ServiceNow and Salesforce power AI software stocks higher as chip names retreat, SOXX -2.2%

ServiceNow surged 6.5% Wednesday after its AI agent products crossed $1 billion in annualized contract value, leading a narrow enterprise-software rally as the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index tumbled 2.2% and AI chip stocks sold off across the board. The S&P 500 added 0.21% to 7,707.98 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.16% to 26,331.09, snapping a three-day losing streak after the US Treasury said it would increase buybacks of long-dated bonds, pulling the 10-year yield five basis points lower to 4.65%.

StartupHub.ai data shows the 11 chip and semiconductor-equipment names in our AI tracking universe averaged a 3.8% decline on August 19, while the four enterprise-SaaS stocks we follow averaged a 3.9% gain, a spread of 7.7 percentage points that marks one of the sharpest single-session software-versus-hardware divergences recorded in the group this year.

Top AI stocks today: August 19, 2026

ServiceNow surges 6.5% as AI agent revenue crosses $1 billion

ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE: NOW) closed at $127.20, up 6.5% on 22.4 million shares. Q2 2026 subscription revenue grew 25% year over year to $3.88 billion and current remaining performance obligations rose 21% to $13.2 billion. The number that moved the tape: Now Assist AI products crossed $1 billion in annualized contract value, with net new AI bookings accelerating more than 40% sequentially and deal counts climbing more than 50% quarter over quarter, per the Motley Fool. CEO Bill McDermott told analysts that every business process in every industry is "being refactored for agentic AI." Among the top AI stocks to watch in August 2026, NOW's agent-led booking acceleration stands out as the clearest monetization inflection in the enterprise-software space. The stock has rebounded more than 54% from its 2026 lows, per Yahoo Finance.

Salesforce climbs 5.1% as Agentforce monetization takes hold

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) added 5.1% to $206.09 on heavy volume, with its one-month gain of 26.4% the strongest in our large-cap enterprise-software cohort. Investors are pricing in meaningful Agentforce autonomous-AI platform revenue within the next two to three fiscal quarters, placing CRM among the most-cited best AI stocks to buy for the remainder of 2026. Next formal catalyst: Q2 fiscal 2027 earnings.

ACM Research drops 8% despite raised guidance

ACM Research Inc. (NASDAQ: ACMR) fell 8.0% to $77.59 on 1.1 million shares, the session's biggest percentage loser despite solid fundamentals. Q2 revenue of $292.9 million came in 36% above the year-earlier quarter, with a 45.7% earnings-per-share surprise and first-half orders up 105%, per its SEC 8-K filing. The company raised the low end of full-year revenue guidance to $1.13 billion. Morgan Stanley analyst Charlie Chan lifted his price target to $130 from $90 with an Overweight rating; Craig-Hallum raised its target to $100 from $81. The sell-off reflects institutional trimming of AI chip stocks ahead of Nvidia's August 26 print, when the sector gets its next major directional read. ACMR remains up 72.9% year to date.

Dell slips 6.6% on pre-earnings positioning

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) fell 6.6% to $437.55 as option-market activity signaled pre-earnings nervousness. Put volume surged and implied volatility rose as institutional investors sought downside hedges, citing AI server margin concerns and growing scrutiny of insider share sales, per TradingKey. Q2 2026 results are due August 28 after the bell. AI infrastructure stocks broadly are under pressure this week as the market waits to see whether Dell's AI server backlog converts to the margin expansion analysts have modeled. Dell remains up 242% year to date, leaving limited room for a guidance miss.

Notable but quieter

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) gained 4.2% to $351.12, extending its autonomy narrative with no specific catalyst. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) added 2.5% to $265.84, the best Magnificent 7 AI stocks performer of the session, on continued AWS cloud momentum. Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) fell 6.3% to $307.17 and Teradyne Inc. (NASDAQ: TER) dropped 6.1% to $379.65, both reflecting sector-wide pre-NVIDIA positioning pressure on chip-equipment names. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) each shed more than 4%, amplifying the semiconductor cohort's weekly losses.

What are the top AI stocks to buy in August 2026?

Across hardware, hyperscale cloud, and enterprise SaaS, the consensus top AI stocks in August 2026 include Nvidia (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), and ACM Research (ACMR) on the hardware side; Amazon (AMZN) for hyperscale cloud infrastructure; and ServiceNow (NOW) for enterprise AI software. Wall Street's 2026 focus has shifted from training-cluster buildout toward inference efficiency and AI-agent monetization, reshuffling which names lead each session. Wednesday illustrated that dynamic: the best AI stocks today were agentic-workflow platforms, while AI chip stocks retreated ahead of the Nvidia earnings catalyst. For the top AI stocks 2026 watchlist, the late-August earnings window is critical.

Core watchlist

Chips

Nvidia (NVDA): -1.0% on heavy volume. Pre-earnings drift; the August 26 print is the pivotal AI chip stocks catalyst this month.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): -3.7% on heavy volume. Sector repositioning; AI GPU demand narrative intact heading into the earnings window.
Broadcom (AVGO): -4.6% on heavy volume. Custom-ASIC tailwind intact; September 2 print the next major catalyst.
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM): -0.3% on moderate volume. Holding above support; Q3 guidance commentary the key supply-chain data point.

Hyperscalers

Microsoft (MSFT): +0.6% on moderate volume. Copilot enterprise adoption remains the steadiest Magnificent 7 AI stocks monetization story; next catalyst is Q2 fiscal 2027 results.
Alphabet (GOOGL): +0.2% on moderate volume. Gemini product cycle on track; nothing material in the tape today.
Meta Platforms (META): +0.4% on moderate volume. AI-powered ad targeting continues to drive margin expansion; Q3 print is the next catalyst.
Amazon (AMZN): +2.5% on moderate-heavy volume. AWS cloud-AI capacity additions the driver; best Magnificent 7 performer today.

Enterprise SaaS

Oracle (ORCL): +0.7% on heavy volume. Cloud AI buildout on track; next formal catalyst is the upcoming earnings call.
monday.com (MNDY): +3.4% on light volume. mondayAI suite expansion the narrative; riding the enterprise-SaaS tailwind from NOW and CRM today.

Vol / retail

Palantir (PLTR): +2.1% on heavy volume. Government AI contracting still brisk; holding near record highs with nothing material in the tape.
Tesla (TSLA): +4.2% on moderate-heavy volume. Autonomy narrative the driver; robotaxi regulatory timeline the near-term watch item.
Snowflake (SNOW): -0.1% on light volume. Quiet session; AI Data Cloud thesis intact, watching the next earnings call for forward guidance.

What to watch tomorrow

NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) reports Q2 2026 results on August 26, the most important AI infrastructure earnings event remaining this month. Marvell Technology follows on August 27 and Broadcom closes the trio on September 2. Dell Technologies prints August 28. The US-Canada tariff situation remains a live macro variable after Trump's three-day pause announced Wednesday. With the 10-year yield at 4.65%, rate sensitivity stays elevated for high-multiple AI software names. More recaps: our AI stocks daily archive.

Not investment advice.