Just Capital and CNBC Release 2026 Rankings of America's Largest Public Companies

• Nvidia is projecting a trillion-dollar chip market while the AI industry shifts focus from training giant models to inference, robotics, and real-world deployment at GTC 2026 in San Jose. • CEO Jensen Huang spotlighted new systems and platforms aimed at industrial use cases and physical AI applications, signaling that commercial viability increasingly depends on inference economics and enterprise adoption. • The market shift reflects where spending is heading: training remains critical, but applied AI and infrastructure orchestration are becoming more investable than generic model-building pitches.

• Anthropic released Claude Cowork on macOS, bringing agentic AI capabilities to everyday knowledge work beyond developer-focused tools and enabling multi-step task automation. • Agentic AI systems can plan, execute, and complete multi-step tasks without constant human intervention, representing a significant capability leap in AI assistant functionality. • Claude Cowork democratizes agentic capabilities for non-technical users, expanding the potential market for advanced AI assistants in office productivity and knowledge work.

• Ondas Holdings, Nvidia, and Accenture are among the best-performing tech stocks this week according to Wall Street analyst ratings, with Ondas up 3.64%, Nvidia up 1.65%, and Accenture up 1.35%. • The strength in these stocks reflects investor confidence in AI infrastructure (Nvidia), enterprise AI services (Accenture), and specialized communications technology (Ondas Holdings). • Tech sector momentum continues amid optimism about AI deployment and enterprise technology spending across multiple verticals.

• Meta announced a $12 billion compute purchase commitment from Nebius on March 16, 2026, fueling its AI infrastructure expansion amid operational restructuring. • The deal supports Meta's aggressive push into enterprise and consumer AI needs, complementing planned staff reductions for efficiency. • This underscores intensifying compute hunger among U.S. tech giants, driving demand for specialized AI cloud providers.

• Industrial robotics startup RoboForce secured $52 million in an oversubscribed funding round on March 16, 2026, boosting its total funding to $67 million. • The capital targets deployment of AI-powered robots to address growing labor shortages in dirty and dangerous industrial tasks across U.S. manufacturing. • Funding reflects surging investor interest in automation solutions amid acute workforce gaps in sectors like warehousing and heavy industry.

• Advantech, a global leader in IoT intelligent systems and embedded platforms, is demonstrating next-generation edge AI platforms powered by NVIDIA Jetson Thor and NVIDIA IGX Thor at GTC 2026 (March 16-19 in San Jose, California). • The company is highlighting real-world applications of physical AI across robotics, medical systems, smart logistics, and intelligent retail environments, including the USM-500 medical-grade platform optimized for AI-assisted surgery and intraoperative imaging. • Advantech's showcase reflects the industry's shift from cloud-based model training toward physical AI applications and edge deployment, enabling faster commercialization of AI technologies across industrial and healthcare sectors.

• Two key Democratic lawmakers have raised national security concerns about the Trump administration's approval for exports of Nvidia chips to China, warning that the move risks harming U.S. technological leadership. • The legislators are calling for bipartisan legislation to prevent American technology from reaching Chinese hands and being used improperly, echoing broader concerns about technology transfer and competitive advantages in AI computing. • Nvidia has pushed back against criticism of the Trump administration's export approval decision, defending the company's position on international trade and technology availability.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang introduced the BlueField-4 STX storage infrastructure and new Vera CPU at the company's GTC conference in California on March 16, with the Vera CPU delivering twice the efficiency and 50% faster performance than traditional processors. • The Vera Rubin AI platform now has seven new chips in full production destined for the world's largest AI factories, alongside a preview of DLSS 5, described as Nvidia's most significant graphics breakthrough since real-time ray tracing in 2018. • Growing public skepticism about AI adoption is emerging, with a Pew Research Centre poll showing 50% of US adults feel more concerned than excited about increased AI in daily life, up from 37% in 2021.

• Research firm IDC significantly lowered its 2026 PC shipment forecast to an 11.3% decline, compared to the previous projection of a 2.4% drop, driven by ongoing memory shortages, rising component costs, and supply chain disruptions expected to persist into 2027. • Tablet shipments are also expected to fall 7.6% in 2026, though the overall market value is projected to increase slightly as higher component costs drive up per-unit prices for computers and devices. • IDC predicts that truly inexpensive computers will become rarer as the industry adapts to a new normal with elevated component pricing, fundamentally changing the affordable computing landscape.

• The U.S. Department of Defense designated Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance (Q-BID) as one of six critical technology areas in November 2025, with the Quantum Applications Program receiving $59.5 million in the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. • Quantum computing, sensing, and networking have advanced at the research level, but substantial gaps remain between laboratory demonstrations and industrial deployment, particularly in miniaturization, durability, and production cost reduction for quantum sensors. • The United States maintains classical computing leadership but faces gaps in quantum-supercomputer deployment compared to international competitors, with Europe and Japan reaching operational quantum-supercomputer deployment stages that U.S. initiatives have not yet achieved.

• Technology stocks surged on March 16 as inflation fears subsided, with the SPDR Select Sector Technology ETF rising nearly 2%, though it remains down year-to-date amid ongoing doubts about AI boom sustainability. • Micron Technology shares rallied after announcing plans to build a second manufacturing site in Taiwan to produce high-demand AI memory products, while Nebius signed a five-year, $27 billion deal with Meta to supply AI infrastructure capacity. • Cybersecurity experts warn that data breaches and hacking tactics have become weapons of war alongside traditional military hardware, raising risks for civilian companies caught in cross-fire.