July 2025’s Nasdaq-100 Winners: These 2 Stocks Crushed the Competition

Tech investors, take note—while the Nasdaq-100 churned through another volatile month, two names left the rest eating dust. No flukes, no meme hype—just pure performance.

Who dominated? The usual suspects? Think again.

These weren’t legacy giants clinging to relevance. They’re the disruptors quietly executing while Wall Street obsesses over Fed whispers and ‘macro headwinds’ (read: excuses for mediocre portfolios).

One surged on AI infrastructure demand—turns out the ‘overhyped’ narrative has legs. The other? A semiconductor play that sidestepped the sector’s inventory woes entirely. Numbers don’t lie: their gains lapped the index by a country mile.

Funny how real innovation still outperforms financial engineering. Maybe try buying that, hedge funds.

Image source: Getty Images.

Advanced Micro Devices

First up is(AMD -6.26%). This stock advanced by a staggering 29.5% in the month of July, topping all other companies within the Nasdaq-100, and bringing AMD shares back within range of the stock's all-time high.

The company designs and sells microprocessors, including graphics processing units (GPUs), which are integral to the growing artificial intelligence (AI) economy.

AMD shares surged in July as the company continues to enjoy strong momentum from its "Advancing AI" event held in June. There, the company announced a series of AI initiatives designed to challenge's control of the lucrative AI chips market.

Looking ahead, according to consensus estimates compiled by Yahoo! Finance, sell-side analysts expect AMD to generate $32.1 billion in revenue this year, up 24.5% from last year.

Synopsys

Next up is(SNPS -0.15%), which recorded a monthly return of 21.4%.

Synopsys is another company with DEEP ties to the AI economy. Its semiconductor design software is critical for chip designers like AMD and Nvidia. Consequently, investors are bullish on Synopsys' prospects. The company has averaged double-digit revenue growth over the last five years as demand for semiconductor design software has remained robust.

As for the future, analysts think there is plenty of additional growth ahead for the company. According to consensus estimates compiled by Yahoo! Finance, Synopsys is expected to report $7.4 billion in revenue this year, up 21% year over year.