These Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Have Crushed Nvidia in 2026 With Gains of 67% and 121%. They Can Still Soar Higher - AOL.com

In 2026, despite NVIDIA's continued dominance in the artificial intelligence sector, its stock performance has been underwhelming, rising only 12% year-to-date. In contrast, Lumentum Holdings and Appl... Read original →

NVIDIA's stagnant stock reveals a strategic pivot in AI investing—from compute dominance to solving infrastructure bottlenecks. Lumentum’s photonic components and Applied Materials’ EUV tools are surging because sub-3nm nodes and hyperscale data centers demand unprecedented interconnect bandwidth and fabrication precision. Technologically, this accelerates commercialization of silicon photonics and atomic-layer deposition. Geopolitically, U.S. export controls inflate global supply chain redundancy costs, yet strategic alliances between Micron and TSMC (Taiwan, China) reinforce the indispensability of U.S. equipment vendors. Competitively, Samsung and SK Hynix may fast-track in-house optical I/O to reduce dependency, while SMIC remains sidelined by EUV restrictions. Over the next 12–24 months, ‘invisible champions’ in AI infrastructure—especially in co-packaged optics and advanced packaging—will command valuation premiums as capex shifts decisively from chip design to materials and equipment.