Top 10 bought stocks: June 2026

Freetrade users’ most bought stocks from the last month include Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Micron Technology. Find out more about why investors might be so keen on chipmakers, and why we are seeing a noticeable US slant for the second month in a row. 

Remember that this list is not meant as investment advice. Instead, it is simply an insight into the most popular stocks on Freetrade right now.

Top traded stocks methodology: The rankings are based on the total executed value of buy orders placed by Freetrade customers from 1 May to 31 May 2026. The figures reflect buy-side activity only and do not account for sales, holding periods, or individual portfolio weightings.

Last month we commented on Freetrade users’ apparently bullish behaviour. Appetite for growth still appeared to be steering sentiment in May, but what else can the period’s top stocks tell us?

Chip habit

It’s no secret that chip stocks are in vogue right now, but Freetrade users’ top trades in May show even greater interest. Nvidia remains at the top of the pile, while fellow semiconductor specialists Micron and AMD edged higher up the rankings. 

More are jostling for space just outside the top 10, with Intel and Broadcom not lagging far behind.

Sustained investor interest comes after another earnings season has been and gone without much sign of flagging momentum among chipmakers. The latest earnings from sector bellwether Nvidia might not have been mind-blowing, but they still showed 85% YoY revenue growth.

The fact this level of growth didn’t wow investors shows just how much is expected of the sector.

The other side of the earnings coin is spending. Broadly, this is still accelerating across the board. For example, Alphabet boosted its CapEx guidance range to $180-$190bn as it cited “unprecedented internal and external demand for AI compute”.

Of course, it’s simplistic to look at the boom in semiconductors and AI infrastructure as equally beneficial for all market players. 

That’s because not every semiconductor stock is built the same. There is great variety in the components and hardware different companies specialise in, or the role they play in product creation and development. 

Micron, and its nous for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, is an example to draw from here. Highly data-intensive activities, like AI training and inference, place huge pressure on memory bandwidth, making traditional memory setups less suitable for the most demanding workloads.

This means this once relatively niche piece of hardware is now a must-have component for a rapidly growing industry. 

Other trends are emerging in the industry too. 

For example, there appears to be increasing demand for custom AI silicon. Firms are getting specific about what they want. Gone are the days when a supercomputer was a pile of PlayStation consoles taped together. 

Now, many of the big players want Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), that’s hardware designed to perform a particular task. This is more energy-efficient than a more generalised and flexible GPU, like the difference between painting a wall with a brush and a roller. 

In tandem with this, some hyperscalers are pushing ahead with vertical integration. 

Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta are all developing in-house silicon. Owning the whole onion could mean greater synergy between hardware and software, as well as reduced reliance on third-party chipmakers and designers. But it’s a space with high barriers to entry, and lightning-fast innovation.

Old economy

It’s now two months in a row that the top stocks list has been entirely monopolised by US-listed stocks. 

So, what’s behind the slant? After all, Freetrade users are UK residents. Shouldn’t the top 10 be packed to the rafters with homegrown heroes?

We don’t know for sure, but there are a few factors at play.

First, there’s that aforementioned chip stock chasing. 

US stocks are considerably more exposed to this action. Among the 20 largest semiconductor companies by market cap, zero are London-listed. Just one, Arm Holdings, is a UK business, and the firm’s stock trades on the US NASDAQ exchange. 

It’s a similar story in the broader tech space. The US has the Magnificent 7, a group of instantly recognisable megacap stocks. 

In contrast, the FTSE is dominated by financial services, consumer staples, industrials, miners, and pharmaceuticals. For many, the domestic market’s appeal lies in the potential for dividend income and the staying power of companies established over a century ago. 

But Freetrade users appear to currently see more appeal in the excitement and potential upside of the AI and tech growth story to the steady income these ‘old economy’ sectors might offer. 

Over the Winter there were whispered hopes of an injection of excitement into the LSE in 2026, with talk of an IPO revival. But just two companies have joined the main list so far this year. 

Structural differences might be the main cause of Freetrade users looking overseas, but it’s worth noting London may be dealing with bad optics from perceived political instability. In the face of such issues, US-listed shares offer exposure to USD, global growth themes, and companies less tied to the domestic economy.

For now, Freetrade users’ most-bought stocks suggest retail investors think the most compelling growth stories are on the other side of the Atlantic.