NVDA
Same horse, different race
Wall Street loves a shiny new AI darling. But Bank of America’s chip guru Vivek Arya basically said, “Cute idea, but have you met Nvidia?” The bank reiterated a Buy rating and kept its $350 price target, making NVDA its top sector pick after recent appearances by Nvidia executives at BofA’s tech conference.
Why the bulls are still in the building
The pitch from management was the same old Nvidia flex, just with more horsepower:
- More of the AI rack every generation
- More exposure across compute, networking, CPUs, software, and rack-scale systems
- More customers, from hyperscalers to model builders to enterprise buyers
Arya called Nvidia the “king of diversity,” which is analyst-speak for: this company is basically trying to sell you the whole data-center buffet, not just the fries.
The CPU subplot Wall Street keeps side-eyeing
One of the more interesting nuggets here is Nvidia’s growing CPU ambition. Management says its expected $20 billion Vera CPU opportunity in the second half of fiscal 2027 is split between head-node processors and standalone CPUs for newer AI workloads like agentic AI and reinforcement learning.
That’s a big deal because Nvidia isn’t just trying to win the GPU game anymore. It’s trying to own more of the plumbing underneath the whole AI house.
Still pricey, still arguably not crazy
The valuation argument is the cherry on top. BofA says Nvidia trades at around 16x expected calendar 2027 earnings, which it argues looks pretty reasonable given the growth runway. So if you were hoping to find the “next Nvidia,” BofA’s answer is basically: why not just own Nvidia?
Big picture: the AI hype train may keep adding new cars, but Nvidia still looks like the engine sitting up front.