Nvidia rises after signaling longer AI spending runway

Nvidia's shares climbed before the market opened on Thursday, as investors welcomed the chipmaker's optimistic long-term forecast. The global race to develop AI infrastructure sparked hope that the boom will continue for years, despite supply bottlenecks and financial concerns of some customers. The company's market value could increase by around $340 billion following a 6.7% rise, bringing its value to approximately $223.71 per share.

Nvidia projected a 70% year-over-year revenue growth and reported current-quarter sales surpassing Wall Street estimates. This strong outlook invigorated semiconductor markets worldwide, boosting AI-linked stocks in Europe and China. With Nvidia's shares down nearly 12% from their May high, 10 brokerages raised their price targets on the stock, according to LSEG.

Morgan Stanley analysts hailed the 70% growth projection as significant, and they expect Nvidia to continue removing barriers to even greater expansion. CEO Jensen Huang highlighted AI's inflection point as the technology transitions from experimentation to real-world deployment. Nvidia's forecast indicates that AI demand is expanding beyond hyperscalers, influenced by growth from AI labs, increased capacity in neo-cloud providers like CoreWeave and Nebius, and a deeper partnership with Amazon Web Services.

CoreWeave and Nebius shares surged 5.8% and 7.2%, respectively. Morgan Stanley analysts suggested that Nvidia's shift to cloud revenue-sharing may become another catalyst for the stock. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $96.2 billion, which exceeded market expectations, driven by $89 billion in data center sales. Nvidia's stock is priced at 17.9 times forward earnings estimates, significantly lower than Advanced Micro Devices' 37.2 times and Intel's 46.2 times.