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While most investors spent the year glued to anything labeled “AI,” a lot of meaningful innovation happened far away from Silicon Valley.

Companies in completely different sectors have been adopting AI in ways that actually matter for margins, operations and reliability.

Today’s Daily Money takes a look at a few names that are using the technology to strengthen their core businesses — and giving investors a way to stay in the AI mix without taking tech-level risks. — Kat Peach

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Why You No Longer Have to Own AI Stocks to Get AI Exposure

The stock market spent 2025 acting like AI was the second coming of sliced bread, electricity and Beyoncé combined. Sure, there was plenty of drama — tariffs, inflation, a government shutdown with record-breaking pettiness — but nothing hogged the spotlight quite like artificial intelligence.

While the S&P 500 politely posted a 17% gain, AI darlings like Nvidia, Palantir, Micron and Seagate blasted off as if they were trying to colonize Mars.

Naturally, investors chased those shiny chips like magpies. But here’s a twist: You don’t need to buy a hyperscaler to get a piece of the AI pie. In fact, that’s where the danger lives — circular funding, concentration risk and the feeling that the big tech companies are all investing in each other like they’re passing around the same $20.

Instead, the real sleeper hits are the “boring” companies. Walmart is using AI to track your bananas, Valero is inspecting refinery equipment with robo-smarts and Constellation Energy is teaching its nuclear fleet to predict maintenance before things get spicy.

These defensive-sector wallflowers won’t explode like Nvidia, but they also won’t torch your portfolio when tech has a tantrum. In other words: AI exposure without the heartburn. — KP

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SAVE NO MORE

SAVE Plan for Student Loan Borrowers Is Officially Dead

The Biden administration’s most ambitious initiative aimed at student loan forgiveness is officially dead.

The income-based Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment program, rolled out after the Supreme Court blocked earlier loan-forgiveness efforts, was designed to sharply lower borrowers’ monthly payments — down to $0, in some cases — and waive outstanding balances after as few as 10 years of payments.

It had been beset by legal challenges from its inception, and opposition from the Trump administration’s Department of Education sealed its fate.

The DOE announced in a press release issued Tuesday — which used the word “illegal” to describe the defunct plan 16 times — that the program was terminated by way of a settlement agreement with the state of Missouri, which had sued to block implementation of the plan on the grounds that it had been implemented by the White House instead of Congress.

The court is expected to approve the agreement, which means that the more than 7 million borrowers currently enrolled in the SAVE Plan will have to switch to one of the other existing loan repayment programs.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress earlier this year completely overhauled the federal student loan landscape, simplifying the complex patchwork of repayment programs and limiting loan forgiveness. Borrowers had already been put on notice that they would have to enroll in a different payback plan.

An August missive from the Department of Education warned that the SAVE Plan was being shuttered and urged borrowers to switch to “legally compliant” loan repayment programs. — Martha C. White

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This issue of Daily Money was written by associate editor Kat Peach and reporter Martha C. White. It was edited by associate editor Kat Peach. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Please email [email protected] with any feedback.

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