In this article, we will list the 5 best AI data center stocks to buy right now. Please visit 12 Best AI Data Center Stocks to Buy Right Now if you would like to see the extended list and the methodology behind it.
5. Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 88
In recent months, Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE) has shifted from a speculative clean-energy name to a core AI power holding for elite investors. The company has transitioned from pilot programs to gigawatt-scale utility status. Earlier this month, Oracle announced an expanded partnership to procure up to 2.8 gigawatts (GW) of Bloom’s fuel cell systems. This is one of the largest on-site power deals in history. Unlike waiting 5+ years for a traditional grid connection, Bloom’s systems can bring a data center online in under 90 days. Investors view this speed-to-market as a competitive advantage for cloud providers racing to deploy GPUs.
Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE) is solving the grid crisis with behind-the-meter power. In early 2026, American Electric Power finalized a $2.65 billion offtake agreement for up to 1 GW of Bloom’s capacity. This signaled that even utilities now view fuel cells as the only way to serve massive industrial loads that the existing grid cannot accommodate. Investors like ClearBridge Investments have highlighted that Bloom allows hyperscalers to bring their own power, effectively de-risking their multi-billion dollar AI investments from utility delays. There has also been a seismic shift in Bloom’s financial profile. Bloom’s total backlog has swelled to nearly $20 billion, providing multi-year revenue visibility. The company guided for $3.1–$3.3 billion in 2026 revenue, implying a growth rate of 60% year-over-year.
4. Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 97
Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) stock has been in the headlines recently after the company announced a multi-year deal for Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) products worth billions of dollars during the Optical Fiber Communication Conference 2026. Analysts at Stifel and JPMorgan have indicated that this deal likely involves a Magnificent Seven hyperscaler, widely rumored to be Google or Amazon, looking to bypass traditional electrical switches for faster, light-based networking. In addition to this blockbuster announcement, the firm also continues to execute financially across all important metrics.
In Q2 2026, Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) reported an EPS of $1.67, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by 35.8%. Quarterly revenue reached $665.5 million, a 65.5% year-over-year increase. Non-GAAP operating margins expanded by over 1,500 basis points in late 2025, signaling that Lumentum is becoming significantly more profitable as it scales. The company has been emerging as a secondary play on NVIDIA’s latest architecture as well. Lumentum’s 1060nm VCSEL technology is now being used for scale-up networks that connect HBM4 memory directly to GPUs. Unlike traditional silicon photonics, Lumentum’s VCSEL platform provides a highly reliable alternative that elite investors see as a hedge against supply chain constraints at other photonics firms.
3. Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 91
Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) has been one of the standout winners of the Networking War that defines the 2026 AI data center business. The primary reason that elite investors are piling into the stock is the industry-wide shift from proprietary InfiniBand, dominated by NVIDIA, to Open Ethernet. As AI clusters move from thousands to millions of GPUs, InfiniBand hits structural and cost limits. Arista’s Etherlink products are becoming the gold standard for these massive clusters. In early 2026, the company officially doubled its AI networking revenue target to $3.25 billion for the year. This signaled to Wall Street bigwigs that the transition to Ethernet is happening significantly faster than predicted.
READ MORE: 15 Best Stocks to Buy According to Billionaire Ray Dalio.
Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) currently trades at a premium with a Forward P/E of around 50x. However, many prominent investors still view it as a Forever Stock because of its operating leverage. Unlike competitors, Arista can grow revenue by 30% while barely increasing its overhead, thanks to the efficiency of its EOS software. With 1.6T systems emerging in mid-2026, Arista’s EOS is viewed as the only software stack capable of managing the sub-nanosecond latency required for next-generation AI workloads. The company has become the architect of the trillion-parameter AI era. If a business wants to build a million-GPU cluster in 2026, they are likely using Arista switches to ensure those GPUs can actually talk to each other.
2. Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 112
Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) stock has emerged as the primary beneficiary of the transition from air cooling to liquid cooling. High-density AI chips, like NVIDIA’s Blackwell and beyond, generate so much heat that traditional fans are no longer sufficient. Vertiv’s liquid cooling solutions are now embedded across global hyperscale data center designs. Management recently noted at the JPMorgan Industrials Conference that AI infrastructure value has increased to roughly $3 million to $3.5 million per megawatt, as complex cooling systems carry higher price tags and better margins than legacy hardware.
Another catalyst for Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) stock is that the backlog for the firm reached record levels in early 2026. The company reported a $15 billion backlog in its Q4 2025 earnings report, a 109% increase year-over-year. Organic orders in late 2025 were up a staggering 252% compared to the prior year, driven by mega-orders from cloud titans racing to build AI clusters. Vertiv’s acquisition of BMarko Structures is viewed as a major event as well. This move allows Vertiv to build modular, pre-fabricated data centers in-house, reducing dependency on external contractors and speeding up the deployment of AI power systems. Following this acquisition, Citigroup and BNP Paribas raised their price targets to the $340–$345 range, citing improved scale and business resilience.
1. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 264
The hype around NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) has slowed a bit, with the stock transitioning from triple-digit discovery gains to a more mature growth phase. However, the smart money continues to accumulate shares in the firm based on the rollout of the Vera Rubin architecture and the emergence of Agentic AI. The primary catalyst for the stock in Q2 2026 is the Vera Rubin platform, unveiled at GTC 2026. The Vera Rubin platform integrates seven new chips, including the Vera CPU and Rubin GPU, into a single vertically integrated supercomputer. Rubin is designed to cut inference token costs by up to 10x. This performance is viewed as critical for maintaining NVIDIA’s dominance as the market shifts towards inference models.
Elite investors have also been following NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) Jensen Huang’s thesis that AI is moving from simple chatbots to agents that take autonomous actions. Agentic AI requires significantly more compute because agents run repeated reasoning loops. The new Vera CPU is the first processor purpose-built for reinforcement learning and agent orchestration. In this context, the capex of top tech firms is also being monitored. Combined AI infrastructure spending from these titans is projected to approach $700 billion in 2026. Despite concerns about AI fatigue, top investors see that Blackwell systems are sold out through late 2026, and the production ramp for Vera Rubin is already being priced into 2027 earnings models.
While we acknowledge the potential of NVDA to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NVDA and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: Billionaire David Tepper’s 10 Small and Midcap Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential and 10 Best Stocks to Invest In According to Billionaire Steve Cohen.
Disclosure: None. Insider Monkey focuses on uncovering the best investment ideas of hedge funds and insiders. Please subscribe to our free daily e-newsletter to get the latest investment ideas from hedge funds’ investor letters by entering your email address below.
