3 Top-Ranked Stocks Riding on Massive AI Infrastructure Spending
Artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure spending is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, creating long-term opportunities across cloud computing, data centers and AI hardware. Rapid advancements in large language models, generative AI, agentic AI, multimodal learning and high-performance computing enabled by innovations in GPUs and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are driving breakthroughs across healthcare, finance, robotics, cybersecurity…
Artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure spending is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, creating long-term opportunities across cloud computing, data centers and AI hardware. Rapid advancements in large language models, generative AI, agentic AI, multimodal learning and high-performance computing enabled by innovations in GPUs and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are driving breakthroughs across healthcare, finance, robotics, cybersecurity and e-commerce industries.
The rapid deployment of AI technology and huge spending on its development efforts offer significant growth opportunities for Amazon AMZN, Alphabet GOOGL, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise HPE. Amazon, Alphabet, along with Microsoft and Meta Platforms, are expected to spend around $700 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, with a substantial portion directed toward building AI-ready data centers, expanding cloud regions and deploying GPU clusters.
Before discussing the stocks in detail, let’s dig deeper into the trends.
AI Infrastructure Attracting Significant Spending
Data centers have become the backbone of the AI ecosystem, providing the computational power, high-speed networking and large-scale data storage required to train and deploy advanced AI models. Unlike traditional enterprise data centers, AI data centers are built around high-density GPU clusters, ultra-fast networking, advanced cooling systems and scalable power infrastructure to support compute-intensive workloads. Per an IDC report, global AI infrastructure spending reached a record $318 billion in 2025, more than doubling year over year, and is projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2029, driven by hyperscaler investments and the growing adoption of sovereign AI initiatives.
From conversational chatbots and medical diagnostics to fraud prevention and autonomous systems, AI has become a core enabler of organizational agility, while also driving meaningful gains in productivity and operational efficiency. In 2026, the worldwide AI spending is expected to reach $2.59 trillion, representing 47% year-over-year growth. This rapid growth is expected to have been driven primarily by technology vendors and hyperscale cloud providers that are expanding AI infrastructure to meet rising demand for generative AI and agentic AI applications.
AI infrastructure spending extends beyond AI-optimized servers to encompass GPUs and custom AI accelerators, PCIe-enabled platforms, advanced chip-to-chip interconnects, high-speed networking technologies, high-bandwidth memory (HBM), optical connectivity and AI storage solutions.
According to Gartner, AI infrastructure, including AI-optimized cloud services, servers, networking, and semiconductors, is forecasted to account for more than 45% of total AI spending in 2026, with AI-optimized servers emerging as the largest spending category over the next five years.
Our Picks
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise is benefiting from the modernization of traditional IT infrastructure and huge capex investment in AI. HPE is driving rapid growth by expanding beyond traditional servers into AI-optimized compute, networking, storage, security, private cloud, virtualization and software for AI data centers.
The company’s focus on enterprise and sovereign AI, combined with the Juniper Networks integration, strengthens HPE’s competitive position. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, HPE reported record AI systems orders of $1.8 billion, lifting cumulative AI bookings to $16.4 billion and backlog to $5.9 billion.
This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company expects continued growth from record order pipeline, sustained AI server demand, expanding AI networking deployments and rising on-premises AI adoption. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $3.41 per share, which has been unchanged over the past 30 days. This represents 75.77% year-over-year growth.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Price and Consensus
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Price and Consensus
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company price-consensus-chart | Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Quote
Alphabet is benefiting from surging AI infrastructure demand, strengthening growth across Google Cloud and Search. GOOGL’s full-stack AI strategy, spanning custom TPUs, Axion CPUs, NVIDIA GPUs and advanced Gemini models, provides scalable AI infrastructure for enterprises and consumers.
To support rising demand, this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company raised 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $180-190 billion, with a significant portion allocated to servers, data centers and networking equipment to meet unprecedented internal and external demand for AI compute resources. Alphabet expects 2027 capital expenditure to increase significantly as it continues to scale its infrastructure to capture the expanding AI opportunity.
The consensus mark for 2026 earnings is pegged at $14.32 per share, which has increased by a couple of cents over the past 30 days. This represents 32.47% year-over-year growth.
Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus
Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus
Alphabet Inc. price-consensus-chart | Alphabet Inc. Quote
Another Zacks Rank #2 company, Amazon, is benefiting from massive capital expenditures on AI infrastructure through significant investments in custom silicon like Trainium and Graviton chips, data centers and AI services. These have positioned Amazon’s cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (“AWS”), as a leader in the rapidly growing AI market.
With AWS’s AI revenue run rates exceeding $15 billion and strong customer commitments, including more than $225 billion in revenue commitments for Trainium, these CapEx investments are expected to yield compelling operating margins and long-term returns, signaling further upside as AI adoption accelerates across industries.
The consensus mark for 2026 earnings is pegged at $8.86 per share, which has increased by a penny over the past 30 days. This represents 23.57% year-over-year growth.
Amazon.com, Inc. Price and Consensus
Amazon.com, Inc. Price and Consensus
Amazon.com, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Amazon.com, Inc. Quote
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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