• Expert sees NVIDIA as the new Apple
•Similarities between stock market giants
• Race for market value
In a column for MarketWatch, market expert Cody Willard, who serves as chief investment officer at 10,000 Days Capital Management, compared the two most valuable publicly traded companies today and found striking parallels.
Apple and NVIDIA create their own platforms
“NVIDIA is about to take a leaf out of Apple’s book and transform itself into something bigger than it already is,” the market expert said in an online article. In the past, Apple has successfully merged the worlds of hardware and software, creating a true technology platform, writes Willard, referring to the ecosystem that Apple created when it deviated from its original business model of building desktop computers and developed the iPod, iPhone and iOSplatform. “Apple became a platform that enabled seamless integration of computers, phones, tablets, televisions and watches,” he says, describing the evolutionary process of the Cupertino-based tech giant.
At the same time, the company opened the door to the app revolution through its own app store. The former computer manufacturer went “from a cyclical hardware company with low profit margins to a technology platform with billions in recurring service revenues.”
Willard now sees similar trends at AI pioneer NVIDIA, which for many years was known to many investors only as a manufacturer of graphics cards. The fact that these graphics cards, with which NVIDIA had built up a customer base primarily in the gaming scene, have proven to be indispensable for the use and further development of AI-driven systems was a stroke of luck for the company. Like Apple, however, NVIDIA has bigger plans: The Blackwell platform is to become a comprehensive ecosystem that provides end customers with a complete data center in a box. The AI giant would not simply assemble the parts, but Apple also has a number of contract manufacturers under contract and does not solder the individual parts together itself.
Quality advantage over the competition
The reason why both Apple and NVIDIA should be able to create their own technology platforms is obvious to the columnists: They have the best quality products in their segment. Before the iPhone, there was already a smartphone, the BlackBerry, but compared to Apple’s bestseller, it was an “inferior product,” Willard writes. And NVIDIA’s chips are also far superior to those of the competition, which leaves companies that develop AI applications or are active in the AI field with little choice: “If you want to build the best AI, you have to use the NVIDIA platform.”
The market expert has also identified another similarity between Apple and NVIDIA products: they work best as part of a larger project, in the ecosystem developed by the companies. In addition, NVIDIA’s software is optimized to help end users get the most out of the hardware. If they use another provider, they sacrifice performance.
NVIDIA sets course for Apple’s stock market throne
Investors also seem to think NVIDIA’s approach is promising, as they have already helped NVIDIA shares rise by 141.04 percent this year. The fact that the share price fell after the outstanding recent quarterly figures was not due to doubts about NVIDIA’s business, but rather an expression of concern about announced changes to the production process for the eagerly awaited Blackwell system, which could potentially lead to delays in deliveries. The new system should ideally generate billions in additional revenue in the final quarter of 2024.
On the stock market, NVIDIA is currently the second most valuable listed company behind Apple, but has already overtaken the iPhone manufacturer. Apple’s market capitalization is currently $3.48 billion, while NVIDIA is valued at $2.92 billion on the stock market.
Editorial staff finanzen.ch
