As Nvidia's next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chip approaches release, the AI industry as a whole is gaining another engine of growth. Not just Nvidia but the entire AI infrastructure ecosystem — servers, memory, power and cooling equipment, optical communications, and semiconductor contract manufacturing (foundry) — appears to be entering the next stage.
The signal for this change emerged at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2026) recently held in Hamburg, Germany. Nvidia named Dell (DELL) and Supermicro (SMCI) as key partners for its next-generation AI supercomputer platform "Vera Rubin." On the day of the announcement, Supermicro's stock surged 11% and Dell's rose 5%. The market took it as a signal that the flagship platform is shifting from "Blackwell" to "Vera Rubin."
Vera Rubin, set to be unveiled in the second half of this year, is a platform integrating central processing units (CPU), graphics processing units (GPU), and communications semiconductors. Its AI inference performance is reported to be five times higher than Blackwell's. Dell plans to launch Vera Rubin-based servers in early 2027, and Supermicro is expanding its prefabricated data center solutions, accelerating efforts to capture the AI data center market.
Investment appeal remains high, according to assessments. Although Dell's book equity is negative due to debt incurred during past mergers and acquisitions and aggressive share buybacks and dividends, it generates more than $10 billion in cash annually. Supermicro's profitability is also improving, and it is expected to see strong revenue and profit growth over the next three years. The prevailing analysis is that the current stock prices of both companies are undervalued compared to the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 or the average for the information technology (IT) sector.
The Vera Rubin launch is expected to bring a trickle-down effect across AI infrastructure as a whole. In the memory sector, expanding demand for fourth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) is expected, and SK hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Micron are projected to benefit. In server assembly, Dell, Supermicro, and HPE are joining in. In power and cooling equipment, Vertiv, Schneider Electric, and Siemens are drawing attention. In optical communications, Coherent, Lumentum, and Marvell are cited as key companies. In particular, Marvell recently drew interest when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang referred to it as the "next trillion-dollar company." TSMC, which produces Vera Rubin's core chips, is also assessed as a representative beneficiary.
The evolution of AI does not stop, and at its center lies the powerful infrastructure that supports it. The emergence of the next-generation platform led by Nvidia will be a decisive turning point that redraws the landscape of global tech companies.
