Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices are also becoming aggressive AI competitors that may provide a better upside than Nvidia in 2026, with an earnings growth explosion, an expanding AI product portfolio and a much less market cap, which allows many avenues of growth.
AI leaders beyond Nvidia
Micron and AMD share the same AI ride as Nvidia, which boosted into an approximate $4.6 trillion market capitalization, but both operate at a much lower market cap with swift growth prospects on a smaller foundation.
As the AI chip market is projected to reach $453 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 14% between 2025 and 2030, IDTechEx forecasts. Investors are finding out which second-wave recipients can capture the market without scale limitations experienced by Nvidia.
Micron transforms memory to an AI weapon
Micron has steadily risen to be a supplier of high-bandwidth memory which is one of the three players in the world in terms of the niche of AI data centers.
Micron reported revenue of $13.6 billion in its fiscal Q1 2026 that up 57 % in its net income to $5.2billion over the previous year, boosting its stock price by approximately 250 % over the previous year, as at mid-January 2026 the company had a market value exceeding 408 billion.
Recently an AI oriented dig analyst has remarked that Micron has sold off HBM capacity up until 2026, and described the company as a core AI infrastructure play with pricing power never observed in the memory stocks.
AMD increases its AI accelerator advantage
To take on the next-generation Vera Rubin platform of Nvidia and be even cheaper than it, AMD, benefiting under a valuation of $377-380bn, is placing its next MI450 accelerator. In Q3 2025, revenue increased by 36 % to $9.2 billion and net income is projected by 61 % to $1.2 billion, and now analysts are projecting that, in 2026 its MI400 series and Helios AI platforms will ramp through hyperscalers and big corporations, increasing revenue by an estimated 30 % or higher.
Risk and up side case to valuation
In spite of their rallies, Micron trades at approximately 34 times sales compared to an S&P 500 average that is approximately 31 and the forward P/E of AMD of approximately 35 is much lower than its current triple-digit trailing multiple indicating that the earnings growth is already being realized.
OpenAI was able to train ChatGPT in 2022 thanks to Nvidia’s early entry into this market with its data center graphics cards, which set the stage for the company’s impressive growth in both its top and bottom lines.
On the other hand, AMD entered the AI space late. Despite spending the last three years attempting to get closer to its larger competitor, it still trails Nvidia in this market. However, it’s important to note that AMD outperformed Nvidia in 2025, with its stock price rising by 82% while Nvidia’s increased by 34%.
Outlook for 2026 and beyond
In the future, the expansion of Nvidia should stay strong but slow down as its revenues, which are currently estimated at over 200 billion dollars in a year, will become more difficult to increase at triple-digit levels.
Comparatively, the long-term HBM shortages until at least 2026, high AI server demand, and new accelerator releases provides Micron and AMD with a plausible route to larger percentage revenue gains in both profits and market value, leaving each of the two in strong position to be among the two most followed AI stocks by 2026.