These 3 AI Stocks Sold Off Hard—Even as Their Outlooks Improved

Key Points

• The recent AI sell-off has pushed several infrastructure names well below their 2026 highs, even as underlying demand remains strong.
• Some of the sharpest pullbacks have come in companies that recently raised guidance, creating a disconnect between price action and business momentum.
• Celestica, Penguin Solutions, and ACM Research each offer a different way to play that reset, with valuations now reflecting far more caution than they did earlier this year.

A sale usually spurs demand for products and services, but in markets it often has the opposite effect. When stocks go on sale, investors don’t shop; they flee the store, and this recent AI turbulence has sent many investors scrambling to take profits. But this drawdown has repriced several stocks with very visible revenue commitments through 2027 (and beyond). The result is a more attractive valuation for three stocks at different levels of the AI ecosystem, each backed by continued demand and stronger outlooks.

Why the AI Trade Is Wobbling Ahead of the Fed Decision

Forget AI for a minute; the entire market is starting to wobble. The Federal Reserve has raised rates for the first time since 2023 to combat a resurgent bout of inflation, and the 10-year Treasury yield reached its highest level since 2007 in the days before the Sept. 16 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Gas prices are soaring, mortgage rates are over 7%, and retail stocks are plunging faster than the Cowboys' Super Bowl odds.

Nervous sentiment has now trickled into the AI trade, and many of the largest builders are the ones pumping the brakes. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently penned a post calling for a slowdown in frontier capabilities so evaluators and governments can catch up and coordinate. Now, an industry leader asking the government to regulate its rivals is a tale as old as time, but public backlash against AI is growing. A recent YouGov poll showed 63% of Americans would oppose building a new data center in their community, and a majority of both AI users and non-users agree that data center construction contributes to rising energy prices.

Higher global yields and potential slowdowns in frontier AI training have hit the AI trade hard in recent months. The iShares Semiconductor ETF NASDAQ: SOXX is down more than 20% from its June 22 peak as investors price in slower demand for chips, compute, and infrastructure. But pledges and essays aren’t binding legislation, and none of these proposals target deployments or builds already contracted. In an environment where skepticism is prominent but regulatory action is minimal, these three stocks are best positioned to thrive.

3 AI Infrastructure Stocks That Recently Raised Guidance

The following three stocks all passed a multi-part screen: all currently trade at least 20% off their 2026 highs despite raising fiscal 2026 guidance in their most recent earnings report. Each now trades at a compressed multiple ahead of its next quarterly report, which is scheduled within the next six weeks.

Celestica: Institutional Entry Point Available for New Investors

Celestica Inc. NYSE: CLS operates in the systems segment of the AI trade, providing rack-scale compute and networking hardware for hyperscalers. The stock hit a new all-time high above $472 on June 2 and reported a record quarter when it released Q2 2026 results on July 28, including 62.4% year-over-year (YOY) revenue growth.

Management also raised guidance for the third time in 2026 and now projects full-year 2026 revenue of $20.5 billion and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $11.30. Fiscal 2027 revenue growth is also expected to expand beyond the 65% clip from 2026.

Despite the strong results, the stock faded over the summer, dropping from $472 to under $316 by Sept. 14. But now CLS trades at 28 times its full-year 2026 EPS guide, and the current market price is right around where institutions bought the company's $3.45 billion offering in August.

The current entry point is intriguing because the stock sits right at the 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which have converged toward a Death Cross as CLS shares declined. But now the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is back into bullish territory, and a break above the 50-day MA could reinvigorate buying activity.

Penguin Solutions: Enticing Valuation in the Memory Bottleneck

Memory has emerged as one of the biggest bottlenecks in the AI trade. Data centers need more memory to handle massive training workloads, and many memory producers are at capacity through 2027.

Penguin Solutions Inc. NASDAQ: PENG has benefited from the memory crunch, and its Q3 2026 results in July trounced expectations. The top- and bottom-line beats were impressive, but the AI-driven business more than doubled during the period and now accounts for more than 74% of sales. Management also raised guidance for full-year 2026 and 2027.

Penguin Solutions is becoming less reliant on hyperscaler capital as cloud and enterprise customer bases grow, and the stock now trades at about 25 times forward earnings and 14 times its implied 2027 EPS guide. The Q4 2026 report on Oct. 6 will provide more color on the fiscal 2027 outlook, but for now, the stock is nearly 40% off its record close from July 9.

The downswing has been fierce, but the bearish momentum is slowing ahead of the Oct. 6 earnings catalyst. The price has formed a double-bottom pattern between the 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which still indicates the long-term trend points upward. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator also suggests bearish momentum is weakening, and bears could be exiting the stock ahead of the Q4 report.

ACM Research: Export Control Risk Creates Upside Potential

ACM Research Inc. NASDAQ: ACMR has the highest risk/reward of our three selections because it relies on Chinese capacity buildout as a growth lever.

With export-control threats looming from the Trump administration, a company that derives more than 90% of its revenue from China is squarely in the crosshairs.

But the Q2 2026 report was stellar: first-half orders more than doubled YOY, and 2026 revenue expectations were raised to $1.125 billion to $1.175 billion.

And after a nearly 50% drawdown from its June 30 all-time high, the stock now trades at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 30, down from a P/E ratio of 42 earlier this summer.

China exposure adds significant risk, and with a beta of 1.96, the stock is the most volatile of the three. However, investors looking for a bottom may have gotten what they wanted. The stock’s downtrend was halted at the 200-day moving average, which also marks the low point from July. If the share price bounces off this level (and the RSI can get above 50), the stock’s rally could resume to close out the year.