It may be fun to watch some stocks rocket higher, and it's tempting to want to own one before that parabolic move occurs. Investing for retirement doesn't mean trying to score with one big buy, though. In fact, that can lead to fear and anxiety over one's nest egg. Consider what it would have been like if all your savings had been tied up in Tesla stock when it plunged by 65% in 2022.
But allocating a reasonable amount, continuing to invest, and holding shares in a great business through the inevitable ups and downs can lead to a comfortable retirement. It can even make one a millionaire. Here's why Nvidia (NVDA -2.09%) is showing investors why it's a great business, and one that could help you retire a millionaire.
Is it a parabolic stock, or parabolic business?
Nvidia stock has rocketed more than 800% higher since the beginning of 2023. Sometimes a move like that is driven by investors who fear missing out on the next big thing. It's likely that some of that buying came from those who attempt to trade in momentum stocks. But that's more akin to gambling than investing. The underlying business is what should steer long-term investors into stocks.
Much of what is attracting long-term investors to Nvidia is the vast growth potential for artificial intelligence (AI) use cases. But it's more than just potential that had Nvidia stock rising-- it was also results. Revenue more than quadrupled over the last two years. Nvidia's GPUs (graphics processing units) have been the industry standard as dozens of tech companies work to build and monetize generative AI models.
As a result of its exploding sales and stock price, $10,000 invested in Nvidia stock at the start of 2023 would be worth nearly $92,000 now. That massive two-year return is uncommon and something investors shouldn't continue to expect. But buying, and holding, Nvidia stock for years to come could realistically still make you a millionaire.
A world of customers
Some investors question whether Nvidia can maintain its growth. There are reasons to believe it can, even as the pace of growth has slowed. Its first generation of GPU chips had customers lined up to purchase. While much capital has already been spent to build the compute power needed for AI, Nvidia's product launch plans and tangential offerings should keep its revenue growing.
Demand for its Blackwell AI accelerator is "incredible," according to CEO Jensen Huang. That's likely to continue next year as production ramps up for the new architecture, and the Rubin platform will succeed Blackwell in 2026. Nvidia is making it easy -- and sticky -- for customers, too. Its CUDA (compute unified device architecture) software platform helps developers broaden applications on different types of GPU-accelerated embedded systems. It created a GPU computing ecosystem. As more powerful GPUs are offered, customers using CUDA get locked in with Nvidia.
Image source: Getty Images.
While spending from some large technology companies that have been first in line for Nvidia chips may slow, there is still a long line that should keep demand strong. The sequential, quarter-over-quarter revenue growth in Nvidia's data center segment had, in fact, declined for five quarterly periods since its quarter ending July 2023. But that trend stabilized in its most recent quarter as data center revenue grew by 17%, an increase of 100 basis points over the previous period.
Huang isn't just talking to CEOs about how Nvidia's products can help customers. He is traveling the globe, meeting with world leaders as he touts the next growth phase of "sovereign AI."
Sovereign AI refers to a nation's investments in AI to propel innovation across many fields through high-performance computing and using domestic infrastructure, labor, and data and business networks.
Buy-and-hold works best
There are plenty of prospects to continue to drive revenue, earnings, and share price growth for Nvidia. That doesn't mean it will be a straight path higher, though. Achieving millionaire status through investing takes time. It also takes the conviction to hold, or even add shares, through the inevitable cycles.
The long-term future looks bright for Nvidia, and investors would likely do well to buy and hold the stock for the years and decades to come.
