Key Takeaways
- Shares of NVDA climbed 0.5% to $185.60 in premarket trading Wednesday, following a 1.2% rise in the prior session
- The annual GTC developer conference takes place March 16–19, with expectations for new hardware announcements including potential inference-focused chips
- Nvidia announced a major partnership with AI startup Thinking Machines Lab for at least one gigawatt of Vera Rubin hardware deployment
- Major Wall Street firms maintain Buy ratings: UBS at $245, Truist at $283, and Bank of America at $300 price targets
- Analyst consensus points to Strong Buy with 38 Buy ratings and one Hold, average target price of $273.61 suggests approximately 48% potential upside
Shares of Nvidia moved higher in Wednesday trading as investors looked past supply chain worries and turned focus toward the company’s upcoming GTC developer conference scheduled for March 16–19.
The stock advanced 0.5% to $185.60 in premarket activity, extending the previous day’s 1.2% increase. Broader indices also posted modest gains.
Investment professionals are closely monitoring the GTC gathering. Market watchers anticipate Nvidia’s unveiling of fresh hardware products, possibly including silicon designed specifically for AI inference operations.
Timothy Arcuri from UBS doesn’t believe GTC will fundamentally change the investment case, but he suggests the event should reinforce investor conviction regarding system scalability and the company’s networking dominance.
Arcuri highlighted that Nvidia now ranks as the top chip-networking company measured by revenue. The semiconductor giant has projected its networking sales run-rate by year-end will exceed the total historical revenue of all competing players combined.
Co-packaged optics represents another focal point for market analysts—this technology merges optical engines directly with chips for rapid data transmission. Nvidia recently pledged $2 billion investments in both Coherent and Lumentum, optical component suppliers, alongside multibillion-dollar supply agreements.
Arcuri maintained his Buy recommendation with a $245 valuation target for NVDA.
William Stein at Truist is similarly looking for confirmation that next-generation Vera Rubin hardware will ship in meaningful volumes throughout the latter half of 2024. He’s also seeking additional information on the Feynman chip architecture coming after Rubin.
Stein characterized GTC as a “positive catalyst” and anticipates management will demonstrate alignment across supply chains, manufacturing capacity, and market demand. His rating remains Buy with a $283 objective.
Pre-Conference Boost from Thinking Machines Partnership
Before the conference kicks off, Nvidia received positive momentum from unveiling a partnership with AI startup Thinking Machines Lab. The firm, headed by former OpenAI leader Mira Murati, plans to install a minimum of one gigawatt worth of Vera Rubin systems.
Nvidia disclosed it also invested directly in Thinking Machines, though specific dollar amounts weren’t revealed. CEO Jensen Huang has stated previously that one-gigawatt data center facilities represent approximately $35 billion in hardware expenditure. Rollout should commence early next year under a multi-year arrangement.
BofA Analyst Focuses on Long-Term Technology Roadmap
Vivek Arya at Bank of America restated his Buy position with a $300 target price. His GTC priorities include three elements: a refreshed product roadmap extending through the 2028 Feynman GPU platform, broader inference and decode solution offerings, and specifics on proprietary optics for scale-up network infrastructure.
Arya observed that Wall Street’s current expectations for Nvidia’s data center segment revenue approach $750 billion for the 2026–27 period and nearly $1 trillion for 2027–28.
The Street’s overall stance on NVDA remains Strong Buy—comprising 38 Buy recommendations against a single Hold rating. The mean price objective stands at $273.61, indicating roughly 48% appreciation potential from present levels. The shares have surged over 70% during the past twelve months.
AMD shares increased 0.2% while Broadcom added 0.1% in Wednesday’s premarket session.
