Technology

For the S&P 500's software cohort, the defining question of 2026 is no longer whether artificial intelligence is interesting, but whether it is billable. After two years of demonstrations and pilots, investors want proof that AI features convert into paid, recurring revenue. Salesforce Inc …

When thousands of AI accelerators work together on a single model, the connections between them matter almost as much as the chips themselves. Networking has become a hidden constraint of the AI build-out, and it is where a distinct group of S&P 500 companies …

Much of the attention on the artificial-intelligence boom goes to the chips and the software, yet none of it works without a physical layer of connectors, cables and glass that carries power and data between millions of components. That is why Amphenol Corporation (NYSE:APH), …

For two years, investors have paid a premium for application-software companies on the promise that generative artificial intelligence would eventually show up in the accounts. In 2026 the S&P 500's software cohort is being asked to prove it. The AI monetisation question is easy …

Some S&P 500 companies are interesting less for their own products than for what their results reveal about everyone else.Payrollprocessors and IT-services firms sit in the flow of business spending: they get paid when companies employ people, run their back offices and fund technology …

Every AI chip begins life in a fabrication plant, and no fab runs without the machines that deposit, etch, pattern and inspect silicon at atomic scale. That makes semiconductor-equipment makers a leveraged, if less visible, bet on artificial intelligence, and it is why three …

The smartphone may be a mature product, but it still moves the S&P 500. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the index's largest members, so the health of iPhoneDemandfeeds directly into the benchmark, while a long chain of chip suppliers depends on the same …