Look, we all know NVIDIA is basically the Beyoncé of AI stocks right now. The chip giant went from a $500 million nobody at IPO to a $4.5 trillion monster—that’s a 427,000% gain that makes your crypto portfolio look like pocket change. But here’s the thing about being queen of the hill: there’s always someone eyeing your crown.
Enter Micron Technology and Palantir, two companies that have been quietly putting up NVIDIA-level numbers while everyone was busy worshipping at the altar of Jensen Huang’s leather jacket. Both stocks have rocketed over 400% in the past two years, actually outpacing NVIDIA’s 153% run. Yeah, you read that right.
Micron: The Memory Whisperer
Remember when everyone thought memory chips were boring? Well, AI changed that faster than you can say “ChatGPT.” Micron makes something called High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips—think of them as the super-fast brain food that AI systems absolutely devour.
Here’s where it gets spicy: there’s way more demand than supply right now. It’s like trying to get Taylor Swift tickets, except instead of Swifties, it’s every tech company on the planet fighting over these chips. This supply crunch is basically printing money for Micron, with revenues expected to jump from $13.6 billion to potentially $19.1 billion next quarter.
The best part? Micron isn’t just NVIDIA’s sidekick. They’re supplying chips to AMD and other players too, which means they’re not putting all their eggs in one very expensive basket. Smart move when you’re playing in the big leagues.
Palantir: The Data Whisperer
If Micron is the hardware hero, Palantir is the software wizard. These guys built something called the Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP)—basically a tool that makes deploying AI as easy as ordering takeout. Well, maybe not that easy, but you get the idea.
The numbers are frankly ridiculous. Their U.S. commercial revenue jumped 137% year-over-year, and they’re expecting to more than double their total revenue to over $7 billion in 2026. That’s the kind of growth that makes venture capitalists weak in the knees.
What makes Palantir special is that both government agencies and private companies are throwing money at them. When you’ve got the feds and Fortune 500 companies both saying “shut up and take my money,” you know you’re onto something.
The Bottom Line
Look, NVIDIA isn’t going anywhere—they’re still the 800-pound gorilla. But the AI revolution is bigger than any one company, and smart money is starting to spread around. Micron and Palantir are riding different waves of the same tsunami, and their growth trajectories suggest we might be looking at the next generation of AI royalty.
Just remember: past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, but when you’re dealing with a technology shift this massive, sometimes the best strategy is to bet on the whole ecosystem, not just the biggest player.