Nvidia Approaches Critical Threshold as Analysts Set Higher Expectations Before Earnings; Should Investors Buy or Sell Now?

Morgan Stanley raised the firm's price target on Synopsys to $550 from $510 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. Record FY25 revenues and backlog and an in-line Ansys result contrasts with "the maladies of the last print," says the analyst, who adds that the "mainly in-line" FY26 guidance for sales and EPS after allowing for recent divestments, debt paydown and new shares issued to Nvidia (NVDA) reflects a "pragmatism" on China and industrial demand, but also gives assurances that the back half could see improvement.

Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers views official reports of Trump Administration finalizing details of lifting Nvidia's H200 export controls to China as an incremental positive. Wells thinks investors could think about a $25-$30B/annum-plus revenue and positive 60c-70c/share EPS impact. The firm has an Overweight rating on the shares with a price target of $265.

Bernstein raised the firm's price target on TSMC (TSM) to $330 from $290 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm increased the company's chip-on-wafer-on-substrate capacity to 125,000 wpm exiting 2026. This will be just enough to support projects announced from Blackwell and Rubin for Nvidia (NVDA) in 2025 and 2026 but not much more, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Bernstein forecasts TSMC's revenue will grow 23% in fiscal 2026 and 20% in 2027.

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:AI CHIPS:U.S. senators plan to introduce legislation that would make it more difficult for China to obtain critical American AI-related technology, effectively barring Nvidiafrom selling its AI chips to Beijing, the Financial Times' Demetri Sevastopulo. The Secure and Feasible Exports Chips Act would mandate that the commerce secretary prohibit export licenses for advanced chips to China for 30 months, which would prevent Nvidia from selling its H200 and Blackwell chips to China, the author says. Other publicly traded companies in the space include AMD, Intel, Marvell, Microchip, Micron, Qualcommand Texas Instruments.PARTNERSHIP WITH META:People Inc. announced a strategic content partnership with Metaas the first lifestyle publisher to make real-time content available to Meta AI users across popular categories such as entertainment, home, food, health, and finance. The deal includes celebrated People Inc. brands such as People, Better Homes & Gardens, Allrecipes, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Verywell Health, InStyle and more. People Inc. content is expected to phase into Meta AI's experiences over the coming days. Terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed. The multi-year partnership provides Meta access to People Inc. content to help Meta AI users discover lifestyle topics tailored to their interests-from holiday trends to celebrity news-ensuring appropriate attribution and links back to all People Inc. websites. People Inc. is based in New York City and is an operating business of IAC.USA Todayalso announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Meta Platformsto access new and archival content from USA Today, more than 200 USA Today Network local publications and the network of USA Today Sports wires. This partnership enables Meta's family of apps and devices to feature news and information from local and national newsrooms.TETON RIDGE:Palantirand TWG AI announced a new effort with Teton Ridge, the western sports and entertainment company backed by TWG Global, to bring real-time AI and computer vision to rodeo - accelerating and elevating the sport experience for athletes, fans, and partners, in collaboration with Nvidia. Over the past year, Teton Ridge, owner of Cowboy Channel and related western sports and media communities, has partnered with PRCA-sanctioned rodeos to test and refine AI and computer-vision applications in live arena settings, gathering critical athlete feedback and enabling rapid real-world iteration. Teton Ridge began this effort by aggregating and structuring years of historical rider, animal, and event-performance data across multiple disciplines. Working with Palantir and TWG AI through TWG Global, the company deployed Palantir Foundry and AIP to analyze every ride and race with advanced computer vision models, building a deeper understanding of the mechanics between human and animal athletes.BUY COREWEAVE:Roth Capital initiated coverage of CoreWeavewith a Buy rating and $110 price target. CoreWeave is positioned to be "a top four market share winner" in an AI Cloud market that will likely exceed the size of the traditional Internet Cloud, says the firm, citing the company's "proven scale," speed to market, and superior product-price performance versus AI Cloud peers and hyperscalers. With shares down about 40% since early October, the firm sees a "highly asymmetric risk/reward," Roth tells investors.Freedom Capital analyst Paul Meeks also started coverage of CoreWeave with a Buy rating and $100 price target. The firm says the stock's recent selloff "significantly overstates" the risk that CoreWeave will not deliver its $56B multi-year revenue backlog. The company's payments from hyperscalers which are supporting its capital expenditures "are secure for several years," Freedom tells investors in a research note.