Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again.<\/strong>\u00a0In 2009, a “Double Down” signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia.\u00a0For the first time in years, that same “Total Conviction” signal is flashing for a company 1\/100th the size of Nvidia.\u00a0Continue \u00bb<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Inference spending will take over <\/p>\n To understand why, it’s important to differentiate between inference spending and data center infrastructure spending. The two are obviously linked — you can’t have one without the other — but the reality is that infrastructure spending is booming now as hyperscalers rush to build it to support growth in the future. You can think of this spending as AI’s capital budget for building data centers and training models.<\/p>\n In comparison, inference spending (running AI models for real-world use) can be considered an ongoing operating cost. After the infrastructure is initially built out, inference will likely account for the majority of spending, above that for maintenance and growth.<\/p>\n But inference spending is power hungry, needs thermal management, and will inevitably scale up over time. That’s great news for power semiconductor companies, including Nvidia<\/strong> partner ON Semiconductor.<\/p>\n To be clear, the company benefits from expenditures on data center infrastructure and inference, but it’s the latter that will really drive its long-term profits.<\/p>\n ON Semiconductor is ideally placed <\/p>\n The company is best known for its power and sensing chips for the electric vehicle (EV) and industrial markets. They are attractive enough in their own right. And I selected the company as my top stock to buy for 2026<\/a> on the basis that its EV market would pass a point of inflection while its industrial end markets are also slowly improving. Those things happened, and the company is back on the growth track now.<\/p>\n However, its fast-growing data center revenue (up 30% in the first quarter, and equivalent to $250 million on $6 billion in sales in 2025) could be the key to the next stage of the company’s multiyear expansion. It’s an opportunity driven by the ability to provide power technology for both the new generation of data centers with Nvidia<\/a> and diverse environments, including hyperscaler data centers, businesses, and edge inference. The latter means inference close to the data source, such as EVs and autonomous driving, smart manufacturing, healthcare diagnostics, and the like.<\/p>\n While EV and industrial automation still dominate ON Semiconductor’s near-term prospects, it won’t take long for the growth rates the company is achieving in its data center business to make it a major driver of growth.<\/p>\n CEO Hassane El-Khoury now expects the company’s data center growth to “double year over year in 2026,” implying about $500 million in revenue for 2026, compared to Wall Street expectations for $6.47 billion in revenue overall in 2026. At this rate, and assuming long-term demand for inference is coming, the market could be underestimating the stock’s potential.<\/p>\n Should you buy stock in ON Semiconductor right now? <\/p>\n Before you buy stock in ON Semiconductor, consider this:<\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a><\/strong> for investors to buy now\u2026 and ON Semiconductor wasn\u2019t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n Consider when Netflix<\/strong> made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you\u2019d have $417,305<\/strong>!* Or when Nvidia<\/strong> made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you\u2019d have $1,293,148<\/strong>!*<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor\u2019s total average return is 936% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 209% for the S&P 500.\u00a0Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.<\/strong><\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of June 20, 2026. <\/p>\n Lee Samaha<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends ON Semiconductor. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image source: Getty Images. Where next for ON Semiconductor <\/p>\n