The next AI winners may look nothing like Nvidia or Micron: One Big Investment Idea

August 14, 2026

Stock Market Today

The next AI winners may look nothing like Nvidia (NVDA) or Micron (MU).

The first phase of the trade rewarded companies building the AI infrastructure, from chips to data centers. As the AI rally broadens, the next hunting ground may be businesses using those tools to cut costs, lift sales, or improve productivity.

The travel industry offers a good case study. Travel stocks took off broadly from their May lows, with airlines leading the first leg. Then the leadership changed.

Airbnb (ABNB), Booking Holdings (BKNG), and Expedia (EXPE) kept climbing into August, while hotels stalled and airlines and cruises gave back part of their early surge.

The three booking platforms are up nearly 40% at the median since May 19. Hotels are roughly flat. The market move is a good reason to look more closely at what is changing inside these companies. One theme jumps out. AI is starting to show up in measurable business results, not just product demos.

There is no way to pin the stock-performance gap on AI alone. But Airbnb and Booking are already putting numbers around the payoff.

At Airbnb, nearly 45% of customer issues that begin with its AI assistant are resolved without a human, while customer support cost per booking has fallen roughly 16% from a year ago, with AI helping drive the improvement.

Booking is seeing a similar payoff. Customer service cost per booking is falling at a double-digit rate, and management says its AI investments are already producing a positive return. Yet referrals from AI chatbots remain a tiny share of room nights.

But the stocks already surging may not be the most interesting ones. Yahoo Finance reports.

EdgeUp

🧾 Digital Asset Acquisition Corp. (DAAQ) Stock Rallies Over 41% After Hours

Digital Asset Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: DAAQ) shares jumped 43.42% to $10.41 in after-hours trading on Thursday after disclosing that it mutually terminated its business combination agreement with Old Glory Holding Company, a Delaware-based bank holding company.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday, DAAQ said the deal, originally signed Jan. 13, called for DAAQ to first domesticate as a Texas corporation, after which Old Glory would merge into it. Benzinga reports.

🧠 Onfolio Holdings Stock Surges Over 45% Pre-Market: Why Is It Moving?

Onfolio Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ONFO) shares surged 46.8% to $3.39 in pre-market trading on Friday. In the regular session, the stock closed at $2.31, down 1.70%.

On Aug. 11, Onfolio filed a Securities and Exchange Commission filing disclosing the results of its Aug. 6 Annual Meeting. Shareholders elected CEO Dominic Wells and directors Andrew Lawrence, David McKeegan, and Mark N. Schwartz to the board, ratified AstraAudit & Advisory, LLC as the company’s independent registered public accountant for fiscal year 2026, approved the potential issuance of more than 19.99% of Onfolio’s outstanding common stock under an existing equity purchase facility agreement, and authorized an increase in the number of authorized common shares from 300 million to 600 million. Benzinga reports.

🧩 Wall Street's Riskiest Trades are Suddenly Back on Top: Chart of the Day

Investors are reaching for more risk — and getting paid for it.

Nine trading days into August, Cathie Wood's ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up 16%, while IPOs, chips, and software have all jumped 9% or more.

The gains are also enormous in dollar terms. Nvidia (NVDA) has added about $600 billion in market value this month, SpaceX (SPCX) roughly $440 billion, Microsoft (MSFT) nearly $240 billion, and Micron (MU), Broadcom (AVGO), and Palantir (PLTR) have each gained more than $130 billion.

An equal-weight basket of ARKK, the Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO), the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) is beating the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by about 8 percentage points through August's first nine trading days.

That marks the basket's biggest early-month lead since 2015, highlighting how several different areas of higher-risk investing are outperforming at the same time. The IPO surge is especially notable after years in which going public increasingly became an exit ramp for mature private companies rather than the beginning of the growth story. Yahoo Finance reports.

🧮 MSFT Could Emerge as Big Tech's Free Cash Flow King in 2027 While GOOGL, META Stay Negative

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) could emerge as Big Tech’s strongest free cash flow generator in 2027, while Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL), and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) could remain free-cash-flow negative, according to third-party estimates highlighted by I/O Fund analyst Beth Kindig. Benzinga reports.

🧪 What's Going On With Lam Research Stock Friday?

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) said Thursday it plans to invest more than $3 billion over the next five years to expand its global research and development lab network as artificial intelligence drives demand for more advanced chips.

The semiconductor equipment maker said the investment should increase its experiment capacity by more than 50%. The expansion will begin this year and span facilities in the U.S., Asia, and Europe.

CEO Tim Archer said the AI era requires new chip architectures, materials, and increasingly complex features. Lam aims to use the investment to shorten development cycles from early research through deployment in semiconductor fabrication plants. Benzinga reports.

Top 5 Movers in Early Pre-Market

(All pricing and percent gains are based on Early Pre-Market from 4:00 AM to 7:00 AM ET). Stock Analysis reports.

1) WETO: Wetour Robotics Limited

Total gain: +6.36 178.12%

2) CAPR: Capricor Therapeutics, Inc.

Total gain: +4.50 (106.89%)

3) AKAN: Akanda Corp.

Total gain: +3.52 (70.26%)

4) DAAQ: Digital Asset Acquisition Corp.

Total gain: +3.14 (43.25%)

5) SXTC: China SXT Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Total gain: +1.380 (41.82%)

Yesterday’s Biggest Movers

The closing price of the top three market percent gainers trading near or above $3 on Aug 13.

(All pricing and percent gains are based on regular market trading hours from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET) Stock Analysis reports.

1) BYND: Beyond Meat, Inc.

Total gain: +11.80 (2,848.56%)

The company announced that its board of directors has selected a 1-for-30 reverse stock split of the company’s common stock and a proportionate reduction in the number of authorized shares of common stock. At a special meeting held on November 19, 2025, the company’s stockholders approved thirty alternate amendments to the company’s restated certificate of incorporation to effect a reverse stock split at one of thirty reverse stock split ratios, with the exact ratio to be determined by the board. The reverse stock split is intended to help the company regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement for continued listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. TipRanks reports.

2) HAO: Haoxi Health Technology Limited

Total gain: +3.097 (1,972.61%)

The company today announced that it will effect a reverse share split of its outstanding Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0000001 per share (the "Class A Ordinary Shares") and Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0000001 per share (the "Class B Ordinary Shares"), at a ratio of 1-for-20. GlobeNewswire reports.

3) XHG: XChange TEC.INC

Total gain: +3.185 (348.04%)

The company today announced that it has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire First Cycle, INC. ("First Cycle"), a growing artificial intelligence ("AI") technology company headquartered in Hong Kong. The proposed acquisition represents a pivotal step in XChange's strategic vision to become an AI-driven insurance ecosystem platform in the Asia-Pacific region. PR Newswire reports.

Today’s Notable Earnings

(Estimate and Actual numbers represent Earnings Per Share in US Dollars)

RLX
RLX Technology

Q2 2026

Before Market Open
Estimate: N/A
Actual: 0.026

MSADY
MS&AD Insurance Group

Q1 2026

Before Market Open
Estimate: N/A
Actual: 1.420

BALY
Ballys

Q2 2026

After Market Close
Estimate: -1.120
Actual: N/A

Today’s Economic Dates

Time (ET) / Report / Period

8:30 AM / Retail Sales / July
10:00 AM / Manufacturing & Trade: Inventories / June
10:00 AM / U. Michigan Prelim Consumer Survey / August

Parting Thoughts

“Price is what you pay; value is what you get.”

– Benjamin Graham

Sourced in: 2008 Letter to Shareholders — Berkshire Hathaway, quoted by Warren Buffett

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