The AI trade in 2026 has broadened well past mega-cap headliners. NVIDIA, Microsoft and Alphabet remain reflexive answers, but the second wave of infrastructure and software beneficiaries looks most interesting in July. PineBridge’s 2026 outlook flags datacenter equipment growth as “essentially locked” as hyperscaler CapEx compounds, and Goldman Sachs frames the AI CapEx boom as the counterweight driving business and investment activity into 2026. That backdrop favors the layer of the stack bought after the GPUs: servers, networking fabric, and enterprise software that monetizes the models.
Three names capture that thesis: One for AI Factory hardware, another for AI data center ethernet and another for agentic enterprise AI. Each delivered a tool-verified data point in the last quarter that justifies the label “AI beneficiary” without needing NVIDIA in the ticker.
Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL)
Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL | DELL Price Prediction) has become the most levered AI hardware pure-play outside chipmakers. In Q1 FY27, reported May 28, 2026, revenue hit $43.84 billion, up 87.5% YoY, and AI-optimized server revenue exploded to $16.13 billion, up 757% YoY. Non-GAAP EPS of $4.86 beat the $2.96 consensus. Management booked $24.40 billion in AI orders in the quarter and raised full-year FY27 revenue guidance to $165.0 to $169.0 billion, with AI server revenue guided to roughly $60 billion for the full year.
The bull case is clear: Dell captures the enterprise and sovereign AI buildout that hyperscalers cannot serve directly. CEO Jeff Clarke framed it as “exceptionally strong demand for AI-optimized servers” with over 3,000 customers now buying various forms of our Dell AI factories”. Shares are up 241.91% year to date through July 13, closing at $427.11, and traded up another 7.05% on July 14 to $457.21. A P/E of 23 against this growth profile remains reasonable if AI server orders compound.
The risk: gross margin compressed to 17.8% from 21.1% YoY as the AI mix crowds out higher-margin traditional server and storage revenue. Shareholders’ equity remains negative at $(1.40) billion, and prediction-market sentiment has cooled, with a composite score of 34.36 (bearish) and a -20.05 shift over the past seven days. A nonlinear order pattern means quarters can disappoint even inside a strong trend.
Salesforce (NYSE: CRM)
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is the enterprise software counterpoint: agentic AI turning into durable recurring revenue. Q1 FY27 revenue came in at $11.13 billion, up 13.3% YoY, with non-GAAP EPS of $3.88 against a $3.13 estimate. Agentforce plus Data 360 combined ARR reached approximately $3.4 billion, up over 200% YoY, and Salesforce processed 3.8 billion Agentic Work Units and 28.6 trillion tokens. Marc Benioff called it “an outstanding quarter for Salesforce, record revenue, record deals, and cash flow. Agentic AI is the biggest growth opportunity for our customers, and for Salesforce.”
The bull case rests on valuation and monetization. Salesforce trades at a P/E of 19 with a 77.7% gross margin and 21.5% operating margin. Current RPO of $33.6 billion, up 14% YoY gives forward visibility, and the company raised FY27 revenue guidance to $45.9 billion to $46.2 billion. A $25 billion accelerated share repurchase reduced diluted share count to 871 million from 970 million YoY. Sentiment sits at a neutral 47.93 composite score, framing CRM as the contrarian pick, up just 3.21% over the past month against a -35.03% year-to-date return.
The risk: noncurrent debt ballooned to $39.3 billion from $10.4 billion to fund the buyback, and the Informatica acquisition adds integration risk. Core Sales and Service Cloud growth trails Agentforce, so the AI narrative must keep converting.
Arista Networks (NYSE: ANET)
Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) is the networking layer connecting hyperscaler GPU clusters, executing on both demand and pricing power. Q1 2026 revenue came in at $2.71 billion, up 35.1% YoY, non-GAAP EPS of 87 cents beat the 81-cent consensus, and operating cash flow more than doubled to $1.69 billion. Management raised the 2026 revenue target to $11.5 billion and the AI Fabrics target to $3.5 billion, effectively doubling AI sales annually.
The bull case is simple: Jayshree Ullal said flatly that “our demand is actually the best I have ever seen in my Arista tenure”, and the company now claims the number one market share in high-speed switching in the greater than 10 gigabit Ethernet category. Purchase commitments jumped to $8.9 billion from $6.8 billion, a forward indicator of the order book. Shares are up nearly 24% this year, with the strongest prediction sentiment of the three at a 66 bullish composite score.
The risk: gross margin compressed to 62.4% from 64.1% YoY as hyperscaler mix and component costs weigh on unit economics, and Arista carries meaningful customer concentration alongside 52-week lead times on key chips. If hyperscaler CapEx intentions soften in 2027, the backlog reprices quickly.
What Ties These Three Together
Each captures a specific slice of AI spend, none requires calling the top on NVIDIA, and each delivered a quarter with hard evidence that AI dollars are landing on the P&L. That is the setup worth watching into second-half earnings season.
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