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

In 2026, despite NVIDIA's continued dominance in the AI sector, its stock performance has been underwhelming, rising only 12%. In contrast, companies like Lumentum and Applied Materials have surged, w... Read original →

NVIDIA’s stagnant stock reveals a structural shift in AI investment—from algorithms to physics. Lumentum’s photonics surge and Applied Materials’ equipment boom signal that AI infrastructure has hit a 'bandwidth wall,' forcing data centers to adopt co-packaged optics and sub-3nm interconnects. This triggers a tech cascade: EUV adoption and advanced packaging drive demand across lasers, metrology, and deposition tools. Geopolitically, U.S.-led export controls inflate non-U.S. foundries’ CAPEX redundancy, ironically boosting American vendors with localized support. TSMC (Taiwan, China) and Samsung’s 2nm race will ignite a semiconductor equipment arms race, while Micron and SK Hynix’s HBM4 investments cement Applied Materials’ dominance in DRAM etch. Over the next 18 months, optical I/O and atomic-scale fabrication—not just AI chips—will capture premium valuations. Without extending CUDA into hardware-layer control, NVIDIA’s valuation premium will keep eroding.