Andres Cardenal
CFA, Economist & Financial Analyst, Investment Columnist
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
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
Nvidia's AI profits are real, but its compute demand depends heavily on fragile venture funding. Per Chamath, 1% of firms account for 90% of AI spending, and 72 cents of each dollar comes from unprofitable VC-backed firms. Venture money passes through startups to Nvidia and cloud suppliers; if the next raises fail, concentrated orders could contract together. x.com x.com 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
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
Nvidia's equity-investment book makes earnings vulnerable to an AI valuation downturn even if GPU sales hold up. Private and public stakes totaled about $99bn, or 31% of assets, in July; gains were $15.9bn in April and $7.8bn in July. Private holdings are marked on observable transactions or impairments, so losses could arrive in lumps. Nvidia generated about $127bn of free cash flow over four quarters, and the filing does not split private stakes by sector. x.com x.com
AI skepticism leaves Nvidia, Broadcom and Micron looking cheap on forward earnings. Their forward P/E ratios are 14, 18 and 5, respectively; the market may eventually stop doubting AI. x.com
NVIDIA is cheap at 14.7x 2027 earnings with 69% consensus EPS growth, a next-year PEG of 0.21, and it can keep rising from all-time highs. The next wave is robotics and AI in the physical world, where NVIDIA will be the brain of the robots. x.com
Nvidia is priced for perfection, so even strong earnings could send it lower; it fell after each of its last four beats, including one of 5.7%. Demand is real, with $1 trillion of orders for 2026–27 against about $253 billion of trailing sales, so slowing growth isn't the worry; the worry is that no result can satisfy a perfect price. At $5.2 trillion it is the S&P 500's biggest piece, and options imply a roughly 5% swing, about $260 billion, on the ~$92 billion of expected sales. x.com
Nvidia's numbers are still underappreciated, giving a really good risk/reward at 18-19x forward earnings. Revenue rose 106% to $96.2B, data center 117% to $89B, with 75% gross margin and $108B next-quarter guidance excluding China. Nvidia now sells the whole AI factory, GPUs, CPUs, networking, systems and software, capturing more of the stack each generation. The valuation already prices a spending slowdown, the familiar bear case alongside hyperscaler in-house chips. x.com x.com