3 of the Top 5 Performers in the S&P 500 in the First Half Offer 1 Particular Thing for AI Customers. (Hint: It Isn't the GPU, and Nvidia Isn't Among Them.)

While Nvidia dominated the early AI boom with GPU chips, memory and storage companies have emerged as top S&P 500 performers in the first half of 2026. Sandisk, Micron Technology, and Western Digital—ranked 1st, 2nd, and 5th respectively—are benefiting from surging demand for data storage and memory as AI inference and agentic operations scale. These companies are experiencing triple-digit revenue growth in data center segments, positioning them as critical players in the next phase of AI deployment.