AI infrastructure stocks surged Tuesday as a series of major partnerships involving Corning, Qualcomm and Amazon strengthened investor confidence that data center spending will remain elevated as the artificial intelligence buildout accelerates.
Corning led the move, climbing roughly 8% and bringing its year-to-date gain to about 90%. The company, whose fiber-optic technology has become an increasingly important component of AI data centers, announced a multibillion-dollar partnership with Verizon to expand fiber-optic cable production for AI connectivity.
The announcement adds to a growing list of major deals for Corning. In June, the company announced another multibillion-dollar agreement with Amazon. That came shortly after Nvidia committed to investing as much as $3.2 billion in Corning to support the construction of three new fiber-optic manufacturing facilities in North Carolina and Texas.
The rally extended across the semiconductor and AI infrastructure sectors. Intel gained 9%, AMD rose 6%, Hewlett Packard Enterprise climbed 8%, and photonics company Coherent advanced 7%.
The gains have added to what has already been a remarkable year for several of these companies. HPE and AMD have more than doubled in value, while Intel has nearly tripled as investors increasingly look beyond Nvidia for beneficiaries of the massive AI infrastructure buildout.
Qualcomm was another major beneficiary Tuesday after disclosing that it issued warrants allowing Amazon to purchase as much as $4 billion of Qualcomm stock. The arrangement is part of a broader agreement between the companies under which Amazon Web Services could purchase up to $60 billion worth of Qualcomm server chips and related technology as it expands its AI infrastructure.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco, Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala said revenue from manufacturing chips for Amazon is expected to begin contributing in the December quarter. He described the business as one of the “core components” supporting Qualcomm’s goal of reaching $15 billion in data center revenue by fiscal 2029.
AMD is also becoming increasingly bullish on the size of the AI infrastructure opportunity. CFO Jean Hu said Tuesday that the company’s total addressable market could reach $3 trillion by 2030. That estimate follows CEO Lisa Su’s projection in July that the semiconductor industry’s opportunity could reach $2 trillion through 2028.
However, the AI infrastructure boom faces growing opposition on the local level. A May 2026 Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans oppose data centers being built in their communities, highlighting concerns over electricity consumption, water usage, noise and the broader impact of massive facilities on local infrastructure.
That opposition is increasingly becoming a financial consideration for AI companies. Anthropic, for example, is expected to identify negative public sentiment toward AI and data centers as a potential risk factor in its upcoming IPO prospectus.
For investors, Tuesday’s rally highlights the expanding number of companies benefiting from the AI boom. While Nvidia remains at the center of the industry’s growth, the latest deals demonstrate that the AI buildout is creating opportunities across semiconductors, fiber optics, networking and data center infrastructure.
