Nvidia (NVDA) shares surged by as much as 5% on Thursday after CEO Jensen Huang stated that demand for the upcoming Blackwell chips is “insane.”
In a Wednesday interview with CNBC following market close, Huang assured that the chips are in “full production” despite recent design challenges that have led to some customer rollout delays.
“Blackwell is proceeding as planned,” Huang remarked. “Everyone seeks the most capabilities and wants to be first.”
Concerns over Blackwell’s delays have weighed on investors, who view its rollout as a significant catalyst for the chipmaker following a recent stock decrease prompted by a mid-July unwinding of the yen carry trade.
Since then, there has been a shift away from Big Tech, with other macroeconomic elements, such as concerns about China trade, also impacting Nvidia’s stock value.
Nonetheless, both investors and analysts maintain a largely positive outlook on the artificial intelligence sector. Nvidia’s stock has increased about 170% over the past year and over 2,700% in the last five years. Year-to-date, Nvidia has gained roughly 150%.
A striking 90% of Wall Street analysts rate the stock as a Buy, with most forecasting that shares will climb to approximately $147.60 in the next year, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates.
In addition to the latest Blackwell update, Nvidia’s stock surge coincided with the company’s support of ChatGPT developer OpenAI (MSFT) in its recent funding round, which wrapped up on Wednesday.
OpenAI successfully raised an additional $6.6 billion, bringing its valuation to $157 billion, marking another optimistic indicator for the AI surge.
Gil Luria, a senior software analyst at DA Davidson, shared with Yahoo Finance that “there’s a direct correlation between the funding round announced today and Nvidia” due to data center demand that would favor the chipmaker. “That’s the reason for the stock’s increase today,” he stated.
Yahoo Finance’s Laura Bratton contributed to this report.
Alexandra is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X @alliecanal8193 and contact her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com
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