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AI Capex Creates New Investment Cycle: NVIDIA & 2 Other Stocks to Buy
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Key Takeaways
NVIDIA's Data Center revenues jumped 117%, showing its direct exposure to rising AI infrastructure demand.
Arista Networks' 37.7% revenue growth and new 1.6-terabit platforms target expanding AI networking needs.
Vertiv's sales rose 24% as its adjusted operating margin expanded 410 basis points to 22.6%.
The artificial intelligence (AI) investment cycle is moving from experimentation to large-scale infrastructure deployment, making capital spending a key indicator for investors in the second half of 2026. The world’s largest technology companies are committing unprecedented amounts of capital to computing capacity, networking, power and cooling. The Bank for International Settlements estimates that the five largest global technology companies will invest more than $1 trillion in AI during 2025-2026.
This spending is increasingly translating into actual infrastructure demand. Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) has raised its 2026 capital spending outlook to $195-$205 billion, while Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) is planning to more than triple its data-center footprint to about 38 gigawatts by 2032.
Against this backdrop, NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) , Arista Networks (ANET - Free Report) and Vertiv (VRT - Free Report) offer exposure to three critical layers of the buildout, which are accelerated computing, networking and power/thermal infrastructure.
Why AI Capex Matters Now
The key question in the second half of 2026 is no longer how much companies are spending on AI infrastructure, but whether that spending is producing sufficient revenues, margins and cash returns.
The spending requirement also extends well beyond GPUs. Higher compute density requires faster networking, greater electrical capacity and advanced thermal-management systems, creating multiple ways to participate in the infrastructure cycle while reducing dependence on a single component of the AI stack.
Amid this, investors should track revenue growth relative to capital intensity, operating-margin expansion, return on invested capital (ROIC) and free-cash-flow (FCF) conversion. These metrics can help determine whether accelerating AI investment is translating into productive growth and attractive returns or simply expanding capacity at the expense of cash generation. With companies now reporting enough 2026 financial data to assess these measures, the second half of the year offers a timely checkpoint for evaluating the durability and quality of the AI capex cycle.
3 Stocks With a Winning Strategy
NVIDIA: The company remains the most direct beneficiary of accelerating AI infrastructure spending. Data Center revenues in fiscal second-quarter 2027 grew 117% year over year, while total revenues climbed 106% year over year.
Our proprietary calculations show the company’s trailing 12 months (TTM) ROIC of 83.5% is well above the 22.7% industry median, showing its exceptional ability to generate returns from the capital deployed in its business. TTM FCF conversion of 65.8% is below its 75.3% median, making cash conversion an important metric to monitor as AI investment scales. Still, NVIDIA generated $69.9 billion of free cash flow in the first half of fiscal 2027, demonstrating substantial cash-generation capacity alongside the AI capex cycle. The stock sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Arista Networks: The company provides a complementary way to benefit from AI capex as rising compute density increases demand for high-speed networking. Second-quarter 2026 revenues rose 37.7% year over year, while the company introduced 1.6-terabit AI fabric platforms designed for increasingly demanding AI clusters.
Going by our proprietary calculations, ANET’s TTM FCF conversion of 127.5% remains robust, but below its 136.6% median, implying strong cash generation relative to earnings. Its TTM ROIC of 27.1% is below the 42.2% industry median but remains broadly consistent with its 3, 5 and 10-year levels. Strong growth, high cash conversion, and expanding AI networking requirements support the stock’s role in the AI infrastructure cycle. This stock also carries a Zacks Rank #1.
Vertiv: The company offers exposure to another critical layer of the AI infrastructure buildout. These are power and thermal management. Second-quarter 2026 sales increased 24% year over year, while adjusted operating margin expanded 410 basis points to 22.6%.
