Ideas
Memory supply sold out into 2028.
Memory remains a strong AI-infrastructure trade despite the Leopold blowup: SK hynix just reported record quarterly earnings but fell about 20% on fears that GPU/memory spending had peaked, while major investors doubled down at the lows. Ejaaz argues memory is physically supply-constrained, next year's memory supply is completely sold out, and demand extends into 2028, supporting Micron and SK hynix.
SanDisk's HBF backlog extends to 2027.
SanDisk has developed and dominates a new memory category called high bandwidth flash, aimed at inference workloads that are consuming hyperscaler capex. SanDisk already has orders or backlog through the end of 2027, creating a new revenue opportunity with unprecedented excess demand.
Google owns the full AI stack.
Google is the only company that owns or dominates the entire AI stack, including models, custom TPUs, distribution platforms like Search, Gmail, G Suite and Android, plus infrastructure and power. Berkshire added roughly $17 billion to Alphabet, and Google's capex spending is on track for around $250 billion this year with strong cloud margins and strong capital-return history.
SpaceX is AI data-center winner.
SpaceX is a consensus AI-infrastructure winner because it is expected to be one of the most valuable companies in the world, will buy Nvidia GPUs to power data centers, has Grok reaching the frontier, and is building out data center capacity. Gavin Baker's $4.7 billion SpaceX position was cited as a big win.
Power and optics interconnect trade.
Gavin Baker's biggest new focus is power and optics: as GPU counts explode, moving data between GPUs over copper becomes inefficient, and photonics/light-based interconnects become cheaper and faster. Coherent is a major photonics manufacturer up 85% year to date, GE Vernova provides related power/material exposure, and Astera Labs supplies interconnect plumbing between GPUs, making this a consensus infrastructure trade.
QQQ puts hedge AI book.
Gavin Baker holds a $2.3 billion QQQ put position as explicit portfolio insurance. The hedge is designed to protect the fund if the broad market drops while it remains concentrated in AI hardware and infrastructure.
Intel CPUs orchestrate AI GPUs.
Nvidia's $30 billion Intel stake makes sense because Intel builds bleeding-edge CPUs needed to orchestrate hundreds of thousands of GPUs and ensure AI agents make efficient, fast tool calls. Nvidia invested alongside the US government, and the CPU role in AI infrastructure is becoming more important.
Payment rails distribute AI inference.
Ejaaz argues AI plumbing will require payment rails to turn token spending into business intelligence. Visa and Mastercard are already integrated into companies' financial books and payment flows, potentially letting them distribute AI inference. He notes Stripe's acquisition of OpenRouter and frames this as an early, tinfoil-hat thesis but says the rails are positioned for it.
TSMC is AI picks and shovels.
TSMC is the picks-and-shovels AI-chip manufacturer: someone has to fabricate the chips, and TSMC is dominant at it. It is one of the most popular consensus positions among major funds, alongside Amazon and SpaceX.
AWS capex expands Amazon margins.
Amazon is a core AI winner because AWS under Andy Jassy is investing roughly $200 billion in AI capex while publicly reporting expanding AWS revenue and margins. Jassy ran AWS before becoming Amazon CEO and knows the infrastructure better than anyone, so Amazon is well positioned even as some funds trimmed and others bought.
This Bankless video, published August 18, 2026,
features Ejaaz Ahamadeen, Josh Kale
discussing MU, KS, SNDK, GOOGL, SPCX, GEV, ALAB, COHR, QQQ, INTC, MA, V, TSM, AMZN.
10 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers:
Ejaaz Ahamadeen,
Josh Kale
· Tickers:
MU,
KS,
SNDK,
GOOGL,
SPCX,
GEV,
ALAB,
COHR,
QQQ,
INTC,
MA,
V,
TSM,
AMZN
