3 Next-Gen AI Stocks That 3G Capital Bought in Q2

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the defining investment themes of the past year, and its influence on the market shows little sign of fading as we move deeper into 2026. While investors have been chasing high-growth AI companies, attention is increasingly shifting toward businesses that provide the hardware, infrastructure, and computing power needed to turn the AI boom into reality. That trend is also reflected in the latest portfolio moves of New York-based private equity firm 3G Capital Partners.

The firm’s latest 13F filing revealed fresh bets across several technology names, including Dell Technologies (DELL), Sandisk Corporation (SNXX), and Nebius Group N.V. (NBIS). During the second quarter, 3G Capital initiated a new position in Sandisk, purchasing 9,000 shares. The firm also added 90,000 shares of Dell and snapped up 65,000 shares of Nebius Group. The moves are notable because each company offers a different way to participate in the expanding AI ecosystem, from data storage and AI infrastructure to the computing capacity required to power the next generation of AI applications.

So, with 3G Capital placing fresh bets on these three technology names, let’s take a closer look at what may have attracted the firm to each stock.

AI Stock #1: Dell Technologies 

Dell is a Texas-based technology company that provides a broad range of IT products and infrastructure, including servers, storage, networking equipment, PCs, and enterprise solutions. While Dell has long been known for its computers, the AI boom is opening a new growth avenue as companies increasingly invest in the high-performance servers and data center infrastructure needed to train and run AI models. This puts Dell in a key position within the expanding AI infrastructure ecosystem, even though it does not develop AI models itself.

The company operates through two main segments: Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) and Client Solutions Group (CSG). ISG provides servers, networking, and storage solutions, while CSG covers commercial and consumer PCs, workstations, monitors, and related peripherals. The AI boom is particularly relevant to Dell’s ISG business, where the company now offers specialized AI-optimized servers designed for AI training, fine-tuning and inference, alongside the networking and storage infrastructure needed to support these workloads. Meanwhile, its CSG business is also adapting to the AI era through AI-enabled PCs and workstations. 

With a market capitalization of $303.7 billion, Dell has quietly become one of the more notable beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure boom, despite often being overshadowed by the chipmakers that dominate the AI conversation. The stock’s performance, however, has been anything but quiet. Dell shares have soared 223.6% over the past year and are up 247.6% in 2026, dramatically outpacing the S&P 500 Index’s ($SPX) 20.2% one-year gain and 12.6% advance this year. The rally pushed Dell to a record $514 on Aug. 13, though the stock has since cooled, trading 14.9% below that high.

Dell’s latest earnings report offered a powerful reminder of the reason the stock has become one of the standout beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure boom. When the company reported its fiscal 2027 first-quarter results on May 28, it delivered one of the strongest quarters in its history, driven by extraordinary demand for AI infrastructure. Investors responded almost immediately, sending Dell shares soaring 32.76% in the following trading session. The headline numbers were hard to ignore. 

Revenue jumped 88% year-over-year (YOY) to a record $43.8 billion, comfortably ahead of Wall Street’s $36.1 billion consensus estimate. Non-GAAP earnings per share were even more striking, surging 214% to a record $4.86, well above analysts’ $2.96 forecast and representing a roughly 64% beat. At the heart of the blockbuster performance was Dell’s Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), which has become the company’s key gateway to the AI spending cycle. ISG revenue soared 181% YOY to a record $29 billion, as businesses accelerated investments in AI computing capacity. 

Within the segment, revenue from AI-optimized servers skyrocketed 757% to $16.1 billion. Demand was strong enough for Dell to book an extraordinary $24.4 billion in new AI orders during the quarter, highlighting the sheer scale of the generative AI infrastructure buildout. Importantly, the AI surge did not come at the expense of Dell’s more established businesses. Its traditional server and networking revenue climbed 92% to $8.54 billion, as customers stepped up spending to modernize aging infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Client Solutions Group (CSG), which houses Dell’s PC business, posted 17% annual revenue growth to $14.61 billion.

