Nvidia is no longer the most popular AI trade. Can it regain its crown? – CNBC
Nvidia reports earnings on Wednesday, and this time it’s different for one reason: The chipmaker is no longer the hottest artificial intelligence trade on Wall Street. The stock, while it’s still up nearly 39% this year, is lagging fellow semiconductor builders Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom . AMD has doubled in 2025, while Broadcom has soared 48%. Nvidia is also falling behind in a shorter time frame, relatively speaking. Over the past three months, Nvidia is up just 2%, while AMD and Broadcom have jumped 37% and 12%, respectively. Citigroup analyst Christopher Danely also noted that investors aren’t as keen on Nvidia in general as they are on AMD and Broadcom. “From our conversations, it appears NVDA is less popular than AMD and AVGO given lower EPS growth,” he said in a note to clients. NVDA AVGO,AMD YTD mountain NVDA year to date vs AVGO and AMD This week’s earnings report, though, could help Nvidia regain its AI trade crown, and several analysts have raised their price targets ahead of the release. Stifel’s Ruben Roy hiked his 12-month stock price forecast to $250 from $212 , signaling 34% upside from Monday’s close. He noted he expects a “moderate” beat on earnings. He added: “CEO Jensen Huang’s recent keynote at [GPU Technology Conference] Washington D.C. … outlined the company’s ongoing positioning as the backbone of AI infrastructure underpinned by more than $500bn in cumulative order book for Blackwell and Rubin infrastructure spanning 2025-2026.” Nvidia regaining its mojo could also get the broader market out of its funk. The S & P 500 is down more than 2% in November, while the Nasdaq Composite has fallen 4.3%, as investors worry about sky-high valuations within AI — including Nvidia. The stock trades at 29 times forward earnings, according to FactSet, while the S & P 500 has a multiple of a touch more than 21. But AMD and Broadcom are even richer, trading at 39 and 36 times forward earnings, respectively.
