Hot-Money Cycle Shifts From Crypto to AI Infrastructure and Memory Chips

The latest capital rotation began with Bitcoin's rise from about $15,000 in November 2022 to nearly $126,000 in October 2025, followed by gold's move above $5,200 an ounce in February 2026. As momentum in both assets weakened, investors did not abandon the AI theme. Instead, they shifted away from large technology platforms toward providers of computing power, memory and data centers.

CoinDesk reported on June 18, 2026, that Bitcoin was about 50% below its October peak, while Microsoft and Meta had fallen 33% and 28%, respectively. Sandisk had gained about 800% that year, while Micron had risen 230%. As of June 18, SpaceX's IPO had raised $75 billion, and markets expected potential listings by OpenAI and Anthropic to draw the next wave of speculative capital.