Corning vs. Applied Materials: One Stock Beat the Other by 75 Percentage Points. The Better AI Infrastructure Play Is Clear.

When it comes to profiting from the current AI boom, you don’t necessarily have to invest in the central players. Sure, the likes of Nvidia (NVDA), Micron (MU), and TSMC (TSM) are raking in the money and giving shareholders triple-digit returns.

But sometimes, the better opportunities lie with the companies serving as the foundation of the AI boom. The ones supplying the materials, equipment, and infrastructure that make up the rest of data centers. 

That brings us to an interesting matchup in that AI infrastructure play. One company is providing connectivity materials that all data centers need to move all their information across, well, everywhere, while the other supplies the equipment to the chipmakers themselves. 

Both companies are pillars of the AI boom, but they’re supporting different sides of the sector. 

So if you could only choose one, which would you pick? 

Let’s talk about it, starting with the first company. 

Corning (GLW)

Not to be confused with Owens Corning (OC), the building materials, insulation, and composite solutions company, Corning Inc. (GLW) is a materials science company that specializes in advanced glass, ceramics, and optical fiber. Its products are used in industries ranging from telecommunications to data centers, semiconductors, automotive, and certain consumer electronics. 

But right now, its biggest opportunity is the growing demand for high-speed optical connectivity in increasingly data-hungry data centers.

Think of it this way: data centers have the fastest and most advanced chips, memory, and server racks in tech today. But if they’re all connected through your standard Cat-6 Ethernet cable, all that computing power will run into a pretty serious bottleneck, like a 50-lane superhighway ending at a 4-lane exit. 

Management has expressed serious optimism about growth in that sector. According to EVP and CFO Ed Schlesinger in their Q2 2026 earnings call, “The portion of enterprise sales related to AI data centers nearly doubled in the quarter.”

Applied Materials (AMAT)

On the other hand, Applied Materials operates in a completely different part of the AI supply chain. The company is one of the world’s largest suppliers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, providing the machines and technology chipmakers use to build increasingly advanced chips.

Now, if that sounds familiar, well, that’s because those are the exact words many people would use to describe the more well-known ASML Holding (ASML). Both companies supply the equipment that TSMC, Samsung, and Intel (INTC) use to make their chips, but since most investors know ASML and not Applied Materials, that’s a bad sign for business. 

However, it would be a stretch to say that they’re competitors. Sure, there’s some overlap, but Applied Materials and ASML mostly operate in complementary roles within the foundry subsector, which means they’re both benefiting from the same AI boom without leeching off each other. 

So with their bona fides established, let’s see which company is better through price performance and valuations. 

Performance, Valuations, and Dividend, Comparison: Which One’s Better?

Here’s a snapshot of AMAT and GLW’s performance in the last year. 

As you can see, Applied Materials has outperformed Corning by over 75 percentage points. That’s largely because it has benefited more directly from the overall surge in semiconductor capital spending in the AI sector. 

Meanwhile, Corning’s AI opportunity is more concentrated in data center construction. That’s not to say that data center infrastructure is a small market; it’s just that Applied Materials’ exposure is on the broader chip demand side. 

This disparity is reflected in their market caps and financials, as seen here: 

From a purely financial standpoint, Applied Materials is the much larger and more profitable business. Its market cap is roughly $366 billion, compared with Corning’s $128 billion, while AMAT generates about $28.4 billion in annual sales and $7 billion in net income, versus Corning’s $15.6 billion in sales and $1.6 billion in net income.

That said, valuation complicates the story instead of reinforcing it. Corning trades at a lower valuation relative to its sales and book value, but investors are paying a higher premium for its earnings, suggesting the market has fairly high expectations for its future growth.

Applied Materials, while having higher price-to-sales and price-to-book ratios, maintains a lower forward price-to-earnings ratio, suggesting it may offer better value for its future growth. 

So right now, Applied Materials seems to have the stronger profile.

As for dividends, both companies offer relatively modest yields, though Corning offers slightly higher payouts at $1.12 per share per year, translating to around a yield of 0.73%. Meanwhile, Applied Materials pays $2.12 per share, translating to a yield of 0.44%. 

Overall, Applied Materials has the edge in size, business, and cash flow, while Corning pulls slightly ahead with its higher dividend yield. 

But let’s see if any of those numbers have affected Wall Street’s view of these two. 

Wall Street’s Choice

Right now, Corning is has a “Moderate Buy” rating from a consensus of 14 analysts, with an average score of 4.29 out of 5. 

However, Applied Materials has a “Strong Buy” rating, with an average score of 4.5 out of 5.

So Wall Street has given its answer. 

Final Thoughts

Overall, Applied Materials comes out ahead, offering the stronger combination of financial performance, valuation, AI exposure, and Wall Street sentiment. 

Corning is still an intriguing AI infrastructure play, particularly if demand for data-center connectivity continues accelerating, but if I had to pick just one between the two, AMAT stock looks like the better bet right now.