Nvidia stock (NVDA) is on track to notch a record high as investors continue to bet on the artificial intelligence boom, placing the chipmaker in contention for the top spot as Wall Street's most valuable company.
Shares rose over 3% in morning trading Monday to above $138. Nvidia previously hit a record closing price of $135.58 in June.
Nvidia stock has risen sharply in October, at one point posting six consecutive days of gains.
The stock’s climb began Oct. 2 following the announcement of a massive $6.6 billion funding round for ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Much of that funding will be funneled back to Nvidia, as OpenAI's growing energy demands will require more of its AI chips.
Nvidia shares continued their upward trajectory, fueled by an abundance of good news for the AI chipmaker. Wall Street analysts last week reiterated their Buy ratings on Nvidia shares. KeyBanc released a report estimating that Nvidia revenues from its new Blackwell chips alone will reach $7 billion in the fourth quarter, while demand for its older GPUs “remains extremely robust.” A potential new wave of funding for AI startups would add to Nvidia’s coffers as well, Wedbush analysts said Tuesday.
Nvidia also showcased the strength of its software offerings during its AI Summit in Washington, D.C. The same day, Nvidia and Foxconn announced plans to build Taiwan’s largest supercomputer during Foxconn’s annual technology showcase event in Taipei. Foxconn also provided details about a megafactory it’s building to assemble Nvidia servers using its Grace Blackwell chips in Mexico, reducing Nvidia’s reliance on China amid heightened trade tensions.
Nvidia's gains on Monday also put it closer to unseating Apple as the world's most valuable company. The chipmaker's market cap stood at $3.4 trillion Monday morning, while Apple's was $3.5 trillion. Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia have traded places as the top three companies over the past year.
Nvidia’s ascent has more than reversed earlier declines following the release of the company’s second quarter earnings.
Shares sank in late August after Nvidia failed to beat analyst expectations as much as investors had hoped. They fell further on a Bloomberg report that the company was subpoenaed by the US Department of Justice in early September, which Nvidia denied. Fears of disruptions to demand from China due to rising trade tensions with the US had also driven shares down. Nvidia’s recent volatility has been amplified by its 10-for-1 stock split in June.
Other recent positive news in the semiconductor sector could aid Nvidia's rise. TSMC (TSM), one of Nvidia's chip manufacturers, reported sales above Wall Street's expectations — another indication that AI demand will stay strong in the near term.
“AI is hot,” Patrick Moorhead, CEO of Moor Insights and Strategy, told Yahoo Finance, adding, “I see continued growth in the AI data center trades for the next 12 months.”
The chip sector's gains signal that Big Tech’s massive spending on AI hardware is far from finished, despite fears on Wall Street of a slowdown.
Semiconductor industry sales rose 28% in August from the prior year and 15% from July, according to the most recent WSTS data reviewed by JPMorgan (JPM). Young Liu, the chair of Nvidia’s server manufacturer Foxconn (2354.TW), told Bloomberg Television in an interview Tuesday that the company is boosting capacity to meet “crazy” demand for Nvidia AI chips, or GPUs. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last week in a CNBC interview that demand for Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips has been “insane.”
Nvidia is set to report earnings on Nov. 19. Wall Street analysts expect the company to report revenues of $33 billion, up 82% from the prior year, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates. Some 90% of Wall Street analysts covering the stock tracked by Bloomberg recommend buying Nvidia shares.
Laura Bratton is a reporter for Yahoo Finance.
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