Earlier on June 6, Stacy Rasgon of Bernstein joined ‘Closing Bell’ on CNBC to suggest that the semiconductor sector is showing signs of a cyclical bottom. He also noted that the non-AI semiconductor business is already at a cyclical low, with street expectations modeling very little growth for it, suggesting a conservative baseline. The overall semiconductor market has seen a significant resurgence. Rasgon attributed this recovery to the postponement of tariffs. Also, there are indications that the broader semiconductor market might be entering a recovery phase, but Rasgon did question whether this might be a tariff-related pull forward. He noted that many companies, particularly in the analog space, are discussing recovery. Additionally, the AI trade is back on after a period of decline around Liberation Day.
The renewed interest in AI is a major driver of current semiconductor performance. Rasgon firmly believes the AI trade is real and has strong demand. While he acknowledged that the broad-based demand recovery needs further observation in the second half of the year, he concluded that the near-term outlook for the semiconductor market appears pretty good.
That being said, we’re here with a list of the 11 best performing semiconductor stocks to buy now.
Our Methodology
We used the Finviz stock screener to compile a list of the 11 best-performing semiconductor stocks with the highest year-to-date performance (more than 25%), as of July 28. We narrowed down our selection to stocks with most hedge fund ownership. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of their year-to-date performance. We’ve also added the hedge fund sentiment for each stock, as of Q1 2025, which was sourced from Insider Monkey’s database.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
11 Best Performing Semiconductor Stocks to Buy Now
11. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 158
Year-to-Date Performance as of July 28: 25.90%
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) is one of the best performing semiconductor stocks to buy now. On July 15, Mizuho increased its price target for Broadcom to $320 from $315, while maintaining an Outperform rating. The adjustment showed updated semiconductor estimates following the Trump administration’s decision to allow Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and other AI accelerator providers to resume AI graphics processing unit shipments to China.
This policy change is seen as a positive for US companies re-entering China’s $50 billion market. In Q2 2025, Broadcom reported a record total revenue of $15 billion, which was a 20% increase year-over-year. Semiconductor revenue in particular was $8.4 billion, which increased by 17% year-over-year, with AI semiconductor revenue specifically exceeding $4.4 billion, a 46% increase.
Infrastructure software revenue also grew by 25% to $6.6 billion, largely attributed to the successful integration of VMware and robust VCF sales. However, non-AI semiconductor revenue saw a 5% year-over-year decline, with specific downturns in the industrial and wireless sectors. Broadcom anticipates a sequential decline in consolidated gross margin by ~1.3% in Q3 due to a higher mix of XPUs.
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) designs, develops, and supplies various semiconductor devices and infrastructure software solutions worldwide.
10. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 212
Year-to-Date Performance as of July 28: 30.28%
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is one of the best performing semiconductor stocks to buy now. On July 28, MicroVision Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS) announced that its MOVIA lidar system now integrates with the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX platform. This integration enables automotive customers to use MicroVision’s perception-enhanced lidar solutions.
The NVIDIA DRIVE AGX platform is an AI computing system designed for autonomous driving for AI-powered vehicles. MicroVision’s CTO, Glen DeVos, stated that this compatibility provides automotive OEMs and partners with robust point cloud data already processed by the MOVIA sensor’s internal perception compute.
The MOVIA L sensor is a fully industrialized, solid-state solution specifically designed for commercial trucking. Additionally, the MOVIA S sensor is expected to deliver high performance at a very competitive price, which makes it suitable for the high volumes of the automotive industry.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a computing infrastructure company that provides graphics and compute & networking solutions internationally.
MicroVision Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS) develops and commercializes perception solutions for autonomy and mobility applications.
