This AI Hardware Bottleneck Is Determining the Next Trillion-Dollar Tech Companies
This AI Hardware Bottleneck Is Determining the Next Trillion-Dollar Tech Companies
https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/05/31/ai-hardware-bottleneck-pick-next-trillion-stock/
Publish Date: 2026-05-31 07:30:00
Source Domain: www.fool.com
In its infancy, high-performance processors largely made by Nvidia were the key to modern-day artificial intelligence’s (AI) success. As is the case with most new technologies, however, time and proliferation have highlighted a limiting factor: a lack of capacity to manage and store all the data being used — and created — by AI.
The solution to this problem is giving rise to the next generation of trillion-dollar technology companies, several of which are off most investors’ radars.
AI’s insatiable need
The equipment found within artificial intelligence data centers isn’t really all that different than the technology you’re using right now. Your computer requires a central processor (or CPU), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and a data storage (hard drive), all of which are attached to a motherboard; in all cases, more capacity is better than less. Data centers require the same equipment. They just tether all these motherboards together into a massive network that functions as a single unit.
Image source: Getty Images.
And as it turns out, data center owners and operators arguably underestimated the amount of memory they would need.
This has proven a boon for Micron Technology (MU +5.07%), of course, which makes computer memory. Its net income more than tripled year over year on revenue growth of 74% for the fiscal quarter ending in February, reflecting the roughly 40% year-to-date increase in memory prices and their 240% run-up for the past 12 months. Most important to investors, Micron’s stock price has soared more than 237% just in 2026, and is up roughly 900% for the past 12 months, pushing its market cap to over $1 trillion in the process.
Today’s Change
(5.07%) $46.82
Current Price
$970.34
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$1.1T
Day’s Range
$940.59 – $981.21
52wk Range
$94.40 – $981.21
Volume
1.8M
Avg Vol
47.8M
Gross Margin
58.54%
Dividend Yield
0.05%
It’s not just Micron, though, nor is it just DRAM. South Korea’s SK Hynix (KOSE: A000660) is benefiting from the same…
