Nvidia ticks up as Piper Sandler names it top large-cap pick

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) was in the spotlight on Monday as Piper Sandler named the semiconductor giant its top large-cap pick due to its “dominant positioning” in the artificial intelligence accelerator market.

Shares rose fractionally in premarket trading.

“Our viewpoint is rooted in the belief that the overall [total addressable market] for AI accelerators will continue to rise in 2025 by ~$70 billion, and we see NVDA well positioned to capture most of the incremental TAM increase while ceding only a small bit to its merchant chip competitors,” analyst Harsh Kumar wrote in a note to clients.

“In terms of other gainers, we only see AVGO as making further incremental progress in this market,” Kumar added, referencing Broadcom (AVGO). Kumar has an Overweight rating on Nvidia and $175 price target.

Additionally, the capex trends at the big hyperscalers, such as Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) Meta (META), continues to be “favorable,” Kumar added.

“All else equal, we see at least sustained levels of capex through 2025, if not accelerated with a shift towards chips & servers and spend away from buildings and other fixed property,” Kumar wrote. “We think this clearly benefits NVDA in the near to mid-term future and as such, we are taking our numbers up slightly for the January quarter and subsequent FY26 quarters.”

Separately on Monday, Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Nvidia to $160 from $150.