AI impulse in stock market: New winners beyond Big Tech

In 2026, the development of artificial intelligence is no longer confined to Big Tech alone. Large-scale investments in data centers, energy infrastructure, and chips have launched a long-term infrastructure cycle. The market is increasingly turning its attention to second- and third-tier companies — suppliers of equipment, data, automation tools, and applied solutions. In this piece, we explore where AI is converting into financial results the fastest and which companies stand to benefit from this trend.

Why 2026 has brought a new AI momentum

After the hype of 2023–2025, artificial intelligence has entered a phase of mass adoption. Investments in data centers, energy, and high-performance chips have cemented AI as one of the key drivers of the technology sector and equity markets. This momentum is supported not by individual “fashionable” products, but by infrastructure being built for years ahead.

This is also reflected in global assessments: the IMF links part of the projected US economic growth in 2026 to a wave of investment in AI infrastructure, particularly data centers and computing capacity.

What distinguishes this cycle from previous ones is that AI has stopped being a story about a distant future or business risks. Instead, it has become a practical tool that companies are already integrating into manufacturing, logistics, finance, analytics, and customer service. As a result, investors are increasingly focusing not on the loudness of announcements, but on economic impact and the pace of scaling. Bank of America also notes that AI investment remains one of the factors supporting GDP growth in the US and China in 2026, suggesting a structural trend rather than a short-lived surge of interest.

At the same time, the map of market winners is changing. Not only tech giants are benefiting. Demand for computing power, semiconductors, specialized software, and automation is creating a long chain of beneficiaries, increasingly populated by lesser-known issuers operating in narrow infrastructure and supply niches. This is why the AI rally in 2026 looks fundamentally justified and is gradually shifting from megacaps to second- and third-tier companies, where the market often underestimates the scale of future contracts and the speed of revenue growth.

Which sectors have felt the AI momentum in equity markets

In 2026, AI-driven momentum in stock markets is no longer limited to the performance of a handful of tech giants such as Microsoft, Nvidia, or Amazon, which remain key beneficiaries of core infrastructure and cloud services. The market is gradually broadening its focus and assessing how AI investment translates into financial results well beyond Big Tech.

This effect is most visible in software, industrials and manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and autonomous technologies, as well as retail and e-commerce. In these sectors, AI is reshaping business models, cost structures, and competitive advantages, creating new growth points for stocks that previously remained in the shadow of technology giants.

Software

The impact of neural networks on the software (SaaS) sector has been mixed. In 2025, many large software vendors came under pressure amid fears that AI startups would capture part of their market, temporarily slowing demand as customers postponed purchasing decisions. By 2026, however, these fears are gradually fading. Companies have adapted, and investors have acknowledged that none of the core software business models has been destroyed by AI.

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Notably, some of the strongest-performing SaaS stocks in 2025 were companies that managed to tie growth to real AI usage or to a recovery in demand for infrastructure platforms. This group included stocks that posted significant annual gains, such as Palantir (PLTR, +145%), JFrog (FROG, +115%), AppLovin (APP, +104%), Unity (U, +84%), Cloudflare (NET, +78%), MongoDB (MDB, +73%), Alphabet (GOOGL, +66%), Shopify (SHOP, +56%), DigitalOcean (DOCN, +44%), CrowdStrike (CRWD, +37%), as well as CyberArk (CYBR, +34%), Pegasystems (PEGA, +34%), UiPath (PATH, +30%), Twilio (TWLO, +30%), and Zscaler (ZS, +26%).

This distribution clearly illustrates the key logic of 2026: in software, the market rewards not the mere mention of AI, but the ability to turn it into revenue, scale, and customer retention.

Industrials and manufacturing

AI momentum is directly boosting demand for hardware, making industrials and manufacturing some of the most visible beneficiaries of the trend. In the semiconductor space, interest has surged toward memory and storage producers, including Micron (MU), which posted an annual gain of more than 290%, Western Digital (WDC) with a 192.42% increase, and Sandisk (SNDK), up 434.8% over the year. Investors are also focusing on companies that enable the chip manufacturing process itself.

Equipment makers such as Lam Research (LRCX), Applied Materials (AMAT), KLA (KLAC), and ASML (ASML) are in the spotlight, as investors expect AI-driven demand to soften the industry’s traditional cyclicality.

At the same time, AI is fueling the industrial automation segment, as companies invest in robotics for warehouses and factories to reduce costs and improve productivity. In this space, the market highlights Symbotic (SYM), Teradyne (TER), as well as large industrial solution providers such as ABB (ABB) and Siemens (SIE.DE). For investors, this segment appears to be one of the least speculative ways to gain exposure to the AI trend, as its effects are quickly reflected in contracts, capacity utilization, and financial results.

Healthcare

In 2026, the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector has received an additional boost from AI, as the technology began delivering measurable results in areas with the highest costs and stakes. In research and development, AI accelerates molecule discovery, candidate selection, and drug design, while at the clinical level it supports diagnostics and improves hospital efficiency.

For investors, this combination is particularly attractive: the sector traditionally enjoys more stable demand than cyclical industries, while gaining a powerful technological growth driver.

Performance dispersion within the sector is clearly visible. Among large companies already embedding AI into products and operations, the strongest 52-week performers were Regeneron (REGN, around +67%), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, around +51%), and Eli Lilly (LLY, around +35%). Medtronic (MDT) rose more modestly, by about +13%, while Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) underperformed over the year, hovering near negative territory.

At the same time, smaller companies where AI is the core business model show even wider divergence. Tempus AI (TEM) is up roughly +31% over 52 weeks, while Recursion (RXRX) is down about -34% over the same period, as the market tightly links valuations to pipeline progress and commercialization.

Transportation and autonomous technologies

In 2026, autonomous transportation is returning to the market narrative, as advances in AI models and sensors push the industry from demonstrations toward commercial use cases. As a result, capital is increasingly flowing not to automakers themselves, but to suppliers of critical components underpinning autonomous driving at scale, as well as companies building robotaxi and autonomous logistics infrastructure.

In the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) and autonomous driving segment, investors are watching Mobileye (MBLY) and sensor suppliers such as Innoviz (INVZ). However, these stocks often fail to rally on AI narratives alone. The market remains cautious, as commercialization is stretched over time and depends on automotive cycles, regulatory decisions, and real contracts with automakers.

The freight segment looks stronger by comparison, as the economic impact of autonomy is easier to quantify and deployment is moving faster into real-world pilots. This is reflected in prices: Aurora Innovation (AUR) gained roughly +15–22% at the start of 2026, while passenger vehicle valuations tend to remain more restrained due to longer commercialization timelines.

Another layer of this story is automotive software and cybersecurity, where BlackBerry (BB) occasionally comes back into focus thanks to QNX and data management solutions.

AI moves into mass business and reshapes market leaders

The year 2026 shows that AI is working not only for giants like Nvidia or Google, but also for second- and third-tier companies that address specific bottlenecks within the ecosystem. The market increasingly rewards not brand loudness, but position within the value chain. As a result, growth is visible across sectors — from software and semiconductors to automation, healthcare, and transportation.

At the same time, the risk of overheating has not disappeared, and some hype-driven stories may correct sharply if financial results fail to meet expectations.

Overall, the picture is straightforward: in 2026, AI has become a profit driver rather than a fashionable idea. That is why investors are digging deeper, searching for new beneficiaries beyond the shadow of megacaps. The winners are those that genuinely monetize AI through contracts, demand, and product scaling — regardless of company size.