And Dell’s confidence in the AI opportunity appears to be extending well beyond the current quarter. The company significantly raised its fiscal 2027 outlook, now projecting full-year revenue of $165 billion to $169 billion, up 47% YOY at midpoint. Management also lifted its full-year non-GAAP EPS forecast to $17.90, implying approximately 74% growth. Most notably, Dell raised its full-year target for AI-optimized server revenue to roughly $60 billion, representing a staggering 144% YOY increase.

Wall Street remains broadly bullish on Dell, with the stock holding a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating. Of the 25 analysts covering the company, 16 rate it a “Strong Buy,” two recommend a “Moderate Buy,” and seven have a “Hold” rating. The $506.55 average price target points to 15.8% upside, while the Street-high target of $700 suggests the potential for 60% gains from current levels.

AI Stock #2: Sandisk Corporation 

Headquartered in California, Sandisk is a global semiconductor memory company with more than 30 years of experience in NAND flash technology. The company has built a vertically integrated business that covers the full storage technology chain, including chip-level design and intellectual property, front- and back-end manufacturing, as well as systems engineering and design. Sandisk’s focus is on developing storage and semiconductor technologies that can keep pace with the rapidly growing amount of data being created and processed today. 

That makes the company particularly relevant to the AI boom, as AI workloads require large amounts of high-performance storage across data centers, edge devices, and consumer applications. Its technology is designed to support the production, analysis, and storage of data across all three areas. The company’s portfolio includes a broad range of solid-state drives, embedded products, removable cards, USB drives, wafers, and components. 

Its products are used by a wide range of customers, from students, gamers, and home offices to large enterprises and public cloud providers. Through its continued work in NAND flash, storage, and semiconductor technologies, Sandisk occupies an important part of the technology ecosystem that sits behind the growing demand for data storage, including the infrastructure needed to support increasingly data-intensive AI workloads.

Since becoming a publicly traded company in February 2025, after Western Digital Corporation (WDC) spun off its flash memory business, Sandisk has quickly become one of the more striking beneficiaries of the AI boom. Now valued at a hefty $240.8 billion by market capitalization, the stock has delivered a jaw-dropping 3,419.2% gain over the past year, while its 560.9% year-to-date (YTD) advance in 2026 has been equally remarkable. Both gains have left the broader market far behind, highlighting the extreme power of the AI-driven storage rally. The stock climbed to a 52-week high of $2,354.39 on June 22, but has since cooled off, trading 33.4% below that peak.

Sandisk delivered a blockbuster fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 performance on Aug. 5, comfortably beating Wall Street expectations across several key metrics. The results were powered by a combination of tight global NAND supply and surging demand from AI data centers, sending quarterly revenue soaring 372% YOY to $8.97 billion, up 51% sequentially and well above Wall Street’s $8.39 billion estimate. The bottom line was even more striking. Non-GAAP diluted EPS jumped to $39.25, compared with just $0.29 in the year-ago quarter, easily topping the consensus estimate of $34.52. 

Non-GAAP gross margin also climbed to a record 84.6%. Of the sequential increase in revenue, roughly two-thirds came from stronger NAND pricing, while the remaining one-third was driven by higher volumes. Sandisk’s segment results also showed how dramatically its business is shifting toward higher-margin enterprise infrastructure. Revenue from its Data Center division doubled sequentially to $2.98 billion, while the Edge category climbed 48% to $5.43 billion. Consumer revenue, by contrast, declined 32% sequentially to $556 million, highlighting the stark difference between softer retail demand and much stronger institutional spending.

Looking ahead, management pointed to continued demand visibility, highlighting 10 active New Business Model (NBM) multi-year capacity agreements while also expanding the company’s total share repurchase authorization to $15.5 billion. For fiscal first-quarter 2027, SanDisk expects revenue of $10.30 billion to $10.80 billion, with non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $44.00 to $46.00. The company expects non-GAAP gross margin to range between 83% and 85%, signaling that management sees the strength in its storage business continuing into the new fiscal year.

