Nvidia’s incredibly pricey shares are about to get much cheaper

Nvidia announced a 10-for-1 stock split on Wednesday, making buying shares in the red-hot semiconductor company more accessible for individual investors.

Five years ago, an investor could have purchased Nvidia stock for less than $50 a share. But since then, the stock has exploded more than 2,500%. A single share in the company was worth $949.50 as of Wednesday’s close.

Nvidia’s (NVDA) announcement, which came in its quarterly earnings report, means that each common share will be split into 10 smaller shares, effectively cutting the price of investing in the company.

The company posted yet another quarter of strong financial results on Wednesday, as well. Nvidia reported a 262% increase in revenue and a 462% increase in profits year-over-year.

Nvidia’s post-split shares will begin trading at the market open on June 10, coming at a time when Nvidia’s stock has been on a tear, fueled by investor enthusiasm about the company’s role in artificial intelligence.

Nvidia shares rose as much as 4% in after-hours trading following the report.

Nvidia is crucial to the burgeoning AI space. The American chipmaker is unmatched in producing processors that power artificial intelligence systems, including for generative AI, the buzzy new technology that can create text, images and other media.

And the company’s soaring stock price over the past year means Nvidia is now deeply important to the broader market, too. The company has become something of a bellwether for the larger AI boom that has been driving the recent market rally.

That the company was again able to exceed Wall Street’s predications for its booming sales growth on Wednesday isn’t entirely surprising. Many of the major tech giants, including Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and others, have announced in recent weeks that they’re continuing to pour billions of dollars into building AI infrastructure, and no company is better poised to be the beneficiary of that investment than Nvidia.

Still, some investors had raised questions ahead of Wednesday’s report about just how long Nvidia could keep the rally going. The company faces growing competition from in-house AI chips from Amazon and Alphabet, and it has had to contend with US restrictions on exports of advanced AI chips to China.

“There was no secret around Wall Street that Nvidia’s earnings would come in hot once again,” Investing.com senior analyst Thomas Monteiro said in a statement following the report. “While the company didn’t repeat the same total blowout from the last few quarters in any specific area, today’s numbers remain incredibly strong, leaving no doubt that the company’s leadership in the AI revolution remains unchallenged for now.”

Nvidia said it expects revenue for the current quarter to grow approximately 107% year-over-year, a slight slowdown from the meteoric sales growth the company has posted over the past few quarters as it hits the one-year mark from when the AI boom began to take off.

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