Ten large-cap stocks experienced significant declines during the week of May 25-29, 2026. Zscaler led losses with a 20.06% drop following disappointing Q3 results and weak Q4 guidance. Other major losers included Boston Scientific (16.95%), AutoZone (14.21%), Regencell Bioscience (12.61%), and Venture Global (10.87%). Declines were attributed to earnings misses, analyst downgrades, and energy sector weakness following geopolitical developments.

Lumentum Holdings and Applied Materials have significantly outperformed Nvidia in 2026, with gains of 121% and 67% respectively. Both companies benefit from massive AI infrastructure investments. Lumentum's optical components enable high-speed data center connectivity, with revenue up 72% year-over-year. Applied Materials supplies semiconductor manufacturing equipment with accelerating growth expected to continue, with earnings projected to jump 36% in the current quarter.

Hedge fund manager Gavin Baker identifies a valuation inefficiency in AI stocks, arguing that memory chips (Micron, SanDisk) and Nvidia are undervalued while optical stocks (Lumentum, Coherent) are overvalued based on multiple expansion. Baker suggests that if the AI cycle continues uniformly across sectors, cheaper stocks should outperform expensive ones over the long term.

Rising effectiveness of artificial intelligence is driving positive momentum for Lumentum stock. The company, described as one of the most innovative in the world, is benefiting from the AI boom and blowout earnings trends in the technology sector.

Lumentum (LITE) has gained significant investor attention as data centers become more complex and the company's importance in the AI infrastructure space increases. The stock has surged 169% in 2026, riding the wave of the AI supercycle beyond memory chips.

Lumentum (LITE) is highlighted as an innovative company with soaring demand, positioned as a 'picks and shovels' AI growth stock. The company has gained 169% in 2026 and is riding the next wave of the AI supercycle beyond memory chips. Management is optimistic about the company's prospects.

Nvidia's Q1 2026 13F filing reveals strategic investments in semiconductor and cloud companies, though some announced investments don't appear due to different security structures. The company significantly increased its CoreWeave holdings to $3.657 billion (95% increase in shares), made equal $2 billion investments in both CoreWeave and Nebius, and invested in Coherent for optical networking. Nvidia also made a small $10.4 million biotech investment in Generate Biomedicines.

Poet Technologies stock fell 8.02% to $13.07 after completing a $400 million registered direct offering priced at $21 per share. While management capitalized on elevated stock prices to raise capital for AI photonic interconnect manufacturing, the offering sparked dilution concerns among existing shareholders. The broader market declined with the S&P 500 down 0.65% and Nasdaq down 0.84%.

Poet Technologies is developing optical interconnects for AI data centers with access to a potential $146 billion market opportunity by 2040. However, despite the massive addressable market and a $500 million deal with Lumilens, the company's stock is overvalued relative to its current $1.1 million in annual sales and early-stage commercialization status. Larger competitors like Broadcom, Cisco, and Marvell have entrenched positions that make it difficult for Poet to capture significant market share.

Nvidia, currently the world's most valuable company at $5.5 trillion market cap, is predicted to reach approximately $430 per share by end of 2028, implying a $10.5 trillion valuation. The analyst believes Nvidia will expand beyond being a GPU provider to become an end-to-end AI infrastructure platform through strategic investments in data centers, photonics, and wireless networks. These multibillion-dollar investments in companies like CoreWeave, Lumentum, Coherent, and Nokia are expected to lock in demand and secure premium pricing across the AI infrastructure stack.

Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness LP fund has doubled its equity exposure to $13.68B, positioning heavily in physical AI infrastructure and energy suppliers while hedging semiconductor exposure. The fund's thesis argues that power and electricity, not chips, represent the real bottleneck for AI scaling. The portfolio employs a barbell strategy: aggressive longs in energy infrastructure (Bloom Energy, Bitcoin miners turned AI operators) and optical components, combined with significant put hedges on semiconductor names to protect against potential sector rotation.

As AI systems scale, optical networking is emerging as a critical infrastructure layer. Lumentum, which develops optical and photonic technologies for data transmission, is positioned to benefit from this shift. The company reported 90% YoY revenue growth to $808M in Q3 FY2026 and guided for $1B in Q4 revenue. While AI infrastructure stocks have already rallied significantly, optical networking may become foundational to future AI data centers, potentially creating long-term opportunities.