UAE Traders Pivot to AI Infrastructure as Software Holdings Drop

Traders on the etoro platform in the UAE moved heavily into companies building the physical backbone of artificial intelligence during the third quarter of 2026, according to platform data released by the trading app.

Oracle saw the largest increase, with the number of UAE users holding the stock rising 86% quarter-on-quarter. Grab Holdings followed with an 83% jump, while memory and storage manufacturer Sandisk climbed 56%.

Chip and memory providers appeared lower on the risers list as well. Broadcom ranked seventh with a 22% increase and Micron Technology ninth with 20%. Space ventures Rocket Lab and SpaceX took fifth and sixth place, while Nike, Trade Desk, and Uber rounded out the top ten.

"UAE investors are following the AI money to where it's actually being spent, and Oracle has become one of the clearest ways to own that build-out," said Josh Gilbert, lead analyst for Asia Pacific and Middle East at etoro.

Oracle reported more than $30 billion in additional AI cloud contracts during its fiscal first quarter, announced in September. Gilbert pointed to Broadcom, Sandisk, and Micron as evidence that regional investors are looking beyond the best-known AI names to the suppliers of chips, memory, and storage that AI workloads require.

At the opposite end of the table, customer experience software company NiCE saw the steepest decline, with holders down 84%. Cosmetics brand e.l.f. Beauty matched that drop, and website builder Wix.com fell 77%. Accenture, Salesforce, and Duolingo also ranked among the ten largest fallers.

"Half of the UAE's biggest fallers sell something AI is quickly learning to do on its own, from building a website with Wix to learning a language with Duolingo, and investors in the region have stopped giving those businesses the benefit of the doubt," Gilbert said.

In his assessment, companies such as Salesforce, NiCE, and Accenture will need to demonstrate AI as a genuine source of new revenue in their results before sentiment improves.

Consumer-facing stocks moved in both directions. Nike rose to fourth among the risers after its shares fell to a 12-year low, while e.l.f. Beauty sat second among the fallers.

Gilbert interpreted this as investors judging individual businesses rather than the sector as a whole.

Nvidia remained the most widely held stock among etoro users in the UAE. Amazon climbed from third to second and Tesla from fourth to third, while Microsoft slipped from second to fourth.

Apple, Meta, and Alphabet held fifth, sixth, and seventh positions. Alibaba moved up to eighth in place of Strategy Inc, and Nio stayed tenth.

The data covers funded accounts of etoro users in the UAE and was accurate after market close on 30 September 2026.