Wires and cables in a server room.
Thomas Northcut | Digitalvision | Getty Pictures
Nvidia has been the most important infrastructure winner within the synthetic intelligence increase, hovering in worth by virtually thirteenfold for the reason that finish of 2022 to a market cap of $4.6 trillion.
Whereas Nvidia’s rally continued in 2025, traders betting on different AI information middle performs made much more cash over the previous 12 months.
With 4 of the most important expertise firms projecting collective expenditures of $380 billion on information middle and infrastructure build-outs this yr, adopted by an anticipated increase within the coming years, Wall Avenue has poured cash into an assortment of distributors which are poised to reap the rewards.
Makers of reminiscence, storage, fiber-optic cables, central processors and different varieties of enterprise {hardware} have rocketed in valued this yr, pushed by pleasure across the AI craze.
Buyers will probably be scrutinizing these 5 firms carefully in 2026 now that lofty expectations have been constructed into their inventory costs.
Lumentum

Lumentum, primarily based in San Jose, California, makes switches, transceivers and different optical laser-based components which are wanted for fiber-optic cables. Clients have usually been telecommunications carriers and system makers like Apple, which beforehand used Lumentum components in its FaceID sensor.
However AI servers additionally want a variety of optical connections. Each graphics processing unit in a rack must be related to each different GPU. Future AI programs will scale out, which requires optical connections from rack to rack. Ultimately, complete information facilities will should be related to one another with fiber-optic connections.
Lumentum’s inventory worth has jumped 361% this yr, lifting the corporate’s market cap previous $27 billion. Gross sales surged 58% in the newest quarter from a yr earlier to $533 million.
“Our development is powered by AI demand spanning our laser chips and optical transceivers inside information facilities, in addition to the interconnected long-haul networks that hyperlink them,” Lumentum CEO Michael Hurlston mentioned on an earnings name in November. He mentioned 60% of the corporate’s gross sales now come from cloud and AI infrastructure.
Income is predicted to rise 58% for the fiscal yr ending in June, however analysts see a slowdown from there to development of 32% and 15% within the subsequent two years, in response to LSEG.
Western Digital
Western Digital is considered one of three main arduous drive producers, together with Seagate and Toshiba. Shares of the 55-year-old firm are up 296% this yr.
Along with computing energy, AI firms want growing quantities of area to retailer purposes and different information. In brief, information facilities want arduous drives.
Whereas Western Digital makes solid-state arduous drives, which use chips to retailer information, the corporate is greatest recognized for its arduous disk drives, which use spinning discs to retailer terabytes or extra of information.
“Information is the gas that powers AI, and it’s HDDs that present essentially the most dependable, scalable and cost-effective information storage answer,” CEO Irving Tan mentioned in October on an earnings name. He cited an instance of a hospital that is utilizing an AI that analyzes 7 billion photographs.
In the newest quarter, income rose 27% to $2.82 billion. The corporate says that promoting extra storage for information facilities will enhance profitability as a result of AI firms want bigger, dearer arduous drives.
Income is predicted to extend about 23% in fiscal 2026, with development slowing to 13% in 2027.
In February, Western Digital spun out its flash enterprise as Sandisk, which now has a market cap of about $35 billion, greater than half the worth of Western Digital.
Micron

Micron is considered one of three main reminiscence producers, alongside Samsung and SK Hynix, however the one one primarily based within the U.S.
Synthetic intelligence servers want a variety of reminiscence to retailer and course of large AI fashions. Chips from Nvidia or Advanced Micro Devices include scores of gigabytes of essentially the most superior reminiscence, known as high-bandwidth reminiscence. The chipmakers are taking all of the reminiscence manufacturing capability, resulting in a worldwide scarcity and driving costs increased.
Micron blew away Wall Avenue estimates for gross sales and earnings in its quarterly report final week, and the inventory is now up 228% for the yr.
Sumit Sadana, Micron’s enterprise chief, mentioned the corporate was “greater than offered out” of its reminiscence chips. In December, it even shuttered its consumer-focused line of reminiscence and solid-state drives to save lots of provide for AI.
Analysts from Morgan Stanley mentioned in a December observe that Micron’s outcomes confirmed one of the best income and revenue upside within the “historical past of the U.S. semis business” — except for Nvidia.
Income is predicted to virtually double within the yr ending in August, earlier than dramatically slowing to 24% in fiscal 2027 and fewer than 1% in 2028, in response to LSEG.
Seagate
An exterior view of a Seagate workplace on October 26, 2022 in Fremont, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Pictures
Seagate, based 9 years after Western Digital, can also be benefiting from booming demand for storage. The inventory is up 228% this yr.
Gross sales rose 21% to $2.63 billion within the firm’s fiscal third quarter, which ended Oct. 3. The corporate mentioned on the time that 80% of its gross sales go to the information middle market.
“There isn’t a query that AI is reshaping arduous drive demand by elevating the financial worth of information and information storage,” CEO Dave Mosley mentioned on a name with analysts.
Seagate is unlikely to have further arduous drives in stock, Financial institution of America analysts wrote in November, as any further shipments will get claimed rapidly. The analysts additionally famous that prospects are signing build-to-order contracts with agency quantity and worth commitments.
“The additional models are usually bought by hyperscale or different mass capability prospects,” wrote the analysts, who advocate shopping for the inventory.
Seagate’s trajectory seems much like Western Digital. Analysts count on 21% income development this fiscal yr, adopted by development of about 15% and 6% within the subsequent two years, in response to LSEG.
Celestica
Celestica, based in 1994 as an IBM subsidiary, makes switches that join networks collectively and handle the information and visitors flowing by them.
The inventory is up 213% this yr.
The corporate sells a lot of its switches to the most important AI consumers. Gross sales rose 28% within the third quarter to $3.19 billion. Analysts count on income development to climb from 26% this yr to 33% in 2026 and 34% in 2027, in response to LSEG.
Celestica CEO Robert Mionis mentioned on an earnings name in October {that a} hyperscaler just lately approached the corporate to construct components to attach liquid-cooled rack-scale computer systems for AI, and mentioned mass manufacturing is scheduled to start subsequent yr.
One boon for Celestica is surging demand for customized chips known as ASICs, that are much less versatile than GPUs however could be cheaper to function for particular AI purposes.
“Our largest and fastest-growing market presence is inside AI information facilities, supporting high-performance networking and customized ASIC AI/ML compute platforms,” Mionis mentioned.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote in a observe on Friday that Celestica provides components for Google’s ASIC.
“The corporate ought to profit in 2026 from being the main supplier of Google TPU rack stage options,” the analysts wrote.