VRT’s TTM ROIC of 26.8% exceeded the 14.9% industry median and has improved significantly from its 16.0% five-year median, indicating strengthening capital efficiency as per our proprietary calculations. Its TTM FCF conversion of 168.9% is also exceptionally high, despite being modestly below its 176.7% median. With AI data centers requiring substantially greater power density and cooling capacity, Vertiv is well positioned to benefit as hyperscalers continue expanding infrastructure. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Bigstock
AI Capex Creates New Investment Cycle: NVIDIA & 2 Other Stocks to Buy
Key Takeaways
The artificial intelligence (AI) investment cycle is moving from experimentation to large-scale infrastructure deployment, making capital spending a key indicator for investors in the second half of 2026. The world’s largest technology companies are committing unprecedented amounts of capital to computing capacity, networking, power and cooling. The Bank for International Settlements estimates that the five largest global technology companies will invest more than $1 trillion in AI during 2025-2026.
This spending is increasingly translating into actual infrastructure demand. Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) has raised its 2026 capital spending outlook to $195-$205 billion, while Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) is planning to more than triple its data-center footprint to about 38 gigawatts by 2032.
Against this backdrop, NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) , Arista Networks (ANET - Free Report) and Vertiv (VRT - Free Report) offer exposure to three critical layers of the buildout, which are accelerated computing, networking and power/thermal infrastructure.
Why AI Capex Matters Now
The key question in the second half of 2026 is no longer how much companies are spending on AI infrastructure, but whether that spending is producing sufficient revenues, margins and cash returns.
The spending requirement also extends well beyond GPUs. Higher compute density requires faster networking, greater electrical capacity and advanced thermal-management systems, creating multiple ways to participate in the infrastructure cycle while reducing dependence on a single component of the AI stack.
Amid this, investors should track revenue growth relative to capital intensity, operating-margin expansion, return on invested capital (ROIC) and free-cash-flow (FCF) conversion. These metrics can help determine whether accelerating AI investment is translating into productive growth and attractive returns or simply expanding capacity at the expense of cash generation. With companies now reporting enough 2026 financial data to assess these measures, the second half of the year offers a timely checkpoint for evaluating the durability and quality of the AI capex cycle.
3 Stocks With a Winning Strategy
NVIDIA: The company remains the most direct beneficiary of accelerating AI infrastructure spending. Data Center revenues in fiscal second-quarter 2027 grew 117% year over year, while total revenues climbed 106% year over year.
Our proprietary calculations show the company’s trailing 12 months (TTM) ROIC of 83.5% is well above the 22.7% industry median, showing its exceptional ability to generate returns from the capital deployed in its business. TTM FCF conversion of 65.8% is below its 75.3% median, making cash conversion an important metric to monitor as AI investment scales. Still, NVIDIA generated $69.9 billion of free cash flow in the first half of fiscal 2027, demonstrating substantial cash-generation capacity alongside the AI capex cycle. The stock sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Arista Networks: The company provides a complementary way to benefit from AI capex as rising compute density increases demand for high-speed networking. Second-quarter 2026 revenues rose 37.7% year over year, while the company introduced 1.6-terabit AI fabric platforms designed for increasingly demanding AI clusters.
Going by our proprietary calculations, ANET’s TTM FCF conversion of 127.5% remains robust, but below its 136.6% median, implying strong cash generation relative to earnings. Its TTM ROIC of 27.1% is below the 42.2% industry median but remains broadly consistent with its 3, 5 and 10-year levels. Strong growth, high cash conversion, and expanding AI networking requirements support the stock’s role in the AI infrastructure cycle. This stock also carries a Zacks Rank #1.
Vertiv: The company offers exposure to another critical layer of the AI infrastructure buildout. These are power and thermal management. Second-quarter 2026 sales increased 24% year over year, while adjusted operating margin expanded 410 basis points to 22.6%.
VRT’s TTM ROIC of 26.8% exceeded the 14.9% industry median and has improved significantly from its 16.0% five-year median, indicating strengthening capital efficiency as per our proprietary calculations. Its TTM FCF conversion of 168.9% is also exceptionally high, despite being modestly below its 176.7% median. With AI data centers requiring substantially greater power density and cooling capacity, Vertiv is well positioned to benefit as hyperscalers continue expanding infrastructure. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).