These 5 Chip Stocks Are Riding the AI Fab Spending Wave

Joel South

Sat, July 11, 2026 astatine 7:00 AM CDT 7 min read

Quick Read

• Gary Dickerson raised AMAT's 2026 semiconductor instrumentality maturation forecast past 30%, portion ONTO locked a $240 cardinal HBM acquisition statement moving done 2027.

• Teradyne's Q1 gross surged 87% to $1.28 cardinal with astir 70% tied straight to AI demand, arsenic nett income jumped 303%.

• This lithium shaper surpassed a $1B backstage valuation, joining immoderate of America's astir almighty startups. Now you tin put successful EnergyX alongside planetary giants similar General Motors, but lone done July 16. (sponsor)

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) conscionable told the Street its semiconductor instrumentality concern volition turn much than 30% successful calendar 2026, an upward revision from a anterior barroom of 20%. That is the dependable of an AI fab CapEx supercycle shifting from thesis to invoice, and the picks-and-shovel names selling into each foundry, HBM stack and gate-all-around node are the ones cashing the checks. Five stocks beryllium straight nether that spending occurrence hose. Here is wherever the wealth is moving, successful order.

1. Onto Innovation: The Advanced-Packaging Sleeper

Onto Innovation (NYSE:ONTO) is the sanction astir retail investors inactive cannot spell, but it sits astatine the nonstop chokepoint AI needs: inspection and metrology for HBM stacks, 2.5D logic and gate-all-around devices. When TSMC and SK hynix bolt an accelerator together, Onto's Dragonfly and Atlas tools determine whether the dice passes oregon scraps. That is process power leverage connected the fastest-growing country of the fab, good beyond commoditized deposition.

The Q1 FY26 net study did the talking. Revenue deed a grounds $291.95 million, up 9.5% twelvemonth implicit year, with the precocious nodes concern tracking astir 25% full-year growth. Onto besides locked a measurement acquisition statement worthy much than $240 cardinal with a starring HBM shaper moving done 2027. CEO Mike Plisinski flagged "the accelerating adoption of our Atlas G6 OCD strategy for next-generation logic and representation devices" arsenic the tell.

July 16 is the Final Day to Tap Into the Lithium Boom (sponsor)
General Motors, POSCO, and 50,000+ mundane investors person already backed lithium shaper EnergyX.

Here's wherefore you should bash the aforesaid earlier their July 16 concern deadline: lithium prices are up 75% this year, with request projected to turn a staggering 5X by 2040.

With tech that tin retrieve up to 3X much lithium than accepted methods, EnergyX is preparing to unlock up to 15M+ tons. Become a private-stage EnergyX capitalist earlier the July 16 deadline.

The banal enactment agrees. ONTO closed astatine $321.44 connected July 10 aft ripping astir 94% higher twelvemonth to day and much than 212% implicit the past year. The expert people sits astatine $369.60 with 7 of 7 analysts astatine a Buy oregon Strong Buy rating. The bigger astonishment is what a $479 cardinal incumbent is telling investors astir 2026.