Wall Street analysts have issued a series of bullish upgrades for key players in the artificial intelligence and semiconductor sectors, reflecting growing optimism about AI spending and hardware demand heading into 2026.
Wolfe Research named Nvidia its top AI pick for 2026, adding the chipmaker to its Alpha List and replacing Micron. Analyst Chris Caso noted that while Nvidia's stock rose 36% over the past year, it trailed other AI-related companies. He cited three previous headwinds: the delayed Blackwell launch, concerns about AI spending sustainability, and fears of market share loss to custom AI solutions. Caso stated these concerns are now easing as Nvidia's product cycle advances, with Blackwell ramping up fully and the Rubin platform on schedule for a second-half 2026 launch, promising five times better inference performance than Blackwell. Wolfe's outlook suggests at least $40 billion in upside to consensus revenue estimates for 2026, with improved pricing for Blackwell Ultra and Rubin. Nvidia trades at 23 times Wolfe's 2026 earnings estimate, below its five-year average.
Morgan Stanley's analysis highlights Microsoft's dominant position in enterprise AI adoption. A Q4 2025 CIO survey showed 92% of CIOs expect to use Microsoft's GenAI products over the next year, with 80% planning deployment of Microsoft 365 Copilot. The survey also found 53% of application workloads currently run on Azure, with strong plans for Azure OpenAI Services and GitHub Copilot adoption.
Morgan Stanley also raised its price target for ASML by 40% to €1,400, projecting earnings per share of roughly €45.7 in fiscal 2027, representing 57% year-over-year earnings growth. Analyst Lee Simpson expects order intake over the next few quarters to confirm strength, supported by spending plans at TSMC, Intel, and Samsung.
Barclays upgraded Dell Technologies to Overweight, citing stronger AI server orders. Analyst Tim Long noted Dell plans to ship around $9.4 billion of AI servers in Q4, lifting full-year shipments to roughly $25 billion. Barclays models AI order growth of 155% in fiscal 2026 and 60% in fiscal 2027.
HSBC upgraded EssilorLuxottica to Buy, raising its smart glasses market estimate to $200 billion by 2040 and forecasting shipments of 35 million units in 2030.
In a separate but related development, Intel Corporation's stock rally extended as Wall Street turned bullish on its foundry and AI turnaround ahead of its Q4 earnings report on January 22. KeyBanc Capital Markets upgraded Intel to Overweight with a $60 price target, citing reports that Intel's server CPU capacity for 2026 is effectively sold out. Citigroup lifted its rating from Sell to Neutral, and Melius Research upgraded to Buy. Analysts highlighted Intel's 18A manufacturing process entering production with yields approaching ~60%, strong AI data center demand, and its strategic positioning as a beneficiary of U.S. industrial policy focused on domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
