NVDA is the stock symbol for the Nvidia Corporation, an American company with headquarters in Delaware. Nvidia Corporation makes semiconductor chips and graphic cards for computers. The company has expanded its footprint in the gaming and professional markets through its graphics processing units (GPUs), which have also found applications in cryptocurrency mining. The GPUs are also used in the entertainment industry, in media, manufacturing design, engineering, and construction.
Nvidia’s shares crossed the $1,150 mark on May 29, 2024 and its announcement of a 10-for-1 share split is likely to spur the company’s value further up, as more retail investors will be able to afford to buy. As of this writing, Nvidia’s market cap is at $2.7 trillion, more than twice the value of Meta ($1.1 trillion) and equivalent to the combined market caps of Amazon ($1.874 trillion) and Berkshire Hathaway ($874 billion).
NVIDIA reported revenue for the first quarter 2025 (period ended April 28, 2024) of $26.0 billion, representing a jump of 18% from the previous quarter, and beating the consensus forecast figure of $24.65. That translated to a 628 percent jump in revenue over a similar period in 2023. It also reported Net Income of $14.88 billion, up from $2.08 billion in last year’s first quarter. Earnings per share came in at $6.12, shattering analysts’ forecast of $5.60.
As a matter of fact, AI and gaming have swapped position. NVIDIA’s AI-intensive datacenter brought in $22.6 billion in the last quarter, up from $1.1 billion in 2020-a 20-fold increase in just four years!
Also, NVIDIA’s strategy of developing products targeting potential tech competitors also seems to have paid off. Some of NVIDIA’s leading clients include Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon; all off which are competitors in the tech innovation race. NVIDIA’s AI-optimised GPU chips have proven irresistible across the tech space for training of Large Language Models and development of generative AI. These are central to the development of AI solutions, and the tech giants have been spending billions of dollars to acquire the GPUs from NVIDIA.
One of the headline news for NVIDIA in the first week of May was Meta’s reported $30 billion purchase of the NVIDIA GPUs as part of its focus on AI. In particular, NVIDIA’s high-capacity GPUs are at the forefront of the race to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is touted as being potentially capable of being more intelligent than humans.
In March, Nvidia announced Blackwell, a new line of AI-focused processor chips. The first out of this product line will be the GB200, which has a capacity of 20 petaflops. That is a massive upgrade from the previous 4 petaflops for the highly-successful H100 chips. Nvidia will start shipping the GB200 from the fourth quarter of 2024. The Blackwell family of processors is miles ahead of the competition. Furthermore, the H100 chips are still in high demand.
The question should not be, “will Nvidia go up”? Instead, the question should be about the extent to which Nvidia should be going up. This is a stock that has a lot of tailwinds following it. Nvidia’s success in the AI field is likely to keep it in the lead for longer, much as the stock price is currently down. That said, the demand for these chips will also depend on AI-native breakthrough technologies, products and services. Conversely, a stagnation in AI development could impact Nvidia’s earnings.
In the short-term, the NVDA stock price is likely to continue until the stock split happens on June 7. However, in the coming months, it could ease as investors take profits. Furthermore, higher-for-longer US interest rates could create a harsh environment that could limit the upside.
Also, there’s an emerging concern that the global semiconductor market could be staring at imminent supply constraints. Already, Super Micro Computers (SMCI) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) are reporting headwinds in that front. A spillover could potentially affect the broader market and, by extension, NVIDIA’s ability to meet order volumes amidst an AI market boom.
Nvidia’s claim to fame was built on building equipment for the video gaming sector. However, it was its decision to spend more resources away from video games that powered its meteoric climb to $2 trillion in valuation.
The company’s gaming unit sales numbers contributed to just 10% of its latest quarterly earnings, and were down 25% from two years ago. This is in contrast to the 40% in revenue that gaming brought to the company in the first quarter of 2022. The drastic shift from retail-focused gaming GPU sales to institution-focused AI-GPUs sales has paid off big time, and is likely to continue expanding as the world transitions to the AI era.
As described earlier, Nvidia stock price rally will likely continue at least until the share split. The stock is currently on a bull run. Based on the 10-to-1 ratio of the split, I have placed the lower end of the price target forecast in 2024 at $96, while the top end is $120.
The technical analysis shows that on Nvidia stock price currently faces one key psychological barrier at $1,200 ahead of the stock split. Therefore, I expect that mark to be the ceiling in the next week. Furthermore, the pivot mark will likely be at $1,068 as some investors could opt to take profit before the stock split. However, a move below that mark will signal control by the sellers, but I expect support to be at $960.
The Nvidia stock forecast 2025 outlook carries on from the 2024 outlook, and will likely head up, post-split as AI development gains more upward propulsion. Therefore, my Nvidia stock forecast for 2025 remains bullish. However, there is a chance that the price may retreat as a result of profit taking after the stock split.
Nvidia is a good stock to buy. It has good cash flow, solid fundamentals, and has the support of 42 institutional firms as a “Strong Buy”. However, as mentioned above, its growth is critically hinged on the success of the AI sector as a whole. Whether or not it is an excellent stock to buy at the current price is another matter entirely.
Nvidia stock forecasts are bullish. The company has been able to ride a wave of success from the pandemic and the global shortage of semiconductor chips. In addition, the recent fall in price due to profit-taking could be overcome after the earnings report comes out.
This post was last modified on May 30, 2024, 17:18 BST 17:18