Here's the Eye-Popping Amount Nvidia's Stock Would Be Worth If It Traded Like Palantir

Key Points

• Nvidia would be much bigger if it traded like Palantir, regardless of the valuation metric used.

• The GPU maker doesn't trade like Palantir in large part because of retail investors' enthusiasm for Palantir.

• Palantir would be worth significantly less if it traded like Nvidia.

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You know a stock's been a huge winner when its price falls nearly 20% and has still more than doubled year to date. Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) is such a stock. You can also feel good about a stock's resilience when it plunges nearly 30% only to claw its way back to a year-to-date gain of more than 25%. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) fits that description.

Both Palantir and Nvidia are riding the artificial intelligence (AI) wave better than most stocks. Despite Nvidia's tremendous success, though, investors have given Palantir a much higher valuation premium. But what if these two AI stocks were valued similarly? Here's the eye-popping amount Nvidia's stock would be worth if it traded like Palantir.

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Much bigger, regardless of the valuation metric used

Pick a valuation metric, any valuation metric. Palantir's number will be significantly higher than Nvidia's, regardless of which you choose.

Let's start conservatively. Palantir's price-to-book ratio is 62.7. That's nearly 1.5 times higher than Nvidia's 42.35. If Nvidia traded at Palantir's price-to-book ratio, its market cap would be around $6.3 trillion right now instead of $4.3 trillion.

However, book values aren't as important to many investors as they used to be. Sales, on the other hand, are. Palantir's price-to-sales ratio is 115. Nvidia's price-to-sales ratio of almost 26 is also high, but not at the same nosebleed level as Palantir's. If Nvidia's shares traded at 115 times sales, its market cap would be close to $19 trillion.

For some, the bottom line (i.e., earnings) is the bottom line. Palantir's trailing-12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 522.4 is more than 10.5 times higher than Nvidia's trailing P/E ratio of 49.6. Nvidia would be worth around $45 trillion if it had Palantir's trailing earnings multiple.

We haven't considered growth yet, though. Looking at near-term earnings growth, Palantir's forward P/E ratio is 243.9. Nvidia's shares trade at a little over 39 times forward earnings. If the graphics processing unit maker's multiple was the same as Palantir's, its market cap would be in the ballpark of $26.7 trillion. If Nvidia's price-to-earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio (which is based on five-year earnings growth projections) were Palantir's 4.13 instead of its actual 1.53, the company would be worth around $11.5 trillion.

Are you ready for the most eye-popping number of all? It involves earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). Palantir's enterprise value (EV) to EBITDA is a mind-blowing 612.3. Nvidia's is slightly above 15. If Nvidia traded at the same EV-to-EBITDA ratio as Palantir, it would be worth a staggering $64.4 trillion.

Why doesn't Nvidia trade like Palantir?

Nvidia doesn't boast valuation metrics anywhere close to those of Palantir. But why not?

This question would be easy to answer if Palantir's sales were growing much more rapidly than Nvidia's. However, that's not the case. Nvidia's revenue in its latest quarter soared 56% year over year, while Palantir's revenue jumped 48%.

Palantir's net income skyrocketed 142% year over year in the second quarter of 2025, compared to Nvidia's 59% earnings growth. This partially explains Palantir's valuation advantage, but the gap isn't enough to fully justify it.

Both companies have tremendous AI tailwinds. However, Wall Street projects higher earnings growth next year for Nvidia than for Palantir. Are Palantir's long-term growth prospects that much better than Nvidia's? I don't think so.

If I had to guess the main reason Nvidia doesn't trade like Palantir, it would be that Palantir has been the greater beneficiary of retail investors' hype over the last 12 months. Jefferies analyst Brent Thill told CNBC in May, "[Palantir] is a retail-driven story. There's not a single institutional investor I talk to that even talks about this."

A more telling exercise

Perhaps a better question to ask, with all of this in mind, is what Palantir would be worth if it were traded like Nvidia. You probably already have a good idea of the answer.

Depending on which valuation metric we use, Palantir's market cap would be between 32% and 98% lower than its current level if it traded like Nvidia. Even the optimistic end of this range would be bad news for Palantir shareholders.

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Keith Speights has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Jefferies Financial Group, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.