By Adria Cimino
Publication Date: 2026-01-21 16:10:00
A current trend in the AI market may boost Nvidia.
Nvidia (NVDA +2.95%) stock has scored a win for investors over the past three years. And these haven’t been small wins, as the stock has climbed 238%, 171%, and 38% in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively. Why such gains? The company has built an empire in one of today’s highest-growth and potentially game-changing areas: artificial intelligence (AI). Nvidia’s AI chips are the fastest and most powerful available, and that’s resulted in soaring demand — and clear market leadership for the company.
Still, at the start of a new year, investors may wonder just how long this incredible performance — from both an earnings and a stock-price perspective — will continue. Late last year, for example, investors worried about AI stocks in general as valuations reached high levels. Well, my prediction is Nvidia still has plenty of room to run, and it will do so in 2026 thanks to this one thing.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Powering key AI tasks
First, before talking about the one element that should drive Nvidia to another annual victory, let’s take a quick look at the company’s AI story so far. As mentioned, Nvidia has established itself as the AI chip leader, selling the graphics processing units (GPUs) that power some of the most important AI tasks. This means that data centers, serving AI customers, must own a fleet of such chips, as well as supporting products such as networking equipment.
Of course, data centers and other…
