The first half of 2026. Memory chip and storage manufacturers are the biggest winners

Global trading at the end  of a turbulent mid-2026 showed  a clear and sharp pattern in financial markets, with all sectors associated with the expansion of the physical and technological architecture of AI recording historic jumps, while many asset classes traditionally used by investors as safety valves in times of uncertainty faltered.

These trading turbulences came  against the backdrop of the outbreak of war in the Middle East, successive political upheavals, and a sharp rise in oil prices, yet stock markets in several regions around the world continued to record record highs driven by the "chips and data craze."

Rocket Rise of Memory Chips

  Data from the global index movement published by Euronews showed that the biggest gains came from a corner that seemed far from the spotlight in the world of technology, namely the manufacturers of memory chips and storage units, as the growing demand for cloud computing coincided with limited supply, which pushed prices up at a very strong pace with which companies' stocks soared to astronomical levels.

SunDesk topped the U.S. market with a record gain of more than 850 % in just six months, while the market capitalization of other giants such as Western Digital, Micron Technology, and Seagate Technology more than tripled, a pace of returns that companies typically take many years to achieve.

Analysts attributed the rise to the massive amounts of memory and high-speed storage required to train and operate generative AI systems, as major tech companies rush to expand their data centers.

Other US stocks followed this strong rebound, including Intel, Dell, AMD, and Applied Materials, whose values have risen by 150 to 280 percent since the beginning of the year, and it is noteworthy that in recent days the sharp wave of memory chip stocks has begun to disintegrate and slow down as some of these names have been exposed to sharp sell-offs and profit-taking that affected the technology sector in general.

Fall of Favorite Stocks

Gainer stocks have faced harsh blows from investors in the past, with Meta and Microsoft, two of the biggest stars of the previous AI boom, in the back seats, falling 14 and 24 percent on a gross return basis, as huge billions of dollars in technology development have turned these two groups into more capital-hungry businesses, and shareholders have stopped paying a premium to own their shares.

Microsoft's stock is trading at its lowest valuation in a decade, with its market capitalization and Meta's valuation more modest than that of the popular McDonald's, a historic scenario that no one could have imagined at the height of the Magnificent 7 tech stock craze.

The Flip of Traditional Sanctuaries

After jumping to a record high of $5,594.82 an ounce on January 29, the yellow metal has returned and lost about 28% of its value compared to that peak, despite severe geopolitical turmoil.

The appeal of gold bonds has declined as sovereign bond yields rise and high interest rates on cash, which provide a steady periodic income that a gold bar cannot provide.

Bitcoin has performed even worse, falling by about 28% since the start of the year as the general wave of crypto enthusiasm subsides and direct liquidity shifts towards AI tech stocks.

British deals and defence decline

In the UK, acquisitions led the bulk of the work to raise market indices, with six major companies listed on the UK's FTSE 100 index, including Glencore, Schroders and Seagro, making huge acquisition bids during the first half of the year, a sign that international buyers still see real investment value in UK blue-chip stocks despite their re-pricing over the past three years.

In contrast, British housing builders such as Persimmon have struggled in a sluggish property market, while tech disruption concerns have been felt by companies linked to traditional technology such as Experian and RealX. After a strong 2025, stocks of giant companies such as Britain's BAE Systems, Germany's Rheinmettal, and America's Palantir fell after prices fully absorbed the positive news of rising global defense budgets, prompting investors to quickly look for alternative opportunities.

Experts believe that the 2025 boom in defense and military spending, and the obsession with cryptocurrencies, has given way to the solid infrastructure that AI requires from mighty data centers and high-speed storage, which explains the crazy leap of shadow companies like SunDesk at the expense of software giants like Microsoft, which has entered a phase of attrition Capital for the construction of servers and physical facilities.