'2026 Could Be Huge,' Says Top Investor About Nvidia Stock

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has been the poster child for the AI revolution, posting remarkable growth rates that helped it become the most valuable company in the world and a central driver of AI infrastructure demand. However, after years of outsized gains, cracks in investor conviction are beginning to emerge, as skepticism builds around whether sky-high AI growth expectations can persist.

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The logic says that even Nvidia isn't immune to gravity. Competition is heating up, with AMD pressing harder in areas like inference, while hyperscalers increasingly experiment with in-house silicon to reduce reliance on third-party suppliers.

Even so, top investor Keithen Drury isn't buying the slowdown narrative. In his view, Nvidia's growth engine remains firmly in high gear, and 2026 is shaping up to be anything but a cooling-off year for the AI leader.

"Nvidia is doing everything it can to maximize sales. I think this will bode well for Nvidia's stock, and 2026 could be its biggest year yet," declares the 5-star investor, who is among the top 3% of stock pros covered by TipRanks.

For starters, Drury points out that Nvidia is freeing up production capacity to manufacture more GPUs, the heart and soul of its data center business. The company is doing so by redirecting resources away from its gaming chips, even though that segment generated $4.3 billion in revenue last quarter.

That trade-off speaks directly to the demand imbalance in Nvidia's favor. With the company effectively sold out of its cloud GPUs, Drury argues that competitive pressures from rivals matter less in the near term, as Nvidia's growth is constrained not by demand or market share erosion, but by how quickly it can produce and deliver chips.

"Next time you hear about an AI hyperscaler launching its own chip or signing a deal with a competitor, like Advanced Micro Devices, investors shouldn't assume that Nvidia's product is inferior. It could be that Nvidia doesn't have the capacity that they need," explains Drury.

Another tailwind for the company in the year ahead could come from China, as it appears Nvidia will be allowed to resume sales to this vast market in 2026. Drury does caution, however, that Nvidia would effectively be paying a 25% market tax to export to China, and any restrictions Beijing might impose remain unknown.

Of course, the industry leader isn't standing still with its own technological roadmap, as the launch of its next-gen Rubin chips in 2026 is eagerly anticipated throughout the ecosystem. Drury predicts that Rubin "will be even more impressive" than the current Blackwell architecture.

All that leaves Drury feeling bullish indeed about Nvidia's prospects in the year ahead. "The next phase of the AI boom could be even bigger for Nvidia," emphasizes Drury. (To watch Keithen Drury's track record, click here)

Wall Street is also very confident in Nvidia's ability to keep gliding higher. With 39 Buy recommendations far exceeding just 1 Hold and 1 Sell, Nvidia earns a Strong Buy consensus rating. Its 12-month average price target of $264.97 implies potential gains of 43% in 2026. (See NVDA stock forecast)