Chipmaker stocks tripled in the first half of 2026 on AI demand

Semiconductor and memory chip makers were the big winners of the investment season: in the first half of 2026, shares of several chipmakers tripled in price, sector profits hit record levels, and Asia-Pacific stock indices posted notable gains, largely thanks to this sector.

Chipmakers set a new pace

Investors have switched en masse to the companies that supply the hardware foundation of the AI boom: makers of GPUs, specialized AI accelerators and memory chips. The logic behind the choice is plain: without these components, no large data center and no language model can run. Demand for semiconductors is tied directly to AI infrastructure investment, and that investment keeps growing.

Tech giants around the world continue to pour tens of billions of dollars into expanding computing capacity. Every new data center and every cloud infrastructure upgrade is a direct order for chipmakers. This demand is stable, predictable and does not depend on which AI companies end up in the lead: everyone needs the hardware.

As a result, shares of several manufacturers rose well ahead of the broader market. Some companies' market capitalization grew threefold or more in the first six months of the year, a trajectory unusual even for the tech sector.

Asian markets lead

The chip rally has pulled entire stock markets up with it. The Asia-Pacific region, home to a significant share of the world's semiconductor production, is among the main beneficiaries of the trend.

Chipmakers in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are reporting record profits for the first half. That shows up in local stock indices, which have risen faster than many Western counterparts. International investors are increasing the share of Asian securities in their portfolios, following the hardware for AI to where it is made.

The software sector loses priority

Against this backdrop, large software developers have lost investor favor. Shares of many of them stagnated or fell in the first half, despite the continuing AI hype across the industry.

This recalls the classic gold rush logic: in a technology race, the biggest returns often go not to those who build the end product but to those who supply the tools and infrastructure. In the 1990s, the internet boom first enriched makers of networking equipment, and only later the creators of online services.

Industries and types of companies that are winning now:

• Makers of GPUs and specialized AI accelerators for data centers
• Companies producing high-bandwidth HBM memory for model training
• Contract semiconductor manufacturers (foundries)
• Makers of chip-manufacturing equipment, including lithography systems and related machinery
• Suppliers of materials and components for semiconductor production

What this means

The first half of 2026 marked a structural shift in investment logic: money is flowing into hardware infrastructure rather than the software that runs on it. As long as the AI race does not slow down, and there are no signs of that yet, chip and memory makers will remain among the main beneficiaries of the era.

For companies in other sectors, this is a signal: control over physical infrastructure is becoming an increasingly weighty competitive advantage.