Yes, I know, you knew already. Don’t tell me - tell your friends and any politician, exec or other person not in the know who are still thinking of AI as the solution to all of our problems instead of for the limited number of applications it’s actually good for.
So invest in Nvidia then?
Maybe - or maybe it’s too late now. The whole thing looks like the biggest tech bubble since the dotcom bubble to me, but I’m notorious for my skepticism, so don’t listen to me. I’ve been wrong in the past, like when I dismissed Bitcoin very early on, but thought that, roughly around the same time +/- a year or two, LeapMotion (ever heard of that scam?) was the raddest thing since sliced bread. Had I invested my meager savings back then (into Bitcoin instead of backing that stupid LeapMotion kickstarter, yes even that relatively small amount), I would be so filthy rich by now, I’d feel bad about it and probably donated most of it already, so I’d be as poor as I am now (I’ve never liked boats much and that’s all rich people seem to care about anyway). Okay, I might have indulged myself with a vintage car by now, but it would have two cylinders at most, less power than the average garden tool and start with a crank handle, if you catch my drift.
Where was I? The thing is, Nvidia is probably the one company that will be in the strongest position after this, no matter where the journey is heading. The whole AI thing goes belly up tomorrow? They still got a borderline monopoly in the gaming and professional GPU market, since even their most basic GPUs are great for both. With the profits they have already made, they can still crush AMD even more than they are already doing. The spending spree on AI hardware ending (like seriously, you could have ended hunger on this rock several times over with this much dosh) would still hurt their bottom line, since a significant percentage of their profits (too lazy to look it up) is coming from AI right now, and this would result in their evaluation receiving a seriously overdue reality check, but depending on at which time of the week you bought in, you might still come out ahead, perhaps in the longer run at least.
It is late for buying in right now though or at least it feels that way, but what do I know. You don’t buy into the most valuable company on the planet when it’s at its most valuable. There seem to be an increasing number of AI-skeptical articles and voices in mainstream media, including surveys that demonstrate most people really don’t give a damn, as well as more and more academics weighing in on AI stagnating, which prompts denials from both sides of the shovel selling counter that are a bit too “Everything is fine and only getting better forever! Pinky swear!” for my taste. This could be sign of an impeding crash or it’s just background noise that accompanies every new tech as it establishes itself, but it feels distinctly different from the noise surrounding even crypto (which seems to be here to stay, even though it’s not the mainstream tech bro darling anymore) or actually useful tech we can’t live without anymore even though we did just fine for millennia, like TVs and smartphones.
Anyway, that’s three meandering paragraphs that I wasted your time with, even though I could have just written: You might be a bit late, but I don’t actually know. Edit: I wrote that in the first sentence, but forgot, so if you had stopped reading there, like you probably should have, then you’d probably be less confused than you are now.
That was a fun read. You keep being you!
If you’re investing in NVIDIA long term, now is as fine a time as any (although closer to $100 is a safer price). I think the short term pump is fading though, at least now it isn’t as safe as it would have been 6 months ago.
I think there’s a lot of chatter about those who dislike AI, but on general internet (Facebook, IG, TikTok, etc) there is a fairly significant portion of people who are all in on what it can do. Samsung, for all my complaints about them, have a pretty interesting set of AI features for their tablets. For example, gone are the days of using Photoshop to take out the background of an image, you can just open the photo app and hold on a subject and cut it out. Using it, it is basically perfect. It’s part of the Samsung AI suite, which can also do generative imaging, but most people agree that the usefulness of the former is far higher than turning a little doodle into an AI “sketch”.
This AI update they released has been around for almost a year now, and to be honest since NVIDIA’s stock split I’ve been hearing about the AI crash. And then NVIDIA hit 1T market cap, lol. I have a feeling that there are too many politicians who have investments to have it all crashing down. I would say that we are more likely to see problems with Taiwan affect the U.S. market before people’s disillusionment with AI will.
What I do think though is that the AI hype benefits for most companies is wavering in the market. 3 months ago you would be seeing every tech company benefiting from AI, and now many of those have dropped (for example, Micron as a DRAM manufacturer). But the general public? The AI music making app Suno is getting away with suing people (after getting a lawsuit themselves from a record label). Supposedly 2 billion people visit ChatGPT which is 5 times more than the next highest, Gemini.
Despite our spaces here disliking AI, I’m just not so sure that the wider general public feels the same way. Personally, in regards to the market, I had a feeling about NVIDIA back in April, got in around $100, got out at $145 a month ago and put some of it into NVDY for dividend growth instead - AMD too. They’re not going anywhere, AI or not like you said.
Also… I’ve run into a number of people who hate AI but use it anyway. I wonder if the AI hate does come around to start affecting a bottom line, might these companies just change the phrase and carry on as usual