Testing the Nvidia Boom

Jensen Huang, the C.E.O. of Nvidia.Credit…Amir Hamja/The New York Times

All eyes on Nvidia

Despite concerns about stubbornly high inflation, elevated interest rates and ballooning U.S. debt, the S&P 500 is trading at a record on Wednesday, having soared 27 percent over the past year.

Among the factors driving the rally, few are bigger than the boom in stocks tied to artificial intelligence — and the biggest of all of those is Nvidia.

Investors have high hopes for Nvidia’s earnings on Wednesday. Expect a torrent of trading when the chip maker reports results for its fiscal first quarter after market close. A year ago, Nvidia’s stock jumped more than 24 percent after it posted knockout earnings.

That report set the tone for the broader market, capturing investor enthusiasm for A.I. Since then, tech giants have said that they’ll spend a collective $200 billion on resources, including semiconductors and data centers, needed to power their A.I. businesses.

Such spending has been a growth catalyst for the chip makers at the heart of the A.I. boom, especially Nvidia. Its market valuation has climbed more than threefold in the past year, to nearly $2.4 trillion, making it the third-most-valuable listed U.S. company, after Microsoft and Apple.