Prominent financial commentator Jim Cramer has identified five core stocks he believes are central to the ongoing artificial intelligence boom, spanning the full spectrum of the AI supply chain. The companies highlighted are NVIDIA, Broadcom, Arista Networks, KLA Corporation, and Palantir Technologies.
NVIDIA is positioned as the dominant force in AI hardware, with its graphics processing units (GPUs) being essential for training and running large machine learning models. Major cloud providers and tech firms rely on its hardware, driving sharp revenue growth, with its data center segment now its largest and fastest-growing.
Broadcom supplies critical networking chips and enterprise software to large data centers, making it a direct beneficiary of the data center buildout required for AI workloads. Arista Networks provides the high-speed networking switches that connect thousands of AI servers together, a necessity for training complex models.
Further up the supply chain, KLA Corporation manufactures the inspection and measurement equipment needed for precise semiconductor production, benefiting indirectly from the increased demand for AI chips. On the software side, Palantir Technologies represents the applied use of AI, building data analytics platforms that help government and commercial customers derive insights from complex datasets.
Separately, institutional investors are accumulating positions in four other AI infrastructure stocks, signaling a broad-based investment strategy. Micron Technology reported fiscal Q1 2026 revenue of $13.64 billion, beating expectations, with its high-bandwidth memory sold out for the entire year. Institutional ownership sits near 80.8%, with firms like Invesco increasing stakes.
Vertiv Holdings, a maker of power and cooling systems for data centers, reported a staggering 252% organic order growth in Q4 2025 and holds a backlog of approximately $15 billion. Its institutional ownership is close to 89.9%.
Jabil, which handles manufacturing for tech clients, posted earnings of $2.85 per share, beating estimates, with revenue up 18.7% year-over-year. GE Vernova is seeing growing demand for its power and grid equipment, driven by the rising electricity needs of AI data centers, and recently beat profit and revenue expectations.
The collective movement into these nine companies underscores a strategic institutional bet on the entire AI infrastructure stack, from semiconductors and networking hardware to power management and applied software, backed by strong financial fundamentals and growing backlogs.
