While Nvidia has dominated the “infrastructure boom” since “the generative AI craze” kicked off, last week showed a shift.
Chipmakers AMD and Intel gained about 25 per cent, while memory maker Micron jumped more than 37 per cent.
Fibre-optic cable maker Corning climbed about 18 per cent, which is not bad for a glass outfit that has been around since the horse-and-cart era. All four companies have more than doubled in value this year. Chipzilla has led the pack, rising by well over 200 per cent.
Nvidia, meanwhile, is only slightly ahead of the Nasdaq in 2026, gaining 15 per cent for the year after an eight per cent rally this week.
By spreading the cash across more hardware companies, investors appear to be betting the AI bull market has legs. They think data centres will need a wider range of advanced components for years rather than just the usual GPU bling.
Memory has been the biggest theme lately because of a global shortage that has driven prices higher.
That has turned Micron, a 47-year-old company from a sleepy corner of the semiconductor market, into one of the hottest trades of the past 12 months. Micron blew past an $800 billion market capitalisation for the first time this week. Its shares are now up more than 750 per cent in the past year.
Micron chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra told CNBC in March that key customers were getting only “50 per cent to two-thirds of their requirements” because of supply problems.
The memory market is largely dominated by Micron, Samsung of South Korea, and SK Hynix.
Samsung and SK Hynix are enjoying historic rallies too, helped by the same shortage that has made memory less dull than usual.
Bank of America estimates the data centre CPU market could more than double from $27 billion in 2025 to $60 billion in 2030.
AMD’s quarterly results this week underlined the trend, with earnings, revenue and guidance beating estimates on strong data centre growth. The company has long pushed the CPU side of the market.
AMD chief executive Lisa Su told investors that AMD now expects 35 per cent growth in the server CPU market during the next three to five years. That is up from the 18 per cent growth forecast the company gave in November.
There are two other big movers. Intel, which is in the midst of a revival sparked by a major US government investment last year.
Chipzilla’s stock had its best month on record in April, more than doubling. It has kept racking up big gains, rising 33 per cent in the early days of May.
Nvidia remains the world’s most valuable company and is expected to show revenue growth of 70 per cent this fiscal year.
Glass maker Corning, which celebrated its 175th anniversary this week, signed a massive deal with Nvidia on Wednesday to develop three new US factories dedicated entirely to optical technologies… likely a major step in Nvidia’s move away from copper cables and towards fibre-optic cables as it builds out its rack-scale systems.
That points to a broader AI buildout where GPUs remain king, but memory, CPUs and optical kit are suddenly getting a taste of the loot.
