Top 10 AI stocks to watch in 2026

The ten U.S.-listed companies here build, manufacture, or deploy artificial intelligence across semiconductor design, chip fabrication, cloud infrastructure, enterprise software, social platforms, consumer devices, and voice AI applications. Nine sit within the Technology sector; Tesla ($TSLA) is the one outlier, primarily a vehicle and energy storage manufacturer that uses AI in its autonomous driving and production systems.

How we built this list: We selected these companies based on their industry and ordered them by market capitalisation. Prices are updated daily, and the list and supporting content are reviewed roughly every quarter. All data is sourced from Stake. This list isn't a recommendation and isn't ordered by suitability.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Source: Stake market data. Figures in US$. Data updated as of 11 August 2026.

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1. NVIDIA ($NVDA)

NVIDIA (NVDA) share price over the last year: started at US$182.06, ended at US$217.46, a change of +19.4%. Range over the period: high US$235.74, low US$165.17. Source: Stake market data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Price: US$217.46 · Daily: -0.04% · Market cap: US$5.26T · Sector: Technology · Industry: Semiconductors

NVIDIA Corporation ($NVDA) builds the hardware and software that much of the AI industry runs on. Its core product is the graphics processing unit (GPU) – a chip originally designed for rendering video game visuals that turned out to be exceptionally well-suited to the parallel maths behind AI model training and inference. Under CEO Jensen Huang, the company has grown its workforce to 42,000 people and extended that chip business into a full computing platform.

The Data Center side of $NVDA's Compute & Networking segment is where the AI infrastructure story is most visible. It covers the accelerated computing hardware, networking gear, and AI software that cloud providers and enterprises use to run large-scale models. The company also applies that computing capability to automotive platforms, including software for autonomous and electric vehicles.

On the Graphics side, $NVDA sells GeForce GPUs into the gaming and personal computer market, alongside its Quadro and NVIDIA RTX lines aimed at professional workstation users. Binding it all together is the CUDA development platform, which runs across all $NVDA GPUs and forms the base layer for a wide library of software tools – frameworks, algorithms, and developer kits that other companies build on top of.

2. Apple ($AAPL)

Apple (AAPL) share price over the last year: started at US$227.18, ended at US$304.91, a change of +34.2%. Range over the period: high US$340.08, low US$224.90. Source: Stake market data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Price: US$304.91 · Daily: -1.1% · Market cap: US$4.45T · Sector: Technology · Industry: Consumer Electronics

Apple Inc. ($AAPL) designs and manufactures consumer electronics across smartphones, computers, tablets and wearables. The hardware lineup covers iPhones, Mac computers, iPads, AirPods, Apple Watch and the Vision Pro spatial computer. The company employs 166,000 people across design, engineering and production to support that range.

A services business runs alongside that hardware, anchored by the App Store. Customers use the App Store to discover and download apps, games, books, music, video and podcasts. Cloud services, advertising, AppleCare and payment services add further revenue, while subscription products including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+ and Apple News+ extend into recurring digital content.

3. Alphabet ($GOOGL)

Alphabet (GOOGL) share price over the last year: started at US$201.00, ended at US$343.80, a change of +71.0%. Range over the period: high US$402.62, low US$199.32. Source: Stake market data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Price: US$343.80 · Daily: -3.8% · Market cap: US$4.20T · Sector: Technology · Industry: Software & IT

Most people encounter Alphabet Inc. ($GOOGL) through Search, YouTube, or Android without thinking of them as products from the same parent company. Those consumer products sit inside the Google Services segment, while $GOOGL's Google Cloud arm sells AI infrastructure, platform tools, and enterprise collaboration software to businesses. Google Cloud Platform includes Vertex AI and Gemini for Google Cloud alongside cybersecurity and data analytics services. Google Workspace – Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet and Calendar – completes the enterprise offering.

