Mizuho has named 3 stocks to invest in AI infrastructure. Among them is a little-known

Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh presented a list of top favorites in the semiconductor sector for 2026. The list includes Nvidia, Broadcom and Lumentum Holdings, a company that supplies optical solutions for data centers, which is little known to a wide range of investors, MarketWatch writes. Lumentum's shares have quadrupled over the past year, outperforming both Nvidia and Broadcom.

The analyst noted that companies that make optical components for data centers, such as Lumentum, have room for serious growth as AI-focused data centers switch from copper to fiber optic connections for the sake of increased bandwidth. According to Rakesh, Lumentum's potential remains significant, especially amid demand from Google Cloud Platform and Amazon, . The vendor's share price has jumped 316.5% over the past year. 13 of 23 analysts tracking the stock recommend buying it, according to MarketWatch.

Nvidia and Broadcom, according to Mizuho estimates, will continue to grow due to increased capital expenditures of hyperscalers: in 2026, spending may jump by 32% - up to $540 billion. Additional drivers will be the widespread adoption of AI in the corporate environment and the improvement of neural network models, says the analyst.

Wall Street will be watching the new models closely to confirm that AI's laws of scaling, according to which systems improve as data and resources grow, still work, MarketWatch notes. OpenAI is expected to unveil its next model as early as the first quarter, and it will likely be one of the first models trained on Nvidia's new Blackwell platform, the publication emphasizes.

According to Rakesh, both companies have seen their products increase in energy efficiency by more than 50% from generation to generation, while the total cost of ownership of their AI processors has been steadily decreasing. This makes their solutions more attractive to enterprise customers, the analyst said.

In addition, he noted that he remains positive on Lam Research, which supplies semiconductor manufacturing equipment, as a "key market-leading player."

Mizuho analyst named AI gas pedal chips and equipment for their production, optical components, as well as memory chips as the most promising areas in the semiconductor sector, but he is cautious about the segments related to electric vehicles and automotive electronics, power semiconductors and analog chips, as well as the markets of personal computers and smartphones, CNBC reports .

"We see the potential for a strong first half of fiscal 2026 as spending on artificial intelligence, investment in chip manufacturing equipment and the growth cycle in the memory market are expected to remain robust. This will support capacity expansion at the largest and mid-sized cloud providers, as well as enterprise and government customers deploying servers for artificial intelligence," the analyst predicted. However, he does not rule out difficulties in the second half of the year and warns of the risk of increased volatility due to the launch of new products, including the Vera Rubin AI platform from Nvidia and solutions from AMD, as well as the possible impact of the midterm elections in the U.S. and in case of a slower reduction in interest rates by the Federal Reserve.

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