Best semiconductor stocks

NVIDIA designs graphics processing units (GPUs) and computing platforms.

Micron is one of the few large global makers of memory chips (DRAM and NAND flash): the ones that store data in phones, computers, cars and data centers.

KLA makes the equipment that inspects and measures chips during manufacturing: it detects nanometer-scale defects so fabs don't waste wafers.

Monolithic Power Systems designs power-management chips: the circuits that precisely feed everything from an AI server to a car or an appliance.

Broadcom designs semiconductors (chips for networking, broadband and, increasingly, AI) and, after several acquisitions, is also an enterprise-software giant (VMware).

Qualcomm designs the chips that power smartphones (processors and modems to connect to networks).

Western Digital makes high-capacity hard drives (HDDs) for data centers, after spinning off its flash business (SanDisk).

NXP Semiconductors is the automobile's big chipmaker: the processors and radars governing brakes, batteries and dashboards, plus industrial and contactless-payment chips.

Lam Research builds the machines chips are made with: etch and deposition equipment that major manufacturers (TSMC, Samsung, Intel, the memory makers) need to produce ever-denser semiconductors.

Marvell designs infrastructure chips: optical connectivity for data centers and, above all, custom AI chips (ASICs) it designs for cloud giants that don't want to depend solely on NVIDIA.