4. Microsoft ($MSFT)

Microsoft (MSFT) share price over the last year: started at US$521.77, ended at US$503.78, a change of −3.4%. Range over the period: high US$542.07, low US$352.83. Source: Stake market data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Price: US$503.78 · Daily: -0.5% · Market cap: US$3.74T · Sector: Technology · Industry: Software & IT

Microsoft ($MSFT) runs three business segments covering cloud infrastructure, enterprise software, and consumer computing. The Intelligent Cloud segment houses Azure, GitHub, and Nuance – the company's server products and cloud services built for business use. Office, LinkedIn, and Dynamics make up the Productivity and Business Processes segment, while Windows, gaming, and search advertising fill out the rest. CEO Satya Nadella oversees 223,000 employees across all three.

5. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company ($TSM)

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM) share price over the last year: started at US$242.09, ended at US$422.06, a change of +74.3%. Range over the period: high US$477.57, low US$227.33. Source: Stake market data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Price: US$422.06 · Daily: 0.9% · Market cap: US$1.93T · Sector: Technology · Industry: Semiconductors

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company ($TSM) produces chips to other companies' designs, acting as a contract manufacturer rather than designing silicon itself. $TSM's fabrication work covers advanced photomask techniques, silicon stacking, and packaging technologies. The end markets for chips built at $TSM's facilities are broad – AI systems, high-performance computing hardware, automotive electronics, communications equipment, consumer devices, and wearables.

6. Meta Platforms ($META)

Meta Platforms (META) share price over the last year: started at US$765.87, ended at US$599.12, a change of −21.8%. Range over the period: high US$790.00, low US$525.72. Source: Stake market data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Price: US$599.12 · Daily: 0.7% · Market cap: US$1.53T · Sector: Technology · Industry: Software & IT

Meta Platforms ($META) runs some of the most heavily used social applications in the world – Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads all sit under its Family of Apps umbrella. That's the core of the business: connecting people and serving them content, with advertising as the primary revenue engine.

AI runs through both of $META's operating segments. On the apps side, it powers content ranking, ad targeting and features like Meta AI across the messaging and feed products. The other segment, Reality Labs, covers the hardware and software behind Meta Quest headsets and the broader push into virtual, augmented and mixed reality – the company describes this as the longer-term bet on immersive computing. Mark Zuckerberg serves as CEO, and the company employs around 78,865 people.

7. Tesla ($TSLA)

Tesla (TSLA) share price over the last year: started at US$339.03, ended at US$332.81, a change of −1.8%. Range over the period: high US$489.88, low US$298.32. Source: Stake market data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Price: US$332.81 · Daily: 0.6% · Market cap: US$1.31T · Sector: Consumer Discretionary · Industry: Cars & Auto Parts

Tesla, Inc. ($TSLA) manufactures electric vehicles – the Model 3, Y, S, X and Cybertruck – alongside energy storage products for homes and grid-scale installations, including the Powerwall and Megapack. Its autonomous driving software is developed in-house and trained on data gathered from vehicles already on the road, which is where AI enters the picture for $TSLA.

The company sits in the Consumer Discretionary sector rather than Technology, and CEO Elon Musk leads a workforce of 134,785 people across vehicle production, energy systems and software development.

8. AMD ($AMD)

AMD (AMD) share price over the last year: started at US$172.28, ended at US$474.32, a change of +175.3%. Range over the period: high US$580.91, low US$151.14. Source: Stake market data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Price: US$474.32 · Daily: 1.0% · Market cap: US$774.32B · Sector: Technology · Industry: Semiconductors

Advanced Micro Devices ($AMD) designs the chips that power everything from gaming PCs to cloud data centres. Its Data Center segment covers AI accelerators, server processors, graphics processing units and programmable chips – the hardware that cloud providers and enterprises reach for when they're running compute-heavy workloads. The Client and Gaming segment handles desktop and notebook processors and discrete graphics cards, while the Embedded segment covers processors and programmable logic built into industrial and communications equipment.

Under CEO Lisa Su, $AMD employs 31,000 people and markets its products under product lines including AMD EPYC for servers and AMD Ryzen for consumer and professional computing.

