AMAT and Micron are still winners in the AI ​​business despite QQQ and sector weakness

• Applied Materials ( AMAT ) is up 35% year-to-date at $345.88 with a $432 Morgan Stanley price target. Micron ( MU ) is trading up 41% year-to-date near $403. The SPY is down 0.7% and the QQQ is down 1% year-to-date. Procter & Gamble ( PG ), Coca-Cola ( KO ), and Walmart ( WMT ) are all in the year but have recently pulled back.

• Applied Materials and Micron dominate as AI memory builds accelerate, with record DRAM revenue and high-bandwidth memory demand driving semiconductor equipment orders in 2027.

• An analyst named NVIDIA just named his top 10 AI stocks in 2010. Get it for free here.

In a rough market where AI trading has largely struggled, one voice through the noise put it simply: “Few stocks have done as well in AI trading as AMAT and Micron.” This is not a hot step. This is supported by the numbers.

While the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA: Detective) is essentially flat year-to-date, down just 0.7%, and the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) has slipped about 1% a year, two seminal names have quietly reigned.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) is up nearly 35% year-to-date, trading around $345.88. Applied makes machines that make chips. If AI is a gold rush, applied shovels are created, and the demand for these shovels accelerates.

READ: The analyst named NVIDIA in 2010 Just naming his top 10 AI stocks

In its most recent quarter, Applied delivered non-GAAP EPS of $2.38 versus estimates of $2.21, a nearly 8% beat. Revenues reached $7.01 billion. DRAM revenue hit a record, now representing 34% of the semiconductor systems segment, up from 27% a year ago. This is AI memory building in action.

CEO Gary Dickerson was straight forward:

“The need for high-performance and energy-efficient chips is driving high growth rates for advanced logic, high-bandwidth memory and advanced packaging. These are areas where applied process equipment is the leader, and we expect our semiconductor equipment business to grow 20 percent this year.”

This is a straightforward commitment to 20%+ growth in calendar 2026. The analyst community is listening: Morgan Stanley has implemented its top pick on US Semiconductor Equipment, raising its price target to $432.

Micron Technologies (NASDAQ:MU) is up 41% year-to-date, trading near $403. Last quarter, Micron posted non-GAAP EPS of $4.78 versus estimates of $3.94, a 21% beat. Revenue rose 56.6% year-over-year to $13.64 billion. GAAP gross margin expanded to 56.0% from 38.4% year over year.

The Cloud Memory business unit only generated $5.28 billion in revenue at a gross margin of 66%. This is not a cyclical memory company. It is a high-margin AI infrastructure business.

CEO Sanjay Mehrotra put it bluntly: “Micron’s technology leadership, diverse product portfolio, and strong operational execution position us as an essential enabler of AI.” HBM’s order books already extend to 2027.

Defensive names such as Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), coca cola (NYSE:KOand Walmart (NYSE:WMT) are all in the year but have rebounded in the last month. The VIX peaked as high as 29.49 on March 6 before settling near 25.50. Elevated, but not panic territory.

The message is straightforward: the broader market is only about 3% away from recent highs despite the noise. The AI ​​infrastructure trade is alive; It’s just a stock picker game, and right now Applied Materials and Micron do the heavy lifting.

Wall Street is pouring billions into AI, but many investors are buying the wrong stocks. The analyst who first identified NVIDIA as a buyback in 2010 — before its 28,000% run — has identified just 10 new AI companies that he believes can deliver returns beyond that point. One dominates the $100 billion equipment market. Bill addresses the single biggest obstacle to maintaining AI data centers. The third segment is a net play in the optical network market that is quadrupling. Most investors haven’t heard of half of these names. Get a free list of all 10 stocks here.