Topline
Nvidia chief Jensen Huang said during an interview with CNBC on Wednesday that demand for the tech giant’s Blackwell “Superchip” is “insane,” sending Nvidia shares up more than 3% on Thursday.
Key Facts
Nvidia shares reached as high as $124.26 on Thursday before cooling down to $122.80 at market close, a 3.3% jump.
The strong trading day materialized after Huang said there was “insane” demand for Nvidia’s upcoming Blackwell chip from companies such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta and other AI-adjacent firms, telling CNBC, “Everybody wants to have the most and everybody wants to be first.”
The Thursday stock jump continues a streak of Nvidia gains since early September, when the chip designer’s shares slumped to $102.83 despite reporting record revenues about a week prior.
Blackwell-based products will be shipped to cloud service divisions at Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft and Google late this year, according to Nvidia’s website.
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Contra
Stocks were broadly down on the day. The S&P 500 dropped as Nvidia’s rise was not enough to pull the tech-heavy Nasdaq out of the red, with the index closing down .17% on Thursday.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Huang’s net worth at $107 billion following a $3 billion increase Thursday, making the Nvidia chief the twelfth-richest person in the world.
What Is Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell ‘superchip’?
The next-generation chip from Nvidia can train AI models at fast speeds while using a relatively low share of energy consumption. Blackwell’s price tag is expected to be between $30,000 and $40,000 per unit, according to CNBC.
Key Background
Nvidia’s Blackwell chip will further cement the company as a leader in the artificial intelligence market while it continues to provide products and services for tech leaders like Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon, which accounts for a large portion of its revenue. Despite some sharp, yet short-lived, drops between July and September, Nvidia’s stock is up more than 147% since the start of the year, when it traded at $48.17 per share. The company also posted record revenues in its second quarter, recording $30 billion in sales and $16.5 billion in net income. Nvidia’s datacenter division, home to some of its AI offerings, generated $26.3 billion in revenue during the quarter, a 154% year-over-year increase.
Further Reading
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says demand for next-generation Blackwell AI chip is ‘insane’ (CNBC)
Nvidia Tops Expectations Again After Reporting Record Revenues (Forbes)