Artificial intelligence, crypto and big tech continued to dominate trading activity among UK users of Robinhood in August, with Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR), Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD) topping the platform’s most popular stocks list.
Shares in AMD, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, ETR:APC), SoFi Technologies and crypto-linked MARA also featured, as retail investors stuck with familiar growth themes despite growing market unease around valuations.
Robinhood’s top ten, based on the total value of buy trades in the month, shows a continued preference for high-beta, high-conviction names.
AI-linked stocks, in particular, retained a strong presence, despite signs of volatility creeping back into the sector.
“Another month, another big showing for AI, crypto and tech in general,” said Dan Lane, lead analyst at Robinhood UK.
Palantir saw strong demand early in the month after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter results and hitting all-time highs, but enthusiasm faded as concerns grew over its valuation.
A price-to-sales ratio above 100 and a cautious note from MIT questioning the revenue uplift from AI adoption across corporate America prompted a late pullback in the stock.
AMD was similarly volatile. The chipmaker announced plans, alongside NVIDIA, to remit 15% of revenue from Chinese sales to the US government in an attempt to work around recent export restrictions. The loss of its previous licence to export to China has weighed on data centre sales.
Meanwhile, NVIDIA confirmed it had sold no H20 processors to China-based clients in the latest quarter, though it still beat earnings and revenue expectations, with forecast quarterly sales growth remaining above 50%.
Nebius, a Dutch AI infrastructure company, climbed the rankings following strong second-quarter earnings and a guidance upgrade. However, broader market nervousness around AI valuations led to a more cautious tone in the second half of the month.
Tesla also remained in the top tier of trades, bolstered by renewed focus on its robotaxi business and plans for a new full self-driving model.
On the crypto side, MARA (formerly Marathon Digital) made the list as Bitcoin’s summer rally revived interest in miners and exchanges. The stock itself failed to keep pace, with July marking the recent peak.
SoFi Technologies gained traction after beating earnings expectations and raising guidance. A growing user base and increased profitability helped drive interest throughout August.
Apple saw renewed investor interest after announcing it would increase its US manufacturing spend to $600 billion over four years, with 20,000 direct hires. The focus now turns to September’s iPhone 17 launch and any meaningful AI enhancements to its products.
UnitedHealth rounded out the list, with shares bouncing on news that Warren Buffett had acquired more than 5 million shares in the second quarter.
The stock has had a rough 2025, but the Berkshire Hathaway endorsement gave it its best one-day performance since before the pandemic.