5. NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Year-to-Date Performance as of October 2: 136.26%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 179
NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a leading player in the semiconductor industry that designs and manufactures GPUs for the gaming, data center, and professional visualization markets. Its GPUs are widely used for rendering graphics, accelerating AI applications, and powering HPC workloads. The company has also expanded into other areas, such as autonomous driving, robotics, and virtual reality.
The company holds ~80% of the global market share in GPU semiconductor chips. In the second fiscal quarter of 2025, the company achieved a remarkable 122.40% year-over-year revenue growth. Data center revenue surged 54% year-over-year, fueled by robust demand for NVIDIA Hopper, GPU computing, and networking platforms. Cloud service providers accounted for approximately 45% of data center revenue.
Collaborations with healthcare institutions and the growing demand for AI-driven diagnostic solutions have fueled this robust financial performance. In late August, management also approved a $50 billion share buyback program.
On September 25, NetApp introduced a new AI-powered data solution utilizing NVIDIA technology, enhancing its unified storage operating system and benefiting thousands of enterprises. Elon Musk’s xAI launched Colossal is powered by 100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs. Colossal is expected to expand with H200 GPUs and potentially Blackwell chips. Despite challenges in product launches and GPU pricing, NVIDIA’s focus on AI monetization and sustainability positions it for long-term growth.
Although CUDA software provides a competitive edge, the company’s future relies on continued innovation and effective AI monetization. CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) is a parallel computing platform and API that allows developers to utilize the power of GPUs for general-purpose processing. Market analysts anticipate a shift toward robotics for the company’s growth. Management forecasts low-double-digit billion AI revenue this year.
Columbia Contrarian Core Fund stated the following regarding NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) – Following the release of first-quarter earnings in May featuring record revenue growth of 262% year over year, NVIDIA continued its upward march. On June 10, shares of the company began trading on a split-adjusted basis following a 10-for-1 forward stock split, making stock ownership more accessible to employees and investors alike. Just one week later, the company officially surpassed Microsoft in market cap to become the most valuable publicly traded company (although it would relinquish the title not long after). While other companies have also stood to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) trend this year, NVIDIA stands out as the unquestionable leader in the space and that is unlikely to be challenged for many years ahead. NVIDIA continues to see extremely strong levels of demand and the recent introduction of the Blackwell system looks to be an exciting next phase of growth for the stock.”
