Nvidia, the dominant maker of AI chips, has soared 900% over five years and is now targeting the CPU market as its next growth frontier. The company plans to ship its first stand-alone CPU platform later this year and expects $20 billion（約3.2兆円） in CPU revenue this year, positioning it to benefit from the rise of agentic AI. Wall Street analysts are projecting a 40% stock gain over the next 12 months on the back of this expansion and Nvidia's current valuation of 23x forward earnings.
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Nvidia, the world's #1 AI chip designer, has surged 900% over the past five years. Wall Street now expects the stock to advance another 40% over the coming 12 months. The company is expanding beyond GPUs (graphics processing units) into CPUs (central processors), with plans to ship its Vera Rubin platform and first stand-alone CPU later this year and expects to generate $20 billion（約3.2兆円） in stand-alone CPU revenue this year.
Why it matters
Nvidia's data center business—which uses GPUs for AI model training—already accounts for the lion's share of revenue, with recent quarterly data center revenue soaring more than 90% to a record $75 billion（約12兆円） on total revenue of $81 billion（約13兆円）. CPUs are emerging as a key tool for agentic AI (self-directed AI agents that autonomously solve problems), which is seen as the next major AI growth area. If Nvidia can dominate the data center CPU market, it could unlock a new wave of expansion in a $200 billion（約32兆円） overall CPU market.
What to watch
Nvidia is competing against established CPU leaders Intel and Advanced Micro Devices in the data center segment. The company's current valuation sits at 23x forward earnings estimates. Execution on the Vera Rubin platform and stand-alone CPU shipping later this year will be critical to validating Wall Street's 40% upside target.
Nvidia has built its dominance on GPUs, which are essential for training AI models, and this focus has translated into explosive stock performance and record data center revenue. In the most recent quarter, data center revenue surged more than 90% to $75 billion（約12兆円） on total company revenue of $81 billion（約13兆円）, underscoring how thoroughly AI infrastructure has become the center of Nvidia's business. The company's first-to-market advantage, continuous innovation, and ability to offer complete AI systems have kept it ahead despite some investor concerns about massive tech spending on AI and the risk of customers like Amazon and Meta developing their own chips—worries that held the stock to only a 7% gain in the first half of the year.
Nvidia's next target is the CPU market, a $200 billion（約32兆円） space dominated by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. Unlike GPUs, which train models, CPUs execute the instructions that agentic AI systems need to autonomously solve problems—a capability industry observers view as the next major growth phase in AI. Nvidia does not expect to unseat Intel and AMD everywhere, particularly in PCs, but a strong position in the data center CPU segment could represent a substantial new revenue stream. The planned Vera Rubin platform and stand-alone CPU, due later this year with an expected $20 billion（約3.2兆円） in revenue this year, would allow Nvidia to address both GPU training and CPU inference in a single customer relationship. Wall Street's 40% upside target appears anchored to this diversification opportunity combined with what analysts view as a low valuation of 23x forward earnings for a company still commanding the core AI infrastructure market.
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