Shares of chipmaking giant Nvidia extended their winning streak for the third straight session on Friday, 8 May, surging another 3% to a fresh record high of $217.80, putting the stock on track for its biggest weekly gain since late October.
The fresh wave of optimism surrounding the tech major came after Nvidia expanded its rapidly growing roster of partners by signing an artificial intelligence infrastructure deal with AI cloud provider IREN Ltd. The deal comes as technology companies race to secure computing capacity for AI models and cloud services.
Nvidia, the dominant maker of artificial intelligence processors, is investing as much as $2.1 billion in IREN. as part of a broader partnership between the two companies aimed at accelerating the construction of AI infrastructure.
IREN has agreed to issue Nvidia a five-year right to purchase up to 30 million shares at an exercise price of $70, the companies said in a statement on Thursday. The two companies are also working together to roll out billions of dollars’ worth of computing capacity, according to a Bloomberg report.
The report said IREN will enter into a five-year agreement to provide Nvidia access to cloud services worth around $3.4 billion in revenue.
Nvidia and IREN plan to deploy large-scale data centers together, leveraging Nvidia’s equipment and IREN’s expertise in securing land, power, and other critical components required to build such facilities.
The agreement is intended to combine Nvidia’s AI systems and architecture with IREN’s expertise in power, land, data centers, GPU deployment, and infrastructure operations.
Nvidia has also struck a variety of deals across the AI ecosystem. It has taken stakes in developers such as OpenAI and fellow chipmakers like Marvell Technology, aiming to fuel industry-wide growth, as per the report.
The company has made a series of investments and commercial agreements across the AI infrastructure supply chain, including deals involving CoreWeave, Nebius Group, Coherent, Lumentum Holdings, and Corning.
Bloomberg said the strategy has drawn criticism from some observers, who described it as circular because Nvidia is investing in companies that also buy its chips.
Nvidia m-cap tops $5 trillion
Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, has gained 15.72% so far this year. The rally has pushed the company’s market capitalisation above $5.2 trillion.
AI-related and other Big Tech stocks had come under pressure earlier this year as investors grew uneasy about heavy spending without near-term visibility on faster revenue growth, stronger margins, and improved cash flows.
However, the latest earnings updates from rivals such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company have helped restore investor confidence, as demand for artificial intelligence chips remains robust.
The four cloud-computing giants, often referred to as hyperscalers, have reportedly indicated that spending on artificial intelligence is unlikely to slow anytime soon, with their combined outlays now expected to surpass $700 billion this year.
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