Nvidia stock price jumped to a record high on Tuesday, bringing its market capitalization closer to the $5 trillion market capitalization. It has jumped by over 47% this year and by over 28,000% in the last decade.
NVDA stock price has thrived because of the ongoing demand for its chips from companies training AI models. Some of the top clients are companies like Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
Still, Nvidia is not the best-performing company in the S&P 500 Index this year. Instead, the top gainers are companies that are often considered boring as they make less flashy products. These firms include Western Digital, Micron, and Seagate Technology.
Western Digital is beating Nvidia stock
The best-performing company in the S&P 500 Index this year is Western Digital, whose stock has jumped by 176%, bringing its market capitalization to over $42 billion.
WDC makes products that are often considered boring, including hard drives that are used in personal computers and in the data center industry.
Its performance is primarily because of the rising demand of its products in data centers in the US and other countries. While Nvidia dominates the recent AI spending news, the reality is that Western Digital’s products are equally needed whenever this spending happens.
The most recent results showed that its business continued doing well in the last quarter. It shipped 1.7 million units of its ePMR drives that are commonly used in the data center industry.
Its revenue jumped to $2.6 billion, with 90% of this being in the cloud computing segment. This growth coincided with the rising margins, with the gross margin rising to 41.3% from 35.2% in the same period last year. The free cash flow jumped by 139% to $675 million.
Western Union has used this windfall to reduce its debt and reward its shareholders. It authorized a new $2 billion share repurchase program and initiated its dividend at $0.1 per share.
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Seagate Technology (STX)
Seagate Technology is another boring AI stock that is beating Nvidia this year. It has jumped by 155% in 2025, bringing its market capitalization to over $47 billion.
Seagate is similar to Western Digital in that the company makes storage disks that are used in PCs and in data centers. Chances are high than Seagate’s disks are in your PC since its top clients are companies like Dell, HP, and Lenovo.
The company is also widely used in the data center industry, which explains why its revenue is soaring. Its last financial results show that the revenue rose to $2.6 billion from $2.1 billion, while its net income was $549 million, up from the previous $305 million.
Seagate Technology’s business will likely continue doing well in the coming years as the AI spending boom is not showing signs of slowing down.
Micron (MU)
Micron stock price has jumped by 160% this year, bringing its valuation to over $249 billion. This makes it one of the biggest companies in the technology industry in the United States.
Micron’s stock has surged because of the rising demand for its DRAM and NAND solutions, which are also used widely in the data center industry.
The recent Micron results showed that its cloud memory business brought in $4.54 billion in revenue, with its gross margin rising from 49% to 59%. The management also boosted its forward guidance.
Other AI stocks leading the S&P 500 Index
There are other top AI companies that are beating Nvidia, including popular names like Palantir, Lam Research, AMD, and Intel. Some energy companies that provide power to these data center industry like NRG Energy, Monolithic Energy, and Constellation Energy.
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