AI trade extends far beyond Silicon Valley.
While Nvidia and the Magnificent Seven dominate the headlines, many of this year’s biggest stock winners are companies that supply the hardware that powers artificial intelligence, many of them based in Asia.
“The current stage of AI development is overwhelmingly infrastructure,” Allianz Research said in a recent report, as hyperscalers, governments, and enterprises race to build out AI infrastructure and expand computing power.
Many of these companies hold important positions in the AI supply chain. they are Advanced chips create components that allow you to store data, process information, and communicate at high speeds.
The AI infrastructure boom is also spreading to the stock market. Investors are flocking to makers of memory chips, electronic components and circuit board materials despite volatility caused by tariffs, geopolitical tensions and recession fears. These moves pushed stock markets in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan to new record highs, outpacing the rise in the U.S. market.
Those stock markets have been volatile in recent weeks, eating into the gains of the three fastest-growing markets, but analysts remain optimistic.
“We believe the semiconductor memory supercycle has not yet been fully priced in in North Asian markets such as South Korea and Taiwan,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note this week on emerging markets, which does not include Japan.
The bank expects South Korea and Taiwan to record the highest revenue growth through 2027, but changes in sentiment around retail trading and AI could further increase market volatility.
Below are the five best-performing non-U.S. stocks tracked by MSCI’s National World Investable Market Index in the first half of 2026.
1. Samsung Electro-Mechanics
Unlike Samsung Electronics, which is best known for its smartphones and memory chips, sister company Samsung Electromechanics specializes in behind-the-scenes components used in AI hardware.
The company makes semiconductor substrates that connect advanced chips to circuit boards and multilayer ceramic capacitors that help provide stable power to high-performance servers.
As the demand for AI accelerators soared, so did the demand for these components, contributing to a 660% rise in the company’s stock price in the first half of 2026.
2. KIOXIA Holdings Co., Ltd.
Shares of Japanese memory chip maker Kioxia rose about 631% in the first half of 2026 as strong demand for AI data centers drove record profits.
The memory business was spun off from Toshiba in 2017, sold to a Bain Capital-led consortium the following year for about $13 billion, and rebranded as Kioxia in 2019.
The company makes NAND flash memory and storage products used in AI servers and cloud data centers.
As AI training and inference require ever-faster storage, investors predicted that demand would continue to outstrip supply, making Kioxia Japan’s most valuable company with a market capitalization of about $300 billion.
3. Kingboard laminate
Shares in Hong Kong-listed Kingboard Laminates rose about 535% in the first half of 2026 as investors bet on rising demand for AI hardware.
The company supplies materials used to make printed circuit boards that allow chips and other electronic components to communicate with each other.
AI data centers require more powerful servers to process and move larger amounts of data, increasing the demand for higher-performance circuit boards and the materials used to manufacture them.
4. Yageo Corporation
Shares in Taiwan-listed Yageo rose about 357% in the first half of 2026 as investors bet on rising demand for AI hardware.
Earlier this year, the company completed its acquisition of Japan’s Shibaura Electronics, adding temperature sensors to help thermally monitor AI servers and data centers.
Yageo is also one of the world’s largest manufacturers of capacitors and resistors, components used throughout AI hardware.
5. Unimicron Technology
Shares of Taiwan-listed Unimicron Technology rose about 345% in the first half of 2026 as demand for advanced AI chips soared.
The company makes printed circuit boards and IC boards that connect the powerful processor to the rest of the AI server.
As chipmakers develop more powerful AI processors, demand for these increasingly sophisticated components is increasing.