AI Bottlenecks: 3 Stocks Poised to Gain from the AI Buildout

Buy the AI Picks and Shovels

Long-time readers of mine know that my favorite fundamental stories are “pick and shovel” investments. For instance, during the gold rush, the businesses that sold the picks, shovels, and denim jeans required for gold mining often did better than the gold miners themselves, because, unlike mining, profits were predictable and consistent. Meanwhile, there are numerous examples throughout history. During the U.S. oil fracking boom of the early 2000s, energy workers were required to live in remote places, with little housing. This led to a surge in demand for RVs.

AI Spending is Soaring (& Will Continue to)

Despite constant fears of an internet-like bubble, America’s top tech companies continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure to capture their share of the AI market. In 2025, the hyperscalers, which include Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), and Oracle (ORCL), accounted for $390 billion in CAPEX spending. Despite fears of overspending, AI CAPEX spending is expected to maintain momentum, reaching $515 billion this year and ~$600 billion in 2027.

Who will Benefit the most from AI Spending?

Below are 3 AI Bottlenecks to Watch

Flash Memory Stocks

Micron (MU) and Sandisk (SNDK) are the two leading suppliers of memory and storage infrastructure required for AI data centers. Storage and memory are critical ingredients needed for training AI models. Currently, demand is so high that Micron has already announced its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is sold out for 2026. Meanwhile, SNDK shares jumped on Tuesday after Taiwan’s Phison CEO said NAND flash prices jumped 50% overnight amid the ongoing supply crunch.

Over the past four quarters, Sandisk has beaten Zacks Consensus Estimates by a staggering 371%!

Meanwhile, after a brief multi-week pullback, MU and SNDK shares found support at their rising 10-week moving averages, suggesting the bulls are remain in control.

On-Site Energy Stocks

Amid the rapid data center buildout, legacy electric grid infrastructure is insufficient. Data centers require immense, reliable electricity. Bloom Energy (BE), provides high-efficiency, on-site solid oxide fuel cells to energy-hungry data centers. Currently, Bloom has a record backlog after a $5B deal with Brookfield. Wall Street analysts expect EPS to grow 81% in 2026 and triple-digits in 2027.

Additionally, demand is likely to soar even further as the Trump Administration seeks to push big tech companies to provide their own data center power. BE shares are currently finding support at the 10-week moving average.

AI Data Center Sites

Data center sites are in high demand, as hyperscalers continue to spend billions on AI infrastructure. IREN (IREN), which pivoted away from Bitcoin mining, is a prominent AI infrastructure provider. The company offers its clients a unique combination of power capacity, hard-to-get NVIDIA (NVDA) GPUs (IREN recently bought 50,000 NVDA GPUs), and existing data center sites.

Bottom Line

The AI revolution is not just a software story – it’s a massive, physical industrial buildout. Memory, energy, and data center stocks stand to benefit the most.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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