10 Stocks at the Center of AI’s $1 Trillion Boom

AI’s growth story is much bigger than chatbots.

The market was already valued at an estimated $800 billion by late 2025, and continued adoption could push it beyond $1 trillion in the years ahead. That growth will require more data centers, computing power, software, networking and intelligent devices.

But the most obvious AI names may not be the only companies positioned to benefit.

MarketBeat’s free 10 Best AI Stocks to Own in 2026 report identifies ten publicly traded companies helping power the next phase of the AI buildout. Some are established leaders. Others occupy less obvious corners of the expanding AI ecosystem.

This free report names 10 stocks positioned to ride that wave before the rest of the market catches on.

☕️ GM Munchers! Did you miss us yesterday? I was away with family, which really meant playing the role of being present while secretly glued to the markets the entire time.

On today’s menu:

• 🚨 Nvidia's board may push out its CEO

• 🤖 Even Anthropic had to cut its price

• 🍟 Tasty Movers & Shakers

• 🔥 Inflation Came In Hotter Than Expect

• ✅ 10 Stocks To Buy Before January

Yesterday’s numbers:

BREAKING NEWS

🚨 Nvidia's Board May Push Out Its CEO

This is an absolutely insane story, and it’s moving at lightning speed. After the close yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s $NVDA board is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang, and could meet as soon as yesterday to discuss it. Nothing’s official yet, and Nvidia hasn’t commented. But the pressure is clearly boiling over, and for the most important company in the entire AI world, that’s a very big deal.

So how did we get here? The whole thing has snowballed with stunning speed over the past week. What started as one scandal has turned into a full-blown crisis at the top of the most valuable chipmaker on Earth, and the board is now scrambling to get ahead of it.

• 💔 A second affair surfaced. The latest trigger was a New York Times report of a second affair, this one with a direct report named Kimberly Powell. That came right on top of the earlier Alice Huang story and the alleged Chinese intelligence ties.

• ⚖️ The legal heat is building. Huang issued a public apology on November 8, the board hired law firm Wachtell to investigate on November 10, and shareholders filed a lawsuit on November 9. The pressure is coming from every direction at once.

• 🪑 Nobody’s ready to take over. To make matters worse, there’s reportedly no named successor and no succession plan in place. Losing a legendary CEO with no backup is exactly the kind of chaos markets hate.

The market reacted fast. Nvidia closed at $173.73, up 2.87%, then tumbled to around $159.98 after hours, down roughly 7.9% as the news broke.

The Munch Take: We reported on this when it first broke, in Monday’s email, and said it could be a risk. But we had no idea he could get fired potentially this quickly or that it would blow up this fast. Absolutely insane. Here’s our honest read, though. The chips, the customers, and the demand haven’t changed one bit. Nvidia makes the brains behind the entire AI revolution, and no amount of boardroom drama changes how badly the world wants those chips. A leadership shakeup is messy and scary in the moment, but great companies survive the loss of even their biggest names. The headlines are loud, the story is wild, but the business underneath is still a powerhouse. At these prices, we’re bullish on Nvidia for the long term.

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STORY OF THE DAY

🤖 Even Anthropic Had To Cut Its Price

The hottest name in AI just got a reality check. Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, is reportedly targeting a valuation of about $1.4 trillion for its upcoming stock debut. That’s a big step down from the roughly $2 trillion ambitions floated earlier. The company is expected to go public around November 19, and it’s attracting some huge backers. Nvidia is putting in $10 billion, and Google is buying $10 billion of non-voting shares.

Even though Anthropic isn’t public yet, investors found a way to react fast. The nerves are showing up everywhere, and together they paint a picture of an AI market that’s finally catching its breath after a wild run higher.

• 📉 A preview of the jitters. There’s a special contract that trades on a platform called Hyperliquid and tracks Anthropic’s valuation. It crashed as much as 8% on Tuesday after the pricing news, sliding from around $99 to about $90, before bouncing back within the hour.

• 💰 The price tag got trimmed. Dropping the target from roughly $2 trillion to about $1.4 trillion is a massive haircut. Even the most sought-after company in AI couldn’t command the sky-high number investors once whispered about.

