Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang demonstrated “Blackwell” at a previous event at the Computex Forum in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 2, 2024.
Wang An | Reuters
NVIDIA Shares surged 25% last month and are nearing record levels ahead of tech earnings season in the coming weeks, when top clients like Yuan, Microsoft and letter Shareholders will be updated on their anticipated investments in artificial intelligence.
Nvidia has rebounded significantly following a brief but sharp decline in late August and early September. The stock fell slightly on Wednesday to around $132, just below its closing high of $135.58 set in July. Nvidia has surpassed Microsoft to become the second most valuable company, behind apple.
Nvidia is the biggest beneficiary of the artificial intelligence boom, including YuanOpenAI, Alphabet, Microsoft and Oracle Continue to launch technologies and products that require significant investment in their graphics processing units (GPUs).
In August, Nvidia announced its second-quarter financial results, with revenue increasing 122% year-on-year and net profit more than doubling to $16.6 billion. The company also gave stronger-than-expected guidance for the quarter and said it expected to ship billions of dollars’ worth of new Blackwell AI chips. Demand is so high that Nvidia expects shipments of its current-generation Hopper chips to increase over the next two quarters.
“We believe NVDA remains a leader in AI training and inference chips for data center applications. Mizuho Analysts said in a note on Wednesday that they estimate the company has about 95% of the market. Analysts have a price target of $140 on the stock, but point to risks such as possible escalation of export restrictions to China, geopolitical tensions in Taiwan or a sharp reduction in spending on artificial intelligence servers.
“Everybody wants to have the most, everybody wants to be first,” CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said of the “insane” demand for Blackwell chips in an interview on CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” last week. Costs range from $30,000 to $40,000 and are expected to rise in the fourth quarter and continue through fiscal 2026.
The stock rose for other reasons last month, too. On September 23, Nvidia’s stock price rose 4% after a document showed that Huang completed the sale of the company’s shares.
—CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
watch: CNBC’s full interview with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang