--- title: "The 2026 Market Grab-Bag: AI Grifters, Hardware Winners, and a Chicken Joint" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/292297599.md" description: "This miscellaneous stock group reflects the sheer absurdity of the 2026 market. From the AI narratives pushed by Baidu and Rackspace to Fabrinet’s quiet hardware dominance and a collapsing chicken restaurant, investors' manic and rational behaviors collide here." datetime: "2026-07-10T09:12:50.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/292297599.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/292297599.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/292297599.md) --- # The 2026 Market Grab-Bag: AI Grifters, Hardware Winners, and a Chicken Joint I have covered the tech industry for decades, and every now and then the market spits out a completely random grab-bag of stocks that perfectly encapsulates the current zeitgeist. This so-called "miscellaneous" group is one of those moments. We have desperate AI pivots, quiet hardware winners, and literally a Malaysian chicken restaurant. This is stupid and here's why. Let's start with the companies still selling the artificial intelligence dream. **Baidu (BIDU.US)** recently trotted out the narrative that its Q1 2026 core AI revenue finally surpassed half of its total business. Robin, that is a nice story, but your robotaxis and chip developments are burning cash faster than you can count it. Meanwhile, **Rackspace Technology (RXT.US)** is far less elegant. This legacy cloud player recently announced partnerships with Palantir and AMD for AI compute, sending its stock to a four-year high in July. Clinging to the coattails of actual tech giants is a survival strategy, but do you have any real moat left? Good luck with that. The companies actually making money right now are the unsexy picks. Look at **Fabrinet (FN.US)**. This optical packaging company quietly raked in a record **USD 1.21B** in Q3 2026 revenue. While Silicon Valley CEOs are on stage philosophizing about AGI, Fabrinet is in the back room counting its cash. The same goes for **Ichor Holdings (ICHR.US)**, which makes fluid delivery subsystems for semiconductor equipment. They easily beat Q1 estimates with **USD 256M** in revenue and have been outperforming the sector. Why aren't more of you focusing on building solid hardware like this? Over in the software and security aisle, things are a mess. **Duolingo (DUOL.US)** has spent this year prioritizing free users with new chess and music courses. Even though they grew Q1 2026 revenue by 27% to **USD 292M**, management signaled they would sacrifice short-term profits for user growth, causing the stock to drop nearly 12% in July. Luis, Wall Street does not have the patience for your language games. Conversely, cybersecurity upstart **Rubrik (RBRK.US)** just bought Strata.io in June 2026. Their revenue surged 46% over the past year, and while they aren't profitable yet, they are at least building a real identity security business. Finally, we have to talk about the absolute absurdity at the bottom of this barrel. **UP Fintech (TIGR.US)** managed to pull in **USD 154.9M** in Q1 revenue—up 26.3%—proving that people are still trading despite the gloom. If you are bored of equities, there is **Sprott Physical Copper Trust (SCOP.US)**, which listed on the NYSE in May 2026 and is raising USD 500M to hoard actual copper like it's the gold rush. And then there is **CCH Holdings (CCHH.US)**, a Malaysian chicken hotpot restaurant that went public late last year and has since seen its valuation utterly decimated. Welcome to 2026: we've got copper hoarders, AI wannabes, and fried chicken. If you take away anything from this chaotic mix, my view is clear: ignore the flashy AI narratives and focus on the unsexy infrastructure companies like Fabrinet actually doing the work. Less storytelling, more cash flow. _This article does not constitute investment advice._ ### Related Stocks - [RBRK.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/RBRK.US.md) - [DUOL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DUOL.US.md) - [RXT.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/RXT.US.md) - [SCOP.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SCOP.US.md) - [ICHR.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/ICHR.US.md) - [BIDU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BIDU.US.md) - [CCHH.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CCHH.US.md) - [TIGR.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TIGR.US.md) - [FN.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/FN.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [The AI Inflection Is Likely to Support a Re-Rating of Baidu Stock](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293253766.md) - [Sei Investments Co. Increases Holdings in Fabrinet $FN](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293841265.md) - [Fabrinet (FN) Falls 17% In A Month, Is It Cheap Or Fully Valued?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293649053.md) - [Militia Capital Management LLC Takes Position in Duolingo, Inc. $DUOL](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293742844.md) - [CCH Holdings prices private placement of up to 15,000,000 Class A shares at $0.28 each](https://longbridge.com/en/news/294114064.md)