Nvidia Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) investors are gearing up for the company’s analyst day event on March 27, and the company could provide some market-moving announcements. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya says investors should watch for updates on several key products and initiatives, but Nvidia is unlikely to provide any new financial numbers.
According to Arya, Nvidia is likely update investors on artificial intelligence inference, new gaming technology, unique cryptocurrency and/or blockchain investments and new autonomous vehicle partnerships.
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Specifically, Arya says Nvidia has a huge opportunity in AI inference, the ability for AI to infer things about new data sets based on prior training. Currently, AI inference accounts for less that 2 percent of Nvidia sales, but Arya says the AI inference total addressable market could be as large as $20 billion.
“Top inference applications include autos, industrial, and smart cities,” Arya says.
In addition Nvidia recently announced new ray tracing/RTX technology for gamers.
“Unlike traditional graphics rendering which relies on triangles, ray tracing simulates light, shadowing and other effects to achieve a generational leap in truly photorealistic imaging,” Arya says. This type of gaming technology is the driving force behind Bank of America projected double-digit price growth in graphics processing units over the next several years.
Arya says Nvidia’s Pascal cards have a 44 percent market penetration rate, well short of the peak penetration rate of its previous-generation Maxwell cards.
Finally, Arya estimates Nvidia’s self-driving car technology has a total addressable market of about $8 billion. Ayra says Nvidia has established itself as an early market leader in AV technology with at least 320 announced partnerships, up 60 percent from a year ago. Arya says Nvidia will likely announce even more auto partnerships on Tuesday.
B. Riley FBR analyst Craig Ellis also says Nvidia is likely to launch a new gaming product.
[See: Artificial Intelligence Stocks: The 10 Best AI Companies.]
“We suspect a GeForce Gaming product refresh to Volta from two-year-old Pascal,” Ellis says. “However, unusually strong Pascal demand in a seasonally soft first quarter, even if cryptocurrency aided, could leave NVDA comfortable with easing the launch back from April to June norms and potentially launching at one of its later global events.”
Bank of America has a “buy” rating and $300 price target for Nvidia. B. Riley has a “buy” rating and $290 target for NVDA stock.
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This Is What’s Coming Next for Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) originally appeared on usnews.com
