Nvidia's 85% GPU Market Share Faces Growing Competition: Is This AI Stock Still a Buy for 2026?

When you're talking about the biggest stock market stories of 2025, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is a name that keeps coming up. The company has been one of the biggest winners of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

The company's hardware, its graphics processing units (GPUs), have become synonymous with AI. Many of the most advanced programs run on Nvidia chips -- so many, in fact, that Nvidia has achieved a market share of 85%.

Nvidia is nearly a monopoly on its own with market control like that. But there are competitors emerging, namely Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM).

AMD holds 7% market share and growing, while Qualcomm has introduced some new chips aimed at lower-end AI users who don't need the computing horsepower Nvidia's chips are packing.

So, is Nvidia going to remain the leader of the AI hardware market?

Heavy is the head that wears the crown

While there are many risks to being on top -- the biggest one being that everyone is gunning for your spot -- I don't think Nvidia is at any risk of being toppled anytime soon.

Let's start with the fact that even though AMD is growing its market share, it only grew by 0.8% in the third quarter of 2025 to hit 7%. So it is a rival, but a slow-growing rival.

While Qualcomm's chips are sure to be a disruption in the market, one is due to come onto the market this year and the second in 2027. From there, it will take time to truly assess their effect on the AI hardware market.

Image source: Getty Images.

It's also important to note that while there are competitors, Nvidia is the go-to choice for all the biggest AI software developers. OpenAI is a major user of Nvidia hardware, and in September, it announced intent to deploy another 10 gigawatts of Nvidia chips . Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is also a major buyer.

Despite the 1,252% gain over the past five years and its $4.45 trillion market cap, Nvidia is still growing and growing quickly.

For its most recent quarter, Q3 2025, Nvidia recorded revenue of $57 billion, up 62% year over year. In that same quarter, net income surged 65% year over year, and diluted earnings per share (EPS) grew by 67%.

The company also grew its cash reserves from $43.2 billion on Jan. 26, 2025 to $60.6 billion as of Oct. 26, 2025. That means Nvidia could pay off the entirety of its $10.82 billion in debt almost six times over.

Nvidia is also sitting on a gross profit margin of 70% and a net income margin of 53%, so to say it's profitable would perhaps be the understatement of the century.

Finally, because of its size and influence on the broader market, Wall Street watches with bated breath every time Nvidia releases earnings data. Fortunately for Wall Street, the company has a habit of beating earnings and has done so in each of the last five quarters.

So, will the juggernaut that is Nvidia be toppled from its throne anytime soon? It's not impossible, but I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that Nvidia's reign will continue for the foreseeable future. After all, it's good to be king.

James Hires has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.