Oguz Erkan
Investor, Founder of Capitalist Letters
Semiconductor gains will now have to come from earnings growth rather than multiple expansion, but NVIDIA at 19x forward earnings can still make money. Rising margins normally compress multiples because peak margins signal peak cycle; this cycle ran long and euphoric buying drove multiples up, so a correction was bound to happen. With capex growth projected to slow from 2028, semis growth will likely slow too, and the window to profit from buying chip stocks at 25x sales is closed. x.com
Rapid revenue growth against forward valuations makes Nvidia and Micron additional calculated risks after the selloff, alongside Meta, Broadcom, IREN, Vistra, Nokia and Oracle. Nvidia grew revenue 106% and guides Q3 to $108B, plus or minus 2%, at 17.5x forward earnings; Micron grew revenue 379% to $54.2B, guides $61.5B next quarter and trades at 5x. The other six retain their growth, contracted-demand or customer-order cases. x.com
NVIDIA's projected earnings growth could support substantial upside without an enormous multiple. At $221.97 it trades at 10.4x estimated FY2029 earnings; even at $350, nearly 58% higher, it would trade near 16.4x. Estimates imply roughly 130% cumulative EPS growth over the next two fiscal years and may be conservative. SpaceX and Meta earnings look bullish for future chip demand. Slower AI spending, margin pressure or competition could undermine the estimates. x.com x.com
Semiconductors could stay undersupplied for a long time as more capable AI per dollar creates more uses and drives compute demand. Micron and NVIDIA trade at low forward P/Es because investors fear peak cyclical earnings, yet current earnings show no slowdown. Shortages may worsen as AI adoption spreads, though the industry could remain cyclical; a reversal of the forced rollover trade is hoped for, not assured. x.com x.com x.com
Semiconductor trade faces a capex growth ceiling even if AI delivers what bulls expect. Spending cannot compound at 70-100% a year indefinitely, and compute per dollar roughly doubles every two years, so the same budget buys more capacity later. Today's chip valuations also demand years of 20% AI earnings growth beyond 2028: roughly 10.9 extra years for AMD, 8.9 for ASML, 7 for Marvell and 6.4 for TSMC, versus 1.6 for Broadcom and 0.8 for Nvidia; Micron needs none under the chart's assumptions. … Show more
Nvidia's valuation gives too little credit to its expected long-term earnings growth. Its forward P/E-to-growth ratio is 0.28, the lowest since late 2023; the bullish read depends on those growth expectations proving accurate. x.com x.com
Financing risk makes AI-linked growth stocks unattractive to add here. Much of the money reaching suppliers such as Nvidia and Micron is financed, so harder funding would limit spending on chips, compute and memory. The buildout is not over, but stock prices could remain suppressed until it slows. A significant drawdown would make adding appealing; for many high-beta names with weak fundamentals and balance sheets, the highs look to be in. x.com
Nvidia's rising revenue alongside a much lower P/E is getting hard to ignore. Its chart shows quarterly revenue above $80 billion in Q2 2026 while the P/E is around 30x, down from much higher multiples in prior years. x.com
Low PEG ratios and continuing AI demand make leading AI stocks attractive after rolling corrections. Nvidia is at 0.39x PEG, Amazon 0.64x, Broadcom 0.66x, Micron 0.73x, Oracle 0.59x and TSMC 0.41x. This usually signals at least a local bottom, possibly a major one; midterm-year seasonality helps into year-end. Nvidia, Broadcom and Amazon remain favorites; Micron and TSMC look buyable on dips. Low PEG can mislead if growth slows or estimates are wrong. x.com
Semiconductor demand could withstand slower OpenAI and Anthropic growth if open-source models and post-training add more chip demand than it removes. Falling token prices need not erode per-GPU economics as cost per token falls and output per GPU rises, potentially keeping rental rates firm. The balance is unresolved; the lean is bullish, but markets may focus on the easier-to-see slowdown. Shares could chop until numbers defeat the bears, or a well-founded bear case could trigger heavy selling. … Show more
Nvidia looks interesting again because rising earnings estimates have not been reflected in its valuation. FY28 EPS estimates rose about 25% in 60 days while shares stayed roughly flat; it trades below 14 times FY28 earnings with a mid-single-digit free-cash-flow yield. Exponential change is hard to grasp, and it is hard to see Nvidia not winning if the US does, though there is little capital to absorb market wobbles. x.com x.com
