Philadelphia Semiconductor Index Soars 79.3% in 2026, Topping Dot-Com Era Rally

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) surged 79.3% through its first 100 trading days of 2026, eclipsing its 62% gain in 1995 during the early dot-com bubble, as demand for server CPUs roars back for AI workloads. Intel (INTC) led all 30 index components with a 230% jump, as agentic AI and inference tasks reignite CPU demand. Micron Technology (MU) soared 225%, its market value topping $1 trillion on May 26, fueled by memory chip shortages. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) rose 131%, breaking an $800 billion market cap and overtaking JPMorgan Chase as the 13th-largest U.S. firm on May 27. Even Nvidia (NVDA), the index’s worst performer, gained 14%. All index members rose over 10%, easily outpacing the S&P 500’s 9.9% advance. Analysts see further upside, with cloud giants’ AI infrastructure spending projected near $700 billion this year.