• 🏦 A painful reminder elsewhere. That same week, Japanese tech giant SoftBank reported a $7 billion quarterly loss, including a $3.7 billion writedown on AI data center gear it rushed to buy. A writedown means admitting something is worth less than you paid.

Put it all together, and it’s a clear sign that the sky-high prices across the AI world are starting to cool off. The demand for AI is still very real, but the days of paying any price for it may be fading.

The Munch Take: When even the most sought-after AI company has to trim its price tag, that tells you something important. The AI frenzy that sent valuations into the stratosphere is finally meeting a little gravity. For regular investors, this is actually a healthy thing. Cooler prices mean fewer wild bubbles and better chances to buy great businesses at fair prices. We love the AI story long term, but we also love it when the hype gets a dose of reality. Patience beats chasing, every single time.

MARKET OVERVIEW

🍟 Tasty Movers & Shakers

💙 The Blue Wave Playbook: 7 Stock to Own, 3 to Avoid Before January. (via Good Morning Alerts)

☁️ CoreWeave $CRWV +24.71% soared to its best day since April 2025 after the AI cloud company beat quarterly estimates and raised its full-year revenue outlook to $13 billion to $13.3 billion. After weeks of worry about this struggling name, investors finally breathed a sigh of relief.

🧪 Azenta $AZTA +20.80% jumped after topping earnings estimates and issuing a strong outlook for next year. Nothing wins investors back faster than a beat paired with a confident forecast.

🏠 Resideo Technologies $REZI +18.25% rallied on a third-quarter earnings and revenue beat, along with a narrowed outlook. A clean quarter from a smaller name is exactly the kind of thing that sparks a big one-day pop.

🔊 Sonos $SONO +12.85% climbed after delivering a fiscal fourth-quarter beat. The speaker maker gave investors a reason to turn the volume back up.

💾 Sandisk $SNDK +15.75% kept its wild run going, closing near $995 as memory-chip names surged. The AI storage trade is red-hot again, and Sandisk is riding the wave.

NEWS OF THE DAY

🔥 Inflation Came In Hotter Than Expected

The inflation report that landed Tuesday ran hotter than Wall Street wanted, and markets did not like it. The Consumer Price Index, which tracks the prices you pay for everyday stuff, rose 0.4% in October, topping the 0.3% estimate. Even worse, the “core” reading, which strips out food and energy to show the real underlying trend, rose 0.3% for the third month in a row. That stubborn streak is exactly what the Federal Reserve hates to see.

The timing made it sting even more. Just hours before the report dropped, Fed governor Waller threw down a marker that raised the stakes for everyone watching. His comments turned a mildly hot number into a genuine scare about how aggressive the Fed might get.

• 🗣️ Waller raised the bar. He said if core inflation came in at 0.3% or higher, the Fed should consider a big half-point rate hike in December, and that hiking only a quarter-point would put the Fed’s credibility at risk.

• 📈 The odds shifted fast. Traders still expect a quarter-point hike, but the chance of a half-point jumped above 10%, up from basically zero before the report.

• 💸 Markets flinched. The 10-year Treasury yield pushed above 5%, the 2-year had its biggest jump since April 2025, and gold fell as the pressure mounted.

Put it together, and the message is clear. Inflation is proving sticky, and the Fed now has every reason to keep squeezing.

The Munch Take: This is the exact news a nervous market didn’t need. Inflation isn’t cooling fast enough, and that keeps the Fed firmly in hiking mode heading into December. Higher rates mean pressure on stocks, bonds, and borrowers alike, so expect more choppy days ahead. We’re not panicking, though, not even a little. Hot data creates fear, and fear is what hands patient investors their best opportunities. When everyone else is sweating a single inflation print, the smart move is to stay calm and keep your eyes on the long game. Watch closely, tune out the noise, and keep that shopping list ready for quality names going on sale.

🚀 Pre-Market Fuel

1. ✅ 10 Stocks To Buy Before January (via Good Morning Alerts)

2. 🤑 A Canadian public pension just bought $153 million of this stock.

3. 💻️ Logitech is doing something crazy for its employees.

🍪 Munchy Memes

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