9. Palantir Technologies ($PLTR)

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) share price over the last year: started at US$182.68, ended at US$174.94, a change of −4.2%. Range over the period: high US$207.18, low US$107.27. Source: Stake market data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Price: US$174.94 · Daily: -0.2% · Market cap: US$420.39B · Sector: Technology · Industry: Software & IT

Palantir Technologies ($PLTR) builds software that helps governments and large organisations turn fragmented datasets into actionable intelligence. Its Gotham platform is designed to surface patterns buried across intelligence sources, including signals data and reports from confidential informants. Foundry works as a central operating system for an organisation's data, restructuring how teams operate around it.

Apollo handles the infrastructure layer, coordinating continuous delivery of updates and security configurations across cloud environments. The company's Artificial Intelligence Platform – known as AIP – is built to bring large language models and other AI tools into enterprise operations under a governance framework. CEO Alexander Karp leads a team of 4,429 people.

10. SoundHound AI ($SOUN)

SoundHound AI (SOUN) share price over the last year: started at US$15.90, ended at US$7.41, a change of −53.4%. Range over the period: high US$21.40, low US$5.70. Source: Stake market data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Price: US$7.41 · Daily: -0.7% · Market cap: US$3.29B · Sector: Technology · Industry: Software & IT

SoundHound AI ($SOUN) builds voice and conversational AI that businesses embed directly into their products and services. Rather than a single consumer app, the technology sits behind the scenes – handling customer interactions across restaurants, automotive systems, healthcare, retail and financial services.

Its product line includes Smart Answering, Smart Ordering and Dynamic Drive Thru, all aimed at automating voice-based exchanges that would otherwise require a human. The company says it processes billions of interactions each year for the businesses that deploy these tools.

Houndify, $SOUN's developer platform, lets third-party developers tap into its voice AI across more than 100 content domains – from weather and flight status to points of interest and sports. That open-access layer is how $SOUN extends its reach without building every use case itself. Under CEO Keyvan Mohajer, the company runs a team of 954 people.

Common questions

How do I invest in AI stocks in Australia?

All ten companies in this list trade on U.S. exchanges, so you'll need a trading platform that gives you access to U.S. markets. You search the ticker, place an order, and the shares settle in USD. Because the stocks are priced in USD, movements in the AUD/USD exchange rate will affect what your holdings are worth in Australian dollars.

What are the key risks of AI stocks?

High-growth technology stocks can be sensitive to interest rate movements – when rates rise, future earnings get discounted more heavily, which tends to weigh on valuations. Individual companies can also carry concentration risk if a significant share of revenue depends on a narrow customer base or a single product line. Regulatory scrutiny of large technology platforms is an ongoing consideration, and for Australian investors holding U.S.-listed stocks, AUD/USD movements affect the value of those holdings in local currency terms.

What kinds of AI companies does this list cover?

The companies here fall into a few distinct categories. Chipmakers – $NVDA, $TSM and $AMD – produce the processors and silicon that run AI systems. Software and platform companies like $MSFT, $GOOGL, $META and $PLTR embed AI into cloud services, search, social media and enterprise analytics. $AAPL integrates AI across its device lineup and subscription services, while $TSLA applies it in vehicle software, autonomous driving and energy products. $SOUN occupies a narrower position, focused on voice and conversational AI for business customers.

Disclaimer

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. When you invest, your capital is at risk. You should consider your own investment objectives, financial situation, and particular needs before making an investment decision. The value of your investments can go down as well as up and you may receive back less than your original investment. As always, do your own research and consider seeking appropriate financial advice before investing.

This is not personal financial advice nor a recommendation to invest in the securities listed. Any advice provided by Stake is of general nature only and does not take into account your specific circumstances. Trading and volume data from the Stake investing platform is for reference purposes only, the investment choices of others may not be appropriate for your needs and is not a reliable indicator of performance.

Please refer to hellostake.com/pricing for the fees that apply. When you trade securities priced in another currency, currency conversion fees may apply and movements in the exchange rate may affect your returns.

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This article combines AI and human review from our analysts to bring you accurate, informative investing content at speed. For questions or suggestions, contact stakedesk@stake.com.au.