Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the driving force behind the stock market's solid performance over the past three years. That's not surprising, as the massive investments in AI infrastructure and the productivity gains this technology is delivering for users have led to improvements in the revenue and earnings of several companies.
The good news for investors is that AI will remain a catalyst for the stock market in 2026, according to Wall Street analysts. The average earnings of companies in the S&P 500 index are anticipated to increase by 15.5% in 2026, up from last year's estimated growth of 13.2%. As a result, don't be surprised to see AI stocks deliver another year of robust gains in the new year.
That's why we are going to take a closer look at a couple of AI names that were in fine form on the stock market in 2025 but tailed off as the year progressed. These companies are not just clocking healthy growth, but they can also be bought at attractive valuations. Let's look at the reasons why these two companies could beat the market in 2026, as well as in the long run.
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The AI infrastructure boom will help this company step on the gas in 2026
CoreWeave (CRWV 5.60%) stock made a red-hot debut on the stock market in March 2025. Shares of the company rocketed higher over the next three months, driven by an acceleration in growth and terrific deal momentum. Major cloud hyperscalers and AI companies have been lining up to purchase data center capacity from CoreWeave, and this led investors to buy the stock hand over fist following its initial public offering (IPO).
NASDAQ: CRWV
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However, the stock has experienced a big pullback in the past few months, dropping 61% from the 52-week high it hit last year. CoreWeave's expensive valuation, concerns about an AI bubble, and the company's huge capital investments have weighed on the stock. But then, investors shouldn't miss the bigger picture.
CoreWeave operates data centers fitted with graphics processing units (GPUs), which are witnessing healthy demand from customers looking to train and deploy AI models and applications in the cloud. Its data centers are purpose-built for AI. Customers can rent computing power and data storage, and deploy managed software services using CoreWeave's AI data centers.
What's worth noting is that the demand for CoreWeave's AI infrastructure capacity is exceeding demand. This is evident from the fact that its revenue backlog increased by 271% year over year in the third quarter of 2025 to $55.6 billion, outpacing the 134% increase in its revenue. The stunning increase in CoreWeave's backlog is a result of the deals that CoreWeave has been signing with companies such as Meta Platforms and OpenAI.
Importantly, CoreWeave's existing customers continue to purchase more capacity from the company, with a leading hyperscaler signing its sixth contract with the neocloud provider. Not surprisingly, CoreWeave management remarked on the October 2025 earnings call that it operates "in a highly supply constrained environment where the demand for CoreWeave best-in-class AI cloud platform far exceeds available capacity."
As a result, CoreWeave will bring more data center capacity online in 2026. It anticipates its 2026 capital expenditure "to be well in excess of double that of 2025." The aggressive ramp-up in capex should allow CoreWeave to convert its backlog into revenue at a faster pace, thereby accelerating its top-line growth.
CRWV Revenue Estimates for Next Fiscal Year data by YCharts
Moreover, the stock's decline in recent months means that investors can now buy it at 8 times sales, a discount to the U.S. technology sector's average sales multiple of 8.8. Buying the tech stock at this valuation is a no-brainer when you consider how fast it has been growing, as well as its ability to sustain its outstanding growth rates for a long time to come.
If the market decides to reward CoreWeave's terrific growth with an appropriate multiple, it won't be surprising to see its shares soaring in 2026.
AI data centers have opened up a new growth opportunity for this company
Jabil (JBL 2.60%) may not be a household name in the technology industry, but the stock has delivered impressive gains of 58% in the past year. Jabil is a contract electronics manufacturer, providing design, engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain management services to various industries such as automotive, cloud computing and data centers, consumer electronics, networking, and others.
NYSE: JBL
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The stock's impressive gains in the past year can be attributed to the growing AI infrastructure demand. Jabil manufactures server components, such as racks, liquid-cooling solutions, and networking switches, which are deployed in AI data centers, for hyperscalers. The fast-growing nature of the AI data center market explains why Jabil is experiencing healthy growth in this segment.
The company anticipates a 35% jump in AI revenue in the ongoing fiscal year 2026 (which will end in August 2026) to $12.1 billion. That's an improvement over the 25% AI revenue growth that Jabil was forecasting before the fiscal year began. Jabil points out that given its ability to design and deliver "fully integrated systems that combine compute, networking, power distribution and advanced cooling, we materially shorten deployment time lines and reduce total cost for customers, precisely what is required as AI capacity scales."
Given that hyperscalers and AI companies are witnessing a shortage of data center capacity, Jabil's ability to help them quickly bring computing capacity online explains why its cloud and AI infrastructure business is thriving. Not surprisingly, Jabil's management says that AI is now its primary growth driver, which is set to drive an improvement in its top line and margins as the year progresses.
All this explains why analysts have become more bullish about Jabil's growth prospects.
JBL EPS Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts
Another important point worth noting is that Jabil is trading at an extremely attractive 20 times forward earnings. That's a nice discount to the tech-focused Nasdaq-100 index's earnings multiple of 33. So, Jabil stock seems poised for stronger gains, as the healthy double-digit earnings that it is expected to clock over the next three years could be rewarded with a higher multiple on the market.
Assuming Jabil trades at even 30 times earnings after a couple of years and achieves $15.37 per share in earnings, its stock could jump to $461. That would be nearly double its current stock price. So, investors looking to buy a value stock that's capable of clocking terrific growth would do well to consider Jabil now.
