Green Alpha Investment recently released its Q1 2026 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Green Alpha Investment’s philosophy emphasizes that economic growth and portfolio returns are driven by companies that accelerate productivity and can tackle global economic risks. Next Economy Growth & Income Strategy aims for an above-average dividend yield in a relatively low short-term volatility portfolio. The first quarter of 2026 marked a shift, with the S&P 500 ending Q1 in negative territory and oil prices surging to over $120 per barrel after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. Despite these challenges, most of the Next Economy strategies outperformed the benchmark. Green Alpha navigates economic challenges by focusing on structural changes by targeting companies involved in electrification, advanced materials, and clean energy, positioning them as beneficiaries of current disruptions rather than casualties. In addition, please check the firm’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026.
In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Green Alpha Investment highlighted Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX). Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is a leading semiconductor equipment company that supplies semiconductor processing equipment for the fabrication of integrated circuits. On June 3, 2026, Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) closed at $343.71 per share. One-month return of Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) was 19.96%, and its shares gained 304.79% over the past 52 weeks. Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) has a market capitalization of $429.83 billion.
Green Alpha Investment stated the following regarding Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is the main supplier of the etch and deposition tools required to build AI’s physical infrastructure. As chips go three-dimensional—through HBM memory stacking and Gate-All-Around transistor architectures—the number of manufacturing steps per wafer explodes, and Lam’s share of those steps grows disproportionately. Revenue from HBM related tools grew over 50% year-over-year, and the company’s cryogenic etch technology won the 2025 SEMI Award for North America for enabling the 3D NAND density gains that underpin AI data storage.
The structural beauty of Lam’s business is that every node shrink makes customers more dependent on its equipment, not less. At 28nm, a wafer required ~500 process steps; at 3nm, it requires 1,500+, with Lam’s etch and deposition steps growing from ~25% to nearly 50% of the total. With projected industry-wide wafer fab equipment spending of $135 billion in 2026 (up 23% YoY), and Lam now added to the S&P 100, the company has transformed from a cyclical equipment vendor into a structural tax on the physics of chip manufacturing.”
Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 123 hedge fund portfolios held Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) at the end of the first quarter, up from 104 in the previous quarter. Lam Research Corporation’s (NASDAQ:LRCX) revenue for the March quarter of 2026 was $5.84 billion, representing a 9% sequential increase and a 24% increase compared to Q1 2025. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) and shared the list of most promising stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2026 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