Overall, Wall Street’s optimism around Sandisk remains hard to miss, with the stock carrying a consensus “Strong Buy” rating. Among the 24 analysts covering the stock, 20 recommend a “Strong Buy,” one has a “Moderate Buy,” and just three have a “Hold” rating. The bullish outlook also leaves room for further gains. The $2,139.09 average price target points to 36.4% upside, while the Street-high target of $3,000 implies a potential 91.2% rally from current levels.

AI Stock #3: Nebius Group

Headquartered in Amsterdam, Nebius is an AI cloud company focused on building the infrastructure needed to support the next generation of AI. As AI moves beyond research labs and into large-scale, real-world applications, Nebius provides a unified cloud platform designed to support the full AI lifecycle, from data management and model training and fine-tuning to production deployment and inference. The company’s platform is built on deep in-house technological expertise, combining a strong engineering culture with experience designing and operating large-scale platforms that can perform reliably at global scale. 

Today, Nebius serves AI developers and enterprises across a broad range of industries, including healthcare and life sciences, robotics and physical AI, financial services, media and entertainment, retail, and more. Nebius’ exposure to the technology industry also extends beyond its core AI cloud business through a portfolio of high-growth technology companies. Its holdings include Avride, a developer of autonomous vehicles and delivery robots, and TripleTen, a fast-growing education technology platform focused on helping people reskill for technology careers. 

Also, the company holds equity stakes in innovative firms such as ClickHouse and Toloka, giving it additional exposure to several areas of the rapidly evolving AI and technology ecosystem. That broad exposure has made Nebius a notable market performer. With a market capitalization of $62.86 billion, the company has emerged as one of the bigger market winners of the AI revolution. 

Its stock has surged an astounding 233.2% over the past year and gained another 167.5% in 2026, comfortably outpacing the broader market’s double-digit gains over both periods. The rally has been fueled by explosive revenue growth, rising demand for AI computing power, and a steady stream of multiyear cloud infrastructure deals, which have strengthened investor confidence in Nebius’ longer-term growth prospects. After reaching a 52-week high of $299.86 on June 22, however, the stock has since pulled back 25.3% from that peak.

Nebius Group delivered a standout second quarter of fiscal 2026 on Aug. 12, comfortably beating consensus expectations on both revenue and core profitability as demand for AI computing continued to accelerate. Group revenue soared 454% YOY to $582.3 million, marking a 46% sequential increase from Q1. Almost all of that revenue came from its Nebius AI cloud business, which generated $575 million, or roughly 98% of total group revenue, and surged 514% YOY.

The growth was closely tied to the relentless global demand for GPU computing power. By the end of June, Nebius’ annualized run-rate revenue (ARR) jumped to $3 billion, representing a staggering 598% YOY increase and a 56% rise from the $1.9 billion ARR reported at the end of March. Profitability also took a significant step forward. Group adjusted EBITDA reached $236.2 million in Q2, improving by $257.2 million from the year-ago period and translating into a 41% margin, compared with a negative margin a year earlier and 32% in Q1 2026. 

The improvement was driven primarily by the rapid expansion of the Nebius AI cloud business, which generated $285.7 million in adjusted EBITDA and an impressive 49.7% adjusted EBITDA margin. The quarter reflected the enormous investment required to keep pace with AI demand. Nebius spent approximately $5.7 billion on capital expenditures in Q2, primarily on GPUs and GPU-related hardware, as well as expanding its data center footprint. At the same time, the company’s adjusted net loss narrowed to $33.2 million, compared with $91.5 million in the year-ago quarter.

Looking ahead, Nebius reaffirmed its full-year 2026 financial guidance, targeting $7 billion to $9 billion in annualized run-rate revenue (ARR) and $3 billion to $3.4 billion in group revenue. Further, the company expects a group adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 40% and capital expenditures of $20 billion to $25 billion for the full year, underscoring the scale of investment it is making to expand alongside the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market.

Analysts continue to view Nebius favorably, even after the stock's remarkable rally. The AI infrastructure company currently holds a consensus "Moderate Buy" rating based on 17 analyst reviews, including 10 "Strong Buy" recommendations and seven "Hold" ratings. On average, Wall Street expects the stock to reach $282.85, implying 26.3% upside from current levels, while the highest target of $410 points to a potential gain of 83.1%.