What is the best performing S&P 500 stock so far this year? AI (artificial intelligence) chip champ Nvidia (NVDA:NASDAQ) maybe? Weight loss wonder Eli Lilly (LLY:NYSE) or bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy (MSTR:NASDAQ) perhaps? No, no, and no.

The gong goes to another AI story stock, Super Micro Computer (SMCI:NASDAQ), even after the past month’s 16% decline. Super Micro is finding a home in ever more investor portfolios thanks to its innovative, energy-efficient, liquid super-cooled servers and storage solutions.

The San Jose, California, company’s clever kit includes high-density servers and specialised hardware accelerators, as explained in Shares recent in-depth feature.

These are effectively processor-packed industrial super-computers with the capacity to rapidly acclerate certain functions on demand, perfect for new AI applications that need superfast access to enormous data sets.

Up 145% since the start of 2024, it one of just two stocks to run-up triple-digit gains this year – you can probably guess that Nvidia is the other (+127%).

Nothing company-specific is behind the recent stock drag, it’s more down to the wider market edging away from growth and risk assets in the wake of sky-high expectations for second-quarter earnings, which have been decent, if not knockout so far.

Super Micro reports its own fiscal Q4 earnings to end-June next week (6 Aug), presenting a great chance to address the market’s capricious enthusiasm.

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