Nvidia's stock is on fire. In Thursday's session, shares of the graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturer set a new all-time high at $298.01 after soaring more than 12% on the stock market.
But during the day, the U.S. company's shares touched $313. So far this year, Nvidia is revalued on the stock market by around 130%, making it its best year since 2016, when it gained 226.9%. If it continues at this pace, Nvidia is set to join the select billion-dollar club. Its market capitalization exceeds 760 billion and this week it surpassed Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's company, for the first time. Nvidia is now the seventh most valuable firm among those listed on the S&P 500.
The rise of the U.S. company has been meteoric: on February 19, 2020, before the stock markets plunged because of the pandemic, Nvidia's stock hit a record high of $78.48. In March of that year, after the correction, it fell to $49, and has since appreciated 500%. In addition to recent interest in the company from retail and institutional investors, the 12% rise seen Thursday is attributed to Wells Fargo's confidence in the stock. The investment firm raised its price target on the stock to $320, while most analysts following Nvidia have yet to react to the stock's rise. "We see Nvidia Omniverse [the company's platform for virtual collaboration and real-time photorealistic simulation] as a key enabler/platform for metaverse development across a wide range of vertical applications," said Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers.
The metaverse is not an invention of Facebook (now renamed Meta Platforms) and Rakers noted that it represents a $10 billion market opportunity for Nvidia over the next five years and the long term, according to Bloomberg.
