Why Is Wall Street Obsessed With AI (Artificial Intelligence) Leader Nvidia?

Key Points

• Nvidia has become one of the biggest success stories in investing.

• The company's brilliant moves will help it prosper for years to come.

• 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia ›

There's no two ways about it. Investors across the depth and breadth of Wall Street are absolutely captivated by Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). The chipmaker is a frequent topic of discussion among financial programming anchors and analysts alike. There's more. Of the 66 analysts who offered an opinion in July, 88% say it's a buy or strong buy, and none recommend selling.

There are plenty of reasons Wall Street is obsessed. Let's look at a few of those reasons and what they mean for investors.

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Image source: Getty Images.

Paint by numbers

Nvidia was already one of the world's most successful chip companies, a leading provider of graphics processing units (GPUs) that bring video games to life. Furthermore, Nvidia developed CUDA, a library of software tools that helps developers harness the raw, number-crunching power of GPUs for computationally intensive applications. This enabled data scientists and researchers to develop speedier algorithms, spurring the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.

That pivot to AI has led to eye-popping financial gains. For two successive years, Nvidia generated triple-digit year-over-year revenue and profit growth. At the same time, the stock price surged 638%, adding $3 trillion to its market cap. Since then, its growth has slowed but remains impressive nonetheless. In the company's fiscal 2026 first quarter (ended April 27), revenue of $44 billion jumped 69% year over year, while adjusted earnings per share (EPS) climbed 33%.

Great news for investors

As impressive as these results are, Nvidia's growth story is far from over, which is great news for investors. Sales of Nvidia's next-generation Blackwell AI-centric chips have recently started to ramp up, and CEO Jensen Huang is lobbying world leaders to develop their own sovereign AI programs. Furthermore, the chief executive's efforts in Washington, D.C., appear to be paying off, as the Trump administration is poised to approve the resumption of H20 chip sales to China, according to Huang.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives says it's "still the first inning for AI," which suggests there's much more opportunity ahead.

That's why Wall Street is obsessed with Nvidia, and investors should be, too.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

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Danny Vena has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.