NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) remains the gravitational center of the global AI investment boom. Investors are weighing surging infrastructure demand, broader enterprise adoption and increasingly aggressive expectations for future growth. The chipmaker is approaching a $6 trillion market capitalization after gaining nearly 30% in 2026, reinforcing its position as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI spending cycle.

NVIDIA Expands Buyback As Cash Generation Surges

NVIDIA's board recently added $150 billion to its share repurchase authorization, bringing the remaining authorization to about $235 billion through fiscal 2028. CEO Jensen Huang linked the expanded buyback to NVIDIA's strong cash generation and confidence in what he has described as a broader "platform shift to AI and accelerated computing."

At the same time, NVIDIA is expanding beyond chips and computing infrastructure. The company launched its Open Agent Safety Platform to help enterprises monitor and control autonomous AI agents. More than 100 organizations are working with NVIDIA's agent-safety technologies, including Anthropic, Salesforce Inc. (CRM) and SAP SE (SAP).

Huang has also argued that AI infrastructure demand continues to accelerate as companies generate more tokens, deploy increasingly complex models and expand computing capacity.

Dan Ives Says Estimates May Be Too Low

Yorkville Ives partner Dan Ives told CNBC on Tuesday that Wall Street may still be significantly underestimating NVIDIA's growth trajectory.

"I think investors are realizing numbers are probably underestimated by 25, 30% over the next year," Ives said.

He pointed to accelerating enterprise AI adoption and extremely tight supply-demand conditions, particularly across Asia.

"Demand vs. supply, 13 to 1, 14 to 1," Ives said.

He added that new use cases, including physical AI, are broadening NVIDIA's opportunity beyond traditional data-center customers.

"There's one chip in the world fueling it, and that's NVIDIA," Ives said.

Ives argued that investors may be underestimating NVIDIA not only for the current quarter, but across the next six to eight quarters as AI spending expands.

Enterprise AI Adds Another Growth Engine

Ives also tied NVIDIA's outlook to rising spending from hyperscalers and enterprise customers. He pointed to Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and the expansion of Azure AI workloads as part of the broader NVIDIA demand story. Microsoft and other technology giants continue to pour capital into data centers, GPUs and related infrastructure.

Huang has made a similar argument from the infrastructure side. He estimated that a 1-gigawatt NVIDIA-powered AI facility can cost roughly $50 billion to $60 billion to build and generate about $50 billion in annual rental revenue under current market conditions.

Huang also said Grace Blackwell systems can command rental rates of about $16 per GPU hour, compared with roughly $5 under some contracts signed a year earlier. The increase highlights the strength of demand for advanced AI computing capacity.

Buyback Adds to Bullish Case

Highline Asset Management Managing Director Ben Emons also pointed to NVIDIA's buyback as a signal of management's confidence in the company's long-term outlook.

"NVIDIA's buyback announcement was a bright spot," Emons wrote. "The buyback is not just a payout but a capital-allocation event that asserts confidence in long-run AI demand."

NVIDIA's enormous market value also gives the stock growing influence over the broader market. The company represents about 13% of the Nasdaq-100 and roughly 8% of the S&P 500.

The biggest question is whether NVIDIA can continue delivering growth strong enough to justify expectations that are already exceptionally high. Ives believes it can. He sees demand continuing to outstrip supply as hyperscaler spending, enterprise AI, physical AI and new workloads expand NVIDIA's addressable market.

NVIDIA Price Action

NVDA Price Action: NVIDIA shares were up 0.91% at $241.07 during premarket trading on Tuesday. The stock is trading at a new 52-week high, according to market data.