Nvidia shares traded nearly flat on Thursday, underperforming a strong broader market, as the chipmaker faces growing questions about its ability to sustain dominance in artificial intelligence hardware. The stock fell 0.12% to $212.35, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq surged 1.5%. With a market valuation above $5.2 trillion, the company remains one of Wall Street’s most watched AI names, yet its performance has lagged the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which has soared 79% year-to-date compared to Nvidia’s roughly 14% gain through Wednesday.
Investors are increasingly focused on whether Nvidia’s GPU advantage can persist as AI workloads evolve. The company is now emphasizing its Vera CPU platform, a move beyond graphics processing units into a broader computing market. CEO Jensen Huang has positioned Vera as a gateway to a roughly $200 billion total addressable market, with potential revenue of up to $20 billion this year. Early benchmark results, curated by Nvidia and reviewed by Oppenheimer, suggest the Vera CPU is highly competitive against AMD’s EPYC and Intel Xeon offerings in targeted workloads, though full commercial comparisons await units shipping to partners.
Nvidia’s latest earnings highlighted surging data-center revenue, a second-quarter outlook of around $91 billion, and an expanded $80 billion buyback program. Despite these strong numbers, market reactions have been muted, suggesting elevated expectations are already priced in. Meanwhile, a new $150 billion annual spending plan with Taiwanese suppliers—up from roughly $100 billion currently—underscores the company’s confidence in AI infrastructure demand, even as geopolitical risks and export controls on advanced chips to China remain an overhang.
Competition is intensifying from Intel, AMD, and custom-chip firms like Marvell, while valuation debates persist. Some analysts warn the AI trade may be fully reflected in Nvidia’s multi-trillion-dollar market cap, making it harder for even stellar results to drive outsized stock gains.
