Corning beat Applied Materials by 75 percentage points in stock performance. Corning's AI data center sales nearly doubled in Q2 2026.
Applied Materials faces investor familiarity with ASML.
The article sees Corning as the better AI play.
What happened
Corning's stock outperformed Applied Materials by 75 percentage points, according to the article's comparison. The article argues that Corning is the better AI infrastructure investment.
Why it matters
Corning benefits from AI data center demand for high-speed optical connectivity; CFO Ed Schlesinger said enterprise sales related to AI data centers nearly doubled in Q2 2026. Applied Materials supplies chipmaking equipment, but investors may overlook it because they know ASML more.
What to watch
The real test is whether Corning’s momentum is sustainable against Applied Materials’ more familiar but less recognized role, so investors should weigh Corning’s clearer growth trajectory. Watch for Corning’s enterprise AI data center sales, which nearly doubled in Q2 2026.
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The article frames the AI infrastructure investment opportunity as a choice between two very different companies. Corning, a materials science company specializing in optical fiber and connectivity, is riding the wave of data-hungry data centers needing high-speed connections to avoid bottlenecks in computing performance. Its nearly doubled AI data center enterprise sales in Q2 2026 reflect strong momentum from the AI boom. In contrast, Applied Materials, a major semiconductor equipment supplier, may be overshadowed by ASML in investors' minds, even though it serves the same chipmaking giants. The comparison in stock performance—Corning ahead by 75 percentage points—suggests that the market currently rewards the direct beneficiary of AI data center expansion over the equipment maker. Investors may see Corning as a clearer play on the infrastructure layer of AI, given its visible sales growth and direct link to data center connectivity needs.
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