By Adam Spatacco
Publication Date: 2026-09-28 17:15:00
Four years ago, Nvidia (NVDA +2.42%) became synonymous with artificial intelligence (AI) nearly overnight. At the time, the company’s graphics processing units (GPUs) were the only widely available hardware that could train and run the generative models big tech suddenly needed.
Since then, Nvidia has managed to stay at the center of the AI infrastructure stack: chips, software, networking, and even the model work itself. Every major hyperscaler and frontier lab is buying more Nvidia silicon every year. That demand has propelled the company’s revenue and profits to record levels that would have sounded like fantasy back in 2022.
Now, Nvidia’s balance sheet is so flush that the company has the financial flexibility to fund new products, make strategic investments, look at acquisitions, pay a dividend, and retire stock. To me, Nvidia is beginning to look a lot like Apple. Apple spent years proving that a company with more cash than it can productively spend on product innovation alone should simply buy its own shares. Nvidia just did the same thing, announcing a jaw-dropping $150 billion share repurchase program.
Image source: Nvidia.
AI turned Nvidia into a cash machine
Nvidia sits in the middle of a platform shift that is still in its early innings. Year after year, data center customers raise their purchase orders because they cannot get enough accelerated computing. This allows Nvidia to maintain lucrative pricing power for its chips, producing the kind of free cash…