Nvidia stock was rising early on Thursday as the chip maker reached the final day of its developer event. While its hardware announcements took center stage, additions to its software range could also be key for growth.
Nvidia shares were up 2% in premarket trading at $922.15. That leaves it slightly short of its record closing high of $926.69 reached earlier this month but the stock has moved higher over t he duration of the GTC event in San Jose this week.
Apart from the announcement of the new Blackwell chips, which are expected to become the new favored hardware for powering artificial-intelligence systems, the focus of the event has been on the broadening range of services Nvidia provides.
That includes more software options, with the latest being Nvidia Inference Microservices, or NIMs, which are used to simplify deployment of generative AI models.
"NIMs are pre-trained models (e.g. computer vision, speech recognition, robotics) that are packaged and optimized to run across its installed base for its enterprise customers...[Nvidia] is planning to deploy hundreds of different models which we expect will drive strong growth in its software business," wrote J.P. Morgan analyst Harlan Sur in a research note.
Sur reiterated an Overweight rating on Nvidia stock.
Maintaining a lead in software is likely to be critical for Nvidia which will want to avoid a similar fate as networking hardware provider Cisco Systems, which surged during the dot-com boom but subsequently plunged.
Widespread use of NIMs and other Nvidia-provided software will keep developers dependent on the company's CUDA software for building applications.
Other chip makers were gaining on Thursday with Advanced Micro Devices up 1.9% in premarket trading and Intel gaining 1.5%.
Nvidia shares have risen 82% this year to date through to Wednesday's close. That compares with a 9.5% rise in the S&P 500 index and a 9.1% rise in the Nasdaq Composite Index over the same period.
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