. Its challenges lie in scaling profitably—balancing marketing expenses, tutor recruitment, and platform development. However, strong engagement metrics and recurring subscription growth suggest it may be turning a corner toward more sustainable economics.
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Iveda Solutions is a global provider of AI-powered video analytics and smart infrastructure technology. Its flagship platform, IvedaAI, transforms ordinary security cameras into intelligent systems capable of real-time detection and forensic search. By layering advanced machine learning and generative vision models over existing camera networks, Iveda allows customers to quickly search hours of footage or receive immediate alerts for specific events. For example, a security operator can enter “person wearing a red jacket near exit” in natural language, and the system will identify relevant clips instantly. This AI-first approach improves both proactive monitoring and investigative efficiency.
The company’s technology suite covers a wide range of use cases. IvedaAI modules include intrusion detection, license plate recognition, weapon identification, smoke and fire detection, and abnormal behavior alerts such as loitering or crowd surges. These capabilities make the platform suitable for smart cities, schools, campuses, industrial sites, and law enforcement agencies. Complementing IvedaAI, the company also offers the Sentir Video Suite, a turnkey solution that integrates cameras, network video recorders, and video management software with its AI analytics. Because the system is compatible with common ONVIF standards, organizations can upgrade existing infrastructure without replacing hardware, lowering adoption barriers.
Expanding beyond fixed-camera systems, Iveda has also introduced a smart drone solution equipped with its AI analytics platform. The drone can autonomously patrol designated areas, detect threats from the air, and stream real-time video to command centers. It supports use cases such as traffic monitoring, crowd management at large events, and rapid situational awareness during emergencies. By combining aerial mobility with intelligent detection, the drone adds another layer of flexibility to Iveda’s public safety toolkit.
Iveda’s market positioning is built around public safety and smart city deployments. Municipalities use its platform to monitor traffic, detect public safety incidents, and support emergency response. Schools and universities apply the technology to enhance campus security, while government agencies rely on it for surveillance and forensic investigations. In 2025, Iveda expanded its global reseller network, signing partners in North America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to accelerate adoption across diverse markets. This partner-led distribution model gives the company a broader reach without the heavy overhead of direct sales expansion.
Iveda represents a speculative but potentially high-growth AI penny stock. Trading around $1.51, it offers exposure to the fast-growing field of video analytics, projected to exceed $20 billion by 2030 as cities and enterprises adopt AI-powered surveillance. Catalysts include municipal contract wins, successful pilot project conversions, and the launch of new natural-language search features designed to make AI adoption easier for non-technical users. Risks include stiff competition from larger security and AI firms, privacy regulations that could limit certain use cases, and the capital demands of scaling a global AI platform. Still, with its proven technology and expanding partner base, Iveda stands out as a notable sub-$5 AI stock to watch.
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Inuvo is a next-generation advertising technology company that integrates artificial intelligence into digital marketing and media buying. Its flagship product, IntentKey, is an AI-driven audience targeting engine that enables brands and agencies to identify potential customers without relying on cookies or personal identifiers. Instead of tracking individuals, IntentKey infers purchase intent from context and behavior patterns across the digital ecosystem. This makes Inuvo’s approach particularly valuable in a world where privacy regulations and cookie deprecation are reshaping how advertisers reach consumers.
The IntentKey platform works by analyzing billions of interactions and applying generative AI models to predict which audiences are most likely to engage with a campaign. It can be used for programmatic ad placements, social campaigns, or omnichannel media strategies. By providing marketers with near real-time intent analysis, the system claims to deliver higher ROI while staying compliant with evolving data privacy standards. In addition to IntentKey, Inuvo offers AI-powered media mix modeling tools, which help companies allocate advertising budgets across multiple channels—digital, TV, mobile, and offline—based on predictive performance modeling.
The company has been gaining traction as more advertisers look for alternatives to traditional cookie-based tracking. Its AI-first solutions align with a broader industry shift toward contextual and privacy-first advertising, making Inuvo well positioned to benefit from these structural changes. For small- and mid-sized businesses, IntentKey provides access to AI-level analytics that were once only available to the largest enterprises. For larger clients, it represents a way to improve efficiency and transparency in digital ad spending.
From a stock perspective, Inuvo has been performing well relative to peers in the penny-stock space, recently trading around $4.05 and posting double-digit percentage gains in short time frames. Analysts have issued optimistic price targets ranging from $10 to $15, reflecting the potential upside if its AI-driven adtech solutions gain more adoption. However, it remains a speculative play: the company is not yet consistently profitable, and scaling in a competitive space dominated by giants like Google and Meta poses challenges. Still, its ability to deliver differentiated AI-driven marketing tools makes it one of the more interesting sub-$5 AI names for investors looking for growth exposure.
Market Performance:
Many of the top-performing AI penny stocks—like $BBAI, $SOUN, and $POET—didn’t move gradually. They exploded right after a game-changing event: a defense contract, a massive funding round, or a key partnership.
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