If You'd Invested $100 in Nvidia 10 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

In just a few short years, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has grown from promising tech business to semiconductor industry leader to the biggest company in the world. At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the stock had a market cap of around $150 billion. Today, that number is around $4.5 trillion.

You don't get to that point without delivering some big returns for shareholders.

Those returns haven't come in a straight line, though. Nvidia stock made relatively steady progress up until 2018. The "mini-bear" market in the fourth quarter of that year, which was fueled by recession concerns, resulted in the share price dropping by more than half.

Image source: Getty Images.

The COVID pandemic led to a sharp decline in the stock's price, followed by a quick rebound, but it was the 2022 bear market that did the most damage. From peak to valley, Nvidia fell by more than 60%.

If you managed to ride all of that out over the past decade, the rewards would have been immense. For the decade ending Jan. 23, Nvidia stock gained more than 27,000%!

That means a simple $100 investment made in Nvidia stock 10 years ago and held for the duration would have turned into $27,100.

NVDA Total Return Price data by YCharts Gray bar = U.S. recession.

The next 10 years are unlikely to produce those same returns, but there's still reason to be optimistic. The AI revolution is still in the early innings and there's a lot of development still to be done. Nvidia has demonstrated its ability to be a leader in this space and should continue to be for the foreseeable future.

David Dierking has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.