Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTJames Brumley, The Motley FoolSun, July 26, 2026 at 8:50 PM GMT+2 5 min readIt's pretty much impossible for investors not to have noticed that technology stocks -- and artificial intelligence (AI) stocks in particular -- have dominated the headlines for a while now. You may even own a couple of these names.Smart investors know, however, that headlines are often backward-looking. If you really want your portfolio to grow, you need to step into the market's next top opportunities before the rest of the crowd discovers them.Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »To this end (and after a fairly lengthy period of just so-so performance), a handful of industrial stocks look primed for above-average results. Here's a closer look at two of this sector's best bets right now.Image source: Getty Images.Making a quick review of Vertiv Holdings' (NYSE: VRT) portfolio of products is indeed a boring endeavor. Industrial-scale power supplies, high-capacity HVAC solutions, and facilities-monitoring tech of all types just aren't exciting.Now dig deeper and look at who this company's top customers are right now, and will be for the foreseeable future. That's artificial intelligence data center owners and operators who need to make the most efficient use of whatever electricity they can get, and then deal with the enormous heat AI accelerators generate -- two challenges the modern AI industry wasn't fully prepared to tackle in its infancy.And the numbers prove as much. Vertiv's Q1 revenue grew 30% year over year to $2.65 billion because, in CEO Giordano Albertazzi's words, "We're seeing data center infrastructure requirements evolve significantly, with customers prioritizing optimized design, deployment speed, and operational efficiency -- reshaping their approach to deployment." The company is guiding for comparable sales growth through the rest of the year as well.The underlying opportunity, however, is far greater in its scope and duration. The data center cooling market is likely to grow at an average annual pace of nearly 12% through 2035, according to an outlook from Precedence Research, which adds that the power management aspect of the business is expected to grow at a slower but steady yearly average of 7% for the same time frame. With partnerships like its one with Nvidia to develop the 800-volt DC (direct current) platforms that are increasingly in demand (due to their heightened efficiency), in addition to its liquid-cooling tech that reduces the consumption of cooling energy by up to 80% (because it makes direct contact with AI processing chips), Vertiv is quietly positioned to win a lot of this growth.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info