Wall Street Rotates Into Intel, AMD and Micron as AI Chip Demand Broadens

CNBC reported Friday that the AI chip rally is broadening sharply, with Intel, AMD and Micron posting explosive weekly gains while Nvidia stepped out of the spotlight for the first time in years.

A Week of Standout Moves Across the Chip Stack

The week produced some of the semiconductor sector’s most striking single-week moves in recent memory. Advanced Micro Devices and Intel each climbed roughly 25%. Memory maker Micron Technology jumped more than 37%. Fiber-optic cable manufacturer Corning added around 18%. All four names have more than doubled in value so far in 2026. Intel leads that group, up more than 200% on the year. Nvidia, by comparison, has gained around 15% in 2026, roughly in line with the Nasdaq.

Mizuho analyst Jordan Klein described the shift as a potential “changing of the guard in AI,” framing the rotation as investors broadening their exposure across the hardware stack rather than concentrating in a single name.

Memory Shortage Turns Micron Into One of the Hottest Trades

The memory market has been the sharpest flashpoint. A global supply crunch has sent prices surging while costs have risen only modestly, a combination that Klein said produces outsized profits for companies positioned ahead of a shortage. Micron crossed an $800 billion market capitalization for the first time this week. Its stock has risen more than 750% over the past year.

Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told CNBC in March that major customers are receiving only half to two-thirds of their memory requirements because supply cannot keep pace. Samsung and SK Hynix, the two Korea-based rivals that dominate the market alongside Micron, are also in the midst of historic rallies.

CPU Demand Surges as AI Agents Replace Chatbots

Beyond memory, central processing units are reclaiming investor attention. For much of the early AI boom, GPU demand dominated and CPUs became an afterthought. That calculus is shifting as the industry moves from large language model chatbots toward autonomous AI agents, which require different computational workloads.

Bank of America estimates the data center CPU market could grow from roughly $27 billion in 2025 to $60 billion by 2030. AMD’s latest quarterly results illustrated the trend directly. Earnings, revenue and forward guidance all beat analyst expectations on the back of data center strength.

AMD CEO Lisa Su said on the company’s earnings call that it now expects server CPU market growth of 35% over the next three to five years. That figure is nearly double the 18% forecast the company offered just last November. “Agents are really driving tremendous demand in the overall AI adoption cycle,” Su told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street. Analysts at Goldman Sachs and Bernstein both upgraded AMD to buy following the report.

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