Been looking at which stocks could still have room to run heading into the second half of 2026, and honestly, the AI infrastructure play is still far from over. Everyone talks about the obvious names, but there's a whole ecosystem of companies that most retail investors sleep on.

Let me break down my top 10 stocks worth watching right now. These aren't in any particular order, but if you're looking to build a solid watchlist, these are the ones I keep coming back to.

Obviously Nvidia has to be on any tech investor's radar. The chipmaker basically owns the GPU market and with hyperscalers still spending record amounts on data centers, that trend doesn't look like it's slowing down. They're projecting 3-4 trillion in global data center capex by 2030. If that holds, Nvidia stays a core holding.

Then there's AMD, which has been quietly making gains in the competitive landscape. Their data center revenue is accelerating and management is talking about 60% compound annual growth rates over the next five years. They're still playing catch-up to Nvidia but the gap is definitely narrowing.

Broadcom is doing something different though - instead of competing on general-purpose GPUs, they're building custom AI accelerators with hyperscalers. Their AI semiconductor revenue jumped 74% year over year and they're expecting over 100% growth this quarter. That's the kind of momentum worth paying attention to.

Taiwan Semiconductor is the quiet backbone of this whole thing. All these fabless chip companies need someone to actually manufacture their designs, and TSMC is basically the only game in town. As long as AI infrastructure spending keeps accelerating, Taiwan Semi prints money.

Alphabet has really positioned itself as a serious AI player. Gemini went from being the underdog to competing with the best in the space. Add in Google Search, Google Cloud, and their advertising business, and there's just not much to complain about here.

Meta got hammered after reporting heavy AI capex plans, but that's actually the wrong read. Their revenue grew 26% year over year in Q3, driven by AI improvements on their platforms. Every other megacap is spending just as much on AI infrastructure, so once investors realize that, the discount on Meta stock looks pretty attractive.

Amazon's stock barely moved in 2025 despite solid business fundamentals. Revenue growth at 13% in Q3, advertising and AWS both firing on all cylinders. If those segments continue to deliver in 2026, Amazon should have no problem regaining momentum.

PayPal is one I keep watching because it's been absolutely beaten down - down 30% in 2025. But the business is actually doing fine. Strong EPS growth, cheap valuation at 11.5x forward earnings, and active share buybacks. Sometimes the market just gets it wrong.

The Trade Desk had a rough transition to their new AI platform Kokai, which caused some client churn. But Wall Street is still modeling 16% revenue growth for 2026, and at 20x forward PE, that's a setup for potential outperformance if they execute.

Finally, MercadoLibre keeps doing what it does best - dominating Latin American e-commerce and fintech. Stock is down over 20% from its July highs even though it's still up for the year. History says these pullbacks have been great entry points.

Looking at this group of stocks for 2026, the common thread is that most of them got hit hard by market sentiment despite solid underlying business momentum. If you're building a stock advisor style top 10 for your own portfolio, these would be worth serious consideration. The AI infrastructure buildout is real and the top 10 stocks positioned to benefit from it aren't going anywhere.

The key is having a solid watchlist ready before the next move happens. Most of these have already been beaten down enough that the risk-reward looks favorable heading into the rest of 2026.