30 Best and Worst Data Center Stocks

10. Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Upside Potential: 29%

Number of hedge funds: 74

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) operates as the world’s largest wafer fabrication equipment manufacturer and is a leading provider of materials engineering solutions. The company is a direct beneficiary of advancements in AI and the increasing semiconductor content in connected devices. Leveraging its cutting-edge equipment and materials engineering capabilities, Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) is positioning itself to be at the forefront of technological inflections—significant shifts in wafer processing schemes or device architectures. For instance, the company anticipates its transistor and wiring addressable market to expand from $6 billion to $7 billion due to Gate-All-Around (GAA) and Backside Power Delivery (BPD) inflections.

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) technologies enable the production of advanced chips, such as memory and logic processors, essential for powering data centers and supporting applications like machine learning, cloud storage, and big data analytics. The company is actively innovating in next-generation semiconductor technologies, including AI chips, memory processing, and quantum computing, which will drive future advancements in data centers. Thus, as a critical enabler of the semiconductor manufacturing process, Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) holds a strong position in the data center market. KeyBanc analyst upgraded their rating on the company to ‘Overweight’ with a price target of $225, emphasizing the company’s focus on materials engineering, advanced packaging, and improved production efficiency.