AI Arms Race Drives Capex Boom: 3 AI Stocks to Watch in 2026

The Artificial Intelligence arms race is going to enter a decisive phase after years of heavy investment in chips, data centers and foundational models. The focus is now shifting toward scale, monetization and competitive advantage. The year 2026 will separate long-term winners from those who have not successfully integrated AI-native business models.

AI is no longer an experimental add-on; it has become a core growth driver and customer retention pillar for many companies in 2025. Big Tech, cloud hyperscalers and enterprise software providers are racing to embed AI deeper into products, workflows and infrastructure to get an edge over their competitors.

Among the various players within the AI ecosystem, the companies that stand out as the direct beneficiaries of the AI arms race are NVIDIA NVDA, Marvell Technology MRVL and Micron Technology MU, as the rapid expansion of AI inference workloads is structurally dependent on their technologies.

Growing Capex Spent to Drive AI Infrastructure Growth

According to Gartner, global AI spending is expected to exceed $2 trillion in 2026 compared with an estimated $1.5 trillion in 2025. A major portion of this spending will be on AI infrastructure, which will drive the demand for semiconductor chips providing high bandwidth memory, compute, control, connectivity and deployment.

Per a report by International Data Corp. (IDC), the global AI infrastructure market is expected to hit a massive $758 billion by 2029, driven by strong demand for compute and storage hardware. IDC expects momentum in AI investment to continue in 2026, driven by strong spending from hyperscalers and cloud service providers.

Three Stocks Expected to Benefit From Rising AI Capex

NVIDIA – This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company is at the forefront of the AI revolution due to its strong portfolio.  You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

NVIDIA is gaining from the demand for its Hopper 200 and Blackwell GPU, used for training and inference of large language models, and have been a key catalyst as cloud providers and enterprises scale their AI infrastructure.

NVIDIA’s strength lies not just in hardware but in its full-stack approach. GPUs, networking products, software platforms and developer tools work together to create a powerful ecosystem. This integration makes it difficult for competitors to displace NVIDIA in large-scale AI deployments.

NVIDIA’s financials remain rock solid. In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, revenues jumped 62% from the year-ago quarter, while non-GAAP earnings per share rose 60%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NVIDIA’s fiscal 2026 earnings is currently pegged at $4.65 per share, indicating an increase of 55.5% year over year.

NVIDIA Corporation Price and Consensus

NVIDIA Corporation price-consensus-chart | NVIDIA Corporation Quote

Marvell Technology  – This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company develops custom XPU silicon, electro-optic interconnect products, custom ASICs, PAM4/800G, data center interconnect, next-generation switches and an Active Electrical Cable ecosystem with crucial applications in AI computation and networking across both hyperscale and enterprise spaces.

Marvell Technology has a multi-year strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services to supply connectivity products for AI and data-center workloads. It has also partnered with NVIDIA to integrate NVIDIA’s NVLink Fusion technology into MRVL’s custom cloud-platform silicon solution. The acquisition of Celestial AI will speed up its momentum in the interconnect space. These collaborations make MRVL indispensable in AI infrastructure.

In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, MRVL’s data center revenues of $1.52 billion increased 37.8% year over year and 1.8% sequentially, driven by strong traction in electro-optic interconnect products and next-generation switch offerings. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MRVL’s fiscal 2026 earnings is currently pegged at $2.84 per share, indicating an increase of 80.9% year over year.

Marvell Technology, Inc. Price and Consensus

Marvell Technology, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Marvell Technology, Inc. Quote

Micron Technology – Another Zacks Rank #1 company that is benefiting from the rapidly expanding AI-driven memory and storage markets. Micron is capitalizing on the AI boom with its HBM3E solutions, which are increasingly being adopted by major hyperscalers and enterprise customers.

On the first-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call, the company highlighted strong customer interest in its HBM3E portfolio, which is expected to drive substantial revenue growth in the quarters ahead. MU has made steady progress in HBM product development and capacity expansion, positioning itself as a key supplier to leading AI chipmakers. HBM carries higher margins than conventional DRAM, which should support profitability as volumes scale.

Micron is strengthening its industry partnerships to capitalize on AI and data center growth. The company is deepening collaborations with leading hyperscalers, AI model developers and has partnered with NVIDIA, AMD and Intel. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MU’s fiscal 2026 earnings is currently pegged at $31.36 per share, indicating an increase of 278.3% year over year.

Micron Technology, Inc. Price and Consensus

Micron Technology, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Micron Technology, Inc. Quote

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