On November 5, the Nasdaq had its worst day in 19 months. Nvidia fell 9.3%, AMD fell 17%, and Reuters estimated about $2.5 trillion of Nasdaq 100 market value vanished in one session. Nothing happened to Nvidia’s business that day. Investors simply started asking a question they had been avoiding: how long can companies keep spending this much to build AI data centers, and who pays for it?
That question got louder after the November 3 midterms put Democrats in control of both the House and Senate. A bipartisan bill aimed at protecting households from data center power costs now has an uncertain path, and data center electricity bills have become a political issue in both parties.
I don’t know whether the buildout slows next quarter or next decade. So in this piece, I’m looking at a different group: businesses that make money when AI gets used, and that would be fine, maybe better off, if the building slowed down.
One honest warning up front. The obvious answer here is “software,” and the market has spent all of 2026 punishing software stocks on fears that AI will eat them. So most of my picks aren’t software at all. They’re toll collectors.