Israeli retail investors are swapping meme stocks for AI and semiconductor bets
A Calcalist analysis of leading holdings across six investment platforms shows a retreat from nuclear, quantum and crypto plays and a growing concentration around AI infrastructure, chipmakers and major U.S. indexes.
After suffering heavy losses on nuclear stocks, Bitcoin-related investments and other speculative favorites, Israeli retail investors appear to be changing direction. Small modular reactor companies, quantum computing stocks, crypto-linked funds and meme stocks that were popular among local investors a year ago are giving way to relatively more established investments, including chip giants, artificial intelligence companies and ETFs tracking major U.S. indexes.
That is the finding of a Calcalist analysis of the 10 stocks held in the largest volumes by retail investors at six investment houses and trading platforms to which private investors have increasingly flocked in recent years: Meitav, IBI, Interactive Israel, Altshuler Shaham, Psagot and Blink. The analysis compared the first halves of 2025 and 2026.
Retail investors have become an increasingly significant force in the Israeli stock market over the past two years. Hundreds of thousands of new accounts have been opened through investment houses and trading platforms, adding investors who actively influence market activity alongside institutional and foreign investors.
A retail investor is an individual who independently buys and sells securities such as stocks, bonds or ETFs for their own account, rather than through an institutional investor or company. According to stock exchange data, about 200,000 retail investment accounts were opened in 2025, and estimates put the total number of retail investors in Israel at nearly 1 million, roughly one in 10 citizens. They currently account for about 12% of trading volume on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Despite their growing influence on the local market, the Calcalist analysis shows that most of their investments are concentrated overseas. The data also points to a convergence around a relatively small group of technology companies and major U.S. indexes.
Nvidia is the only individual stock to appear among the leading holdings at all six investment houses in both periods. ETFs tracking broad indexes such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also feature prominently, forming the core of many retail investors' exposure to U.S. markets.
The most notable change over the past year is the growing concentration in semiconductor stocks. In 2025, Nvidia and AMD were the main chip stocks appearing prominently on the lists. In 2026, Micron, Intel and SanDisk joined them, alongside leveraged ETFs focused on the semiconductor industry.
The shift suggests that retail investors are increasingly building their portfolios around a single broad thesis: that continued investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure will drive sustained demand for computing power, semiconductors and memory.
Haim Kricheli, Psagot's vice president of trading, said: “ETFs occupy a central place in retail investors' portfolios, both in 2025 and 2026. Intel and Meta's entry into the top 10 illustrates the growing attraction to the technology sector. At the same time, the current composition of the portfolios indicates a slightly stronger preference for focused exposure to the U.S. market, with less emphasis on global diversification.”
There is, however, a clear distinction between different types of investors. Investment houses such as Meitav and Psagot show a stronger preference for broad ETFs, with exposure to AI coming primarily through indexes or major companies such as Nvidia and Microsoft. More active platforms, including IBI, Altshuler Shaham and Interactive Israel, show a greater willingness to take risks through individual semiconductor stocks, leveraged ETFs and other leveraged Nasdaq instruments.
IBI's research shows that newer accounts, regardless of the client's age, tend to trade more actively. The investment house attributes this to the fact that “the change is highly likely dependent on the degree of confidence that a client acquires over time.”
The change in portfolio composition is perhaps most striking in what has disappeared from the lists.
An examination of retail investors' holdings in 2025 found a series of speculative and hype-driven stocks that had attracted significant attention because of their potential to generate rapid returns. Companies such as Oklo and Nano Nuclear, which were presented as potential beneficiaries of a revolution in small modular nuclear reactors, disappeared from the leading holdings. So did Rigetti, one of the most prominent publicly traded quantum-computing companies, as well as Bitcoin-related miner BitMine, trading platform Robinhood and Opendoor, a meme stock that gained popularity among retail traders through viral posts online.
Retail investors also appear to have moved away from leveraged crypto vehicles such as BITX and ETHU, which provide leveraged exposure to Bitcoin and Ether, respectively, as well as MSTY, a fund linked to MicroStrategy, whose business is heavily tied to its Bitcoin holdings.
The common denominator among many of these investments was that they were driven largely by narratives and expectations about future growth rather than established business operations or profitability. Some remain promising companies, but they are still developing their technologies and carry substantially higher risks than established technology giants.
The retreat from these stocks did not happen in a vacuum. It followed steep declines in many of the investments that had attracted retail investors a year earlier.
The MicroStrategy-linked fund fell 74% over the 12-month period, the leveraged Ethereum fund declined 86%, and the leveraged Bitcoin fund fell 79%. Nano Nuclear lost more than half of its value, while Oklo dropped 48.5%. BitMine fell 46% and Robinhood declined 11%.
Taken together, the group of speculative stocks and instruments examined by Calcalist generated an average negative return of about 27% for retail investors over the past year.
The shift reinforces the traditional perception of retail investors as being drawn to investments that generate excitement and promise rapid gains, but also suggests that some investors are becoming more selective after being burned by speculative bets.
Avi Malka, CEO of Altshuler Shaham Trade, said: “It is true to say that there is a certain shift in investor preferences, but not necessarily toward more conservative investments. If in the first half of 2025 we saw a lot of interest in stocks that were perceived as ‘hype’ stocks, in the first half of 2026 we can see a greater focus on companies that benefit from long-term macro trends, primarily in the areas of chips and artificial intelligence.
“In other words, less pursuit of a specific story, and more an attempt to gain exposure to trends that are perceived as having significant growth potential over time.”
The change is particularly visible in the data from Interactive Israel, whose customer base is characterized by a relatively high proportion of younger investors compared with more established investment houses such as Meitav and IBI.
David Shem Tov, CEO of Interactive Israel, said: “The data reflects a change in the preferences of the Israeli investor, who is now looking not only for broad exposure to the American market, but also for more focused investment in areas that they identify as having growth potential, primarily artificial intelligence, chips and the infrastructure that supports them.
“The high presence of technology stocks indicates, on the one hand, a deeper familiarity with the market, and on the other, a willingness to take higher risk. We see a gradual process in which investors mature, learn and specialize, and are exposed to a wider variety of companies, sectors and investment vehicles. They do not abandon the broad indexes, but at the same time are trying to use them as a base while selecting more specifically the companies and areas they believe will lead the market in the coming years.”
The findings of the Calcalist analysis are consistent with research into retail-investor behavior. A study published in 2025 in the Journal of Financial Economics by Oksana Smirnova, based on trading data from a large brokerage, examined the phenomenon known as “reaching for yield”, the tendency to take on greater risk in pursuit of higher returns, particularly among younger investors with relatively little capital.
An international study published in May 2023 by the CFA Institute and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation found that 82% of Gen Z investors in the U.S. began investing before the age of 21, while 41% said that FOMO, or fear of missing out, was one factor that motivated them to enter the stock market.
That same fear can help explain the appeal of speculative stocks that promise to become the next big thing. But this time, Israeli retail investors appear to have shifted their bets from nuclear reactors, quantum computing and meme stocks toward a different narrative: the continued investment boom in artificial intelligence and the chips and infrastructure needed to power it.
The question is whether this represents a genuine maturation in retail-investor behavior or simply a change in the story. After the extraordinary gains recorded by some AI and semiconductor stocks, the same investors who moved away from yesterday's speculative favorites could eventually find themselves looking for an exit from today's favorites as well.
