Nvidia’s stock eyes are at a record high ahead of CEO Jensen Huang’s CES keynote

Nvidia ( NVDA ) stock jumped as much as 4.7% on Monday ahead of CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote address at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, pushing shares north of $151 and putting the stock on track for a record close.

The stock’s most recent record close came on November 7, 2024, at $148.88 per share.

As Wall Street analysts head to Sin City to meet with executives from top tech companies, all eyes are on the AI ​​chip maker.

Nvidia typically makes important product announcements at CES — like last year debut of new desktop graphics chips to gaming and artificial intelligence – while Huang’s commentary is expected to give investors an insight into what lies ahead for the AI ​​giant and the burgeoning AI market.

Huang will deliver his keynote at 6:20 PM PST Monday. It will be live streamed on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and other sites.

His address comes as investors anxiously await the rollout of Nvidia’s latest Blackwell AI chips, which analysts have said will drive a massive new cycle of demand for the company’s products despite fears of a slowdown in AI spending.

After a design flaw pushed back the rollout of the Blackwell series and rumors of overheating problems in servers using those chips circulated, Nvidia confirmed in an earnings call in November that Blackwell production is ramping up in the current quarter, with the chips shipping to customers before 6 p.m. expectations. Stifel analyst Ruben Roy has suggested that Blackwell AI chips represent a $100 billion market opportunity for Nvidia.

The jump in Nvidia stock on Monday extends its gains from last week, when the chipmaker led a rally in “Magnificent Seven” technology stocks after a disappointing end to 2024.

In another potential tailwind for Nvidia shares, Truist Securities analyst William Stein said in a note Monday that he believes Nvidia will announce a standalone CPU, or central processing unit — the “brain” of a computer, separate from Nvidia’s Hopper and Blackwell GPU ‘s, or graphics processing units — at CES. Stein has said in previous notes that such an announcement could open up an additional $35 billion in market opportunities for the company.

Bank of America’s Vivek Arya said in a note Monday that while “NVDA stock has essentially stalled over the past 6 months,” he expects CES to be a “positive catalyst that reasserts NVDA’s platform dominance. ” Arya said he believes Nvidia will provide “reassuring updates” on its Blackwell shipments and announcements about its robotics strategy and potentially an AI PC partnership.

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