Super Micro and AMD Power AI Chip Rally Ahead of Nvidia Earnings, SOXX +1.56%

Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI) surged 9.35% to close at $38.46 Tuesday, leading a broad AI chip stocks rally as investors positioned ahead of NVIDIA Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NVDA) fiscal second-quarter earnings due after the bell Wednesday. The SOXX semiconductor ETF gained 1.56% to $514.06, the S&P 500 added 0.32% to 7,677.28, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.66% to 26,151.30 as the AI infrastructure trade resumed its bid after Monday's tech-sector softness.

Top AI stocks today: August 25, 2026

Super Micro surges 9.35% on AI server hardware demand

Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI) was the day's standout among AI stocks to watch, closing at $38.46 after gaining 9.35% on volume of nearly 48 million shares. The rack-scale AI server and liquid-cooling specialist has posted a 24% year-to-date gain and a 35% one-month run, with Tuesday's move accelerating as enterprise buyers rushed to build GPU rack exposure ahead of NVIDIA's print. No single news item drove the session; the bid appeared to be pre-earnings positioning across the AI infrastructure stocks complex. SMCI's next earnings are due November 3, and consensus is watching for order-book commentary that confirms GPU server demand remains robust through year-end. StartupHub.ai data shows 3,245 AI infrastructure companies tracked globally, yet fewer than 10% have reached Series A funding, illustrating how concentrated the investable AI infrastructure trade remains in a handful of public-market names like SMCI.

AMD jumps 4.91% after Raymond James Strong Buy upgrade

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) rose 4.91% to $479.18, its best single-day gain in weeks, after Raymond James raised its rating to Strong Buy from Outperform and lifted its price target to $641 from $565. The broker cited compelling long-term value and a projected 44% five-year compound annual growth rate in the AI server CPU market, potentially reaching $201 billion by 2030 - a runway AMD is positioned to capture through its EPYC server line and MI-series GPU accelerators. AMD is up 114% year to date, placing it among the best AI chip stocks in 2026, a re-rating that reflects its evolution from niche GPU challenger to credible multi-product AI compute vendor. The NVDA earnings print Wednesday represents the most significant near-term catalyst for top AI stocks 2026 broadly; a strong guide from Nvidia on data center demand would validate AMD's bull case as well.

Dell gains 4.23% as Seoul AI forum drives enterprise infrastructure momentum

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) advanced 4.23% to $451.50, extending a staggering 253% year-to-date gain, after commentary from the company's 2026 World Forum in Seoul outlined an expanded enterprise AI agenda: data center cost management, security integration, and cross-cloud AI workload orchestration. Dell has become one of the top AI infrastructure stocks for institutional investors seeking hardware exposure with proven enterprise distribution; its server and storage divisions are direct beneficiaries of every GPU rack a Fortune 500 company deploys. Strong Wall Street estimates ahead of the next earnings print reinforced the bid, with institutional flows continuing to favor names that sit in the physical layer of the AI buildout.

Palo Alto slips 3.13% as cybersecurity rotation continues

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW) fell 3.13% to $339.90, pacing the session's losers alongside CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD), which dropped 2.78% to $185.38. Both names carry outsize year-to-date gains (PANW +89.5%, CRWD +63.5%), and Tuesday's selling reflected sector rotation into AI chip stocks rather than any company-specific news. Palo Alto's platformization strategy, consolidating enterprise security onto a single vendor, remains intact; the near-term question is whether the next quarterly print confirms the annual recurring revenue trajectory underpinning analyst targets.

Notable but quieter

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) added 2.48% to $932.97 and is up 196% YTD, with HBM3e memory demand for AI accelerator stacks remaining firm as pricing holds above year-ago levels. ACM Research Inc. (NASDAQ: ACMR) rose 3.14% to $79.77, extending a one-month gain of 10.8%, with wafer-cleaning equipment orders tracking the advanced packaging cycle. CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWV), the GPU cloud provider, edged up 2.08% to $88.04 and is up 31% over the past month as enterprise demand for on-demand GPU capacity continues to exceed available rack supply.

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 Super Micro Computer (SMCI), AMD (AMD), and Micron Technology (MU) on the hardware side; Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) for hyperscale AI infrastructure; and Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) for enterprise AI software. Wall Street's focus in the second half of 2026 has shifted from training-cluster buildout toward inference capacity and AI-agent monetization, a transition that is reshuffling which names lead each session among AI stocks today and separating the best AI stocks to buy from the broader field in real time.

What to watch tomorrow

Wednesday's session is dominated by one event: NVIDIA Corp. reports fiscal second-quarter 2027 results after the close. Consensus expects another record data center quarter; NVDA settled up 2.19% at $213.05 Tuesday on what appeared to be a setup trade. Any beat-and-raise or incremental color on Blackwell GPU shipments will set the tone for the entire AI chip complex heading into September and will likely determine whether top 2026 AI stocks extend their summer rally or consolidate. On the macro calendar: the Commerce Department's durable goods orders report is due at 8:30 a.m. ET, offering a read on business-equipment investment that is increasingly AI-hardware-driven.

Not investment advice.

Core watchlist

Chips

Nvidia (NVDA): +2.19% at $213.05, on heavy volume (120M shares). Pre-earnings setup trade; Wednesday's print is the only thing that matters this week for AI chip stocks.
Broadcom (AVGO): -0.56% at $356.74, on light volume. Custom ASIC and networking chip demand intact; no catalyst today.
Taiwan Semi (TSM): +1.78% at $417.41, on moderate volume. Advanced-node bookings healthy; tracks NVDA demand as a leading indicator.

Hyperscalers

Microsoft (MSFT): +0.90% at $491.71, on average volume. Among the Magnificent 7 AI stocks, Copilot monetization and Azure AI workloads remain the carrier; next earnings in October.
Alphabet (GOOGL): -0.32% at $346.96, on light volume. Google Cloud AI growing double-digits; modest dip does not change the trajectory.
Meta Platforms (META): +1.97% at $570.05, on average volume. AI-driven ad targeting driving revenue outperformance; Llama open-source model strategy the long-term differentiator.
Amazon (AMZN): -0.39% at $261.06, on moderate volume. AWS AI inference revenue ramping; modest softness consistent with Magnificent 7 AI stocks rotation.

Enterprise SaaS

Oracle (ORCL): +1.62% at $144.76, on above-average volume. OCI cloud AI infrastructure bookings the growth driver; next print in September.
ServiceNow (NOW): -0.82% at $127.00, on moderate volume. Workflow-AI agent suite the multi-year thesis; next earnings in October.
monday.com (MNDY): -1.08% at $93.23, on average volume. mondayAI expansion the multi-quarter narrative; watching the next FY guide.
Salesforce (CRM): -1.61% at $205.69, on heavy volume. Agentforce monetization the entire thesis; profit-taking after a strong one-month gain.

Vol / retail

Palantir (PLTR): -1.80% at $172.73, on above-average volume. One-month gain of nearly 40% invites short-term profit-taking; AI government-contract thesis is intact.
Tesla (TSLA): +0.37% at $350.25, on average volume. Autonomous driving and AI robotics remain the long-run narrative; Q3 deliveries are the next hard catalyst.
Snowflake (SNOW): -1.78% at $317.02, on average volume. Data-cloud AI workloads growing, but competitive pressure from Databricks is visible; next earnings in November.