5 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Load Up On in July

With 2026 halfway over, it's a good time for investors to reassess their holdings. Artificial intelligence (AI) investing has been a bit of a mixed bag this year. Most of the big-name, dominant companies really haven't had great years so far, and the spotlight has been stolen by some smaller upstarts or companies that have major momentum behind them. Some of these stocks still look like great buys in July, while there are also good reasons to return to the big tech companies.

There are five AI stocks at the top of my shopping list in July, and I believe investors can be confident that they'll be trading far higher by the time 2026 is wrapped up.

Image source: Getty Images.

Can they go higher?

Two of the stocks I have my eye on have actually done phenomenally well in 2026 already. Sandisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Nebius (NASDAQ: NBIS) have risen 780% and 187%, respectively. After a start to the year like that, you're likely wondering how in the world they will go higher. That's a fair question, but when you dig in, it's clear that both have far more upside potential.

Sandisk makes NAND memory, and the construction of AI data centers is consuming all that the manufacturers in that niche can supply. Sandisk's exposure to this industry mostly comes through its solid-state drives (SSDs), which are used for long-term data storage. With the data center build-out not expected to slow down anytime soon, the supply crunch that has allowed Sandisk to boost its prices won't be over either. This should help spur the stock higher, and with it trading for a mere 11 times its expected earnings for its fiscal 2027 (which starts in July), it could have far more room to run.

Nebius is a neocloud provider, which means it's focused on providing AI cloud computing infrastructure. This is a brilliant space to operate in right now, and that showed up in a big way during Q1, when Nebius grew its revenue at a 684% year-over-year pace. Wall Street expects more of the same: Its 2026 growth is expected to be 547%, followed by 233% growth in 2027. If Nebius can live up to or exceed expectations, the stock could go far higher from here.

These stocks should have major rallies in the second half of 2026

Next, let's look at some big tech players that haven't been strong in the first half of the year. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has only risen 3% so far in 2026. However, I think it could easily explode higher due to the strength of GPU demand. Nvidia's stock looks like an absolute steal right now, trading for just 21.5 times expected forward earnings and 15 times next year's expected earnings.

NVDA PE Ratio (Forward 1y) data by YCharts.

The chipmaker doesn't often trade at multiples that low, particularly at this point in the year.

Even cheaper is Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which has sold off by more than 20% year to date. Microsoft's fiscal 2027 started July 1, and it trades for just 19 times fiscal 2027 earnings right now. With the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) trading for 21.5 times forward earnings, this AI giant is cheaper than the broader market. With Microsoft growing its revenue at a 18% clip during its past quarter, it's also growing at a market-beating pace, making it a solid stock to buy right now.

Last is Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), which is basically flat for the year. However, it has some major catalysts upcoming that could drive the stock to new heights. The biggest reason to buy the stock is Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon is seeing huge demand for its cloud computing platform and is spending big to capture more of that demand. It's spending $200 billion on data center expansion this year, and it has told investors that it already has users lined up for the next tranche of computing power it's developing as it becomes available. That will spur further growth. I think a rapidly rising AWS growth rate will be exactly what Amazon needs to push its stock higher throughout the rest of the year.

Keithen Drury has positions in Amazon, Microsoft, Nebius Group, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.