Nvidia (NVDA) stock rose in early trading Monday as investors positioned ahead of the chipmaker’s upcoming earnings report, with shares approaching a fresh record close.
Shares were up 2.07% at $219.76 in early trading after ending Friday at $215.20, just below the stock’s previous record close of $216.61 reached on April 27.
The sharp move comes even as the broader market remained mostly flat.
The move comes as Nvidia prepares to report earnings on May 20, a release Wall Street expects could provide another catalyst for the artificial intelligence leader.
Despite remaining the dominant company in AI chips, Nvidia’s gains this year have lagged some semiconductor peers that have benefited from enthusiasm around broader AI infrastructure demand.
Nvidia shares are up roughly 15% year-to-date, compared with significantly larger gains from rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices and Intel, which have rallied sharply on optimism surrounding the growing role of central processing units in AI inference workloads.
AMD and Intel have each gained roughly 25% recently, while Micron Technology has surged more than 37% and Corning has climbed over 18%.
Intel has emerged as one of the market’s strongest performers this year, with shares more than tripling amid optimism around server CPUs and foundry partnerships.
AI boom broadens beyond GPUs
The divergence reflects how investors are increasingly expanding exposure beyond Nvidia into other areas of the AI supply chain.
While Nvidia remains central to the AI buildout through its graphics processing units, markets are increasingly betting that the long-term expansion of AI infrastructure will require a much broader range of technologies.
Memory chips have become a particularly strong theme amid ongoing shortages and rising prices, helping push Micron into one of the sector’s strongest-performing stocks over the past year.
At the same time, demand for CPUs used in AI inference and server management workloads has boosted sentiment around AMD and Intel.
The shift suggests investors increasingly view the AI boom as extending far beyond training models with GPUs and into the broader ecosystem needed to deploy and operate large-scale AI systems.
Nvidia expands AI investment network
Nvidia has also accelerated its investment activity across the AI infrastructure ecosystem.
The company has spent aggressively backing businesses that either support AI infrastructure growth or are likely future buyers of Nvidia hardware.
One of Nvidia’s most successful investments has been its roughly $5 billion position in Intel, which has reportedly grown to more than $25 billion in value.
In 2026, Nvidia has dramatically increased the pace of strategic investments, with commitments now exceeding $40 billion.
Last week alone, Nvidia reached an agreement with data centre operator IREN, allowing it to invest up to $2.1 billion in the company.
A day earlier, Nvidia struck a separate deal with Corning that gives it the right to invest as much as $3.2 billion in the glass manufacturer.
Both stocks rose sharply following the announcements.
The strategy reflects Nvidia’s broader effort to ensure the global AI infrastructure buildout remains deeply tied to its hardware ecosystem.
By financing companies throughout the supply chain, Nvidia is effectively helping expand the infrastructure capacity needed to support future demand for its GPUs.
Wall Street turns increasingly bullish
Analysts remain highly optimistic heading into Nvidia’s earnings release.
Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes reiterated a Buy rating and issued a $380 price target on the stock, currently among the highest targets on Wall Street tracked by FactSet.
Reitzes said he expects “a strong report with a meaningful beat and raise,” arguing Nvidia still trades at a substantial discount relative to its long-term growth outlook.
According to Melius, Nvidia shares trade well below the company’s expected long-term growth rate and at roughly a 50% discount relative to AMD when adjusted for stock-based compensation.
The firm also said Nvidia’s recent gains may only represent the early stages of a broader re-rating higher as investor attention shifts back toward the company ahead of earnings.
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