15 S&P 500 stocks are up 100% or more this year — here's what they have in common

15 S&P 500 stocks are up 100% or more this year — here's what they have in common Brian Sozzi · Executive Editor Wed, August 19, 2026 at 3:54 PM GMT+2 3 min read ^GSPC SNDK NVDA DELL INTC It has been a big year for executives and investors at 15 companies in the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ), and it's all because of one factor. You guessed it: the Great AI Boom. There are now 15 companies in the S&P 500 up 100% or more this year (see chart below), per Yahoo Finance analysis.

Sandisk ( SNDK ) is leading the way with an almost 600% gain on the year amid strong demand for its memory chips at ever higher prices. The list is interesting for several reasons. First of all, chip king Nvidia ( NVDA ) isn't on the list, as its stock is "only" up 18% year to date.

Second, on the list are old tech giants that have pivoted hard to partaking in the AI infrastructure build-out — see Dell ( DELL ), Intel ( INTC ), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ). Finally, the list is a sign that the AI trade is broadening beyond hyperscalers like Amazon ( AMZN ) and the aforementioned AI chip leader Nvidia. Marathon Petroleum ( MPC ) and Valero ( VLO ) are front and center here.

If you don't think the many AI data centers being built in this country need a lot of fuel, well, then you are seriously missing a screw. A year for the record books, for some. To be sure, this has been another impressive year on the AI front.

Nvidia alone hit an all-time high of $236 on May 14, per Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace data. That briefly made CEO Jensen Huang's company the most valuable enterprise on earth before a brutal summer sell-off wiped out more than $1 trillion in market cap and sent the stock back into the $190s. The stock has since rallied back to near record highs.

The SpaceX ( SPCX ) IPO raised a record $86 billion in June and minted CEO Elon Musk as the world's first trillionaire on the strength of AI-driven Starlink and data center revenue — before the stock plunged back to some form of reality. Microsoft ( MSFT ) has committed $190 billion in capital expenditures for this year, Amazon has guided to $200 billion, Google ( GOOG , GOOGL ) to $175 billion, and Meta ( META ) to $145 billion. This is a combined $700 billion-plus spending pledge from four tech beasts aiming to dominate the future of AI.

More recently, Nvidia signed a $500 billion financing commitment with Apollo Global Management ( APO ), Blackstone ( BX ), BlackRock ( BLK ), Brookfield, Goldman Sachs ( GS ), and KKR ( KKR ). (Disclosure: Yahoo is a portfolio company of funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management. ) Next on the AI docket: possible fourth quarter IPOs for Anthropic ( ANTH.

PVT ) and OpenAI ( OPAI. PVT ). Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor, host of the ' Power Players With Brian Sozzi' podcast and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team.

Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi , Instagram , and LinkedIn . Tips on stories? Email brian.

sozzi@yahoofinance. com.