Friday, 4 October 2024
by BD Banks
That L60 is one smart set of wheels — and chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) had a lot to do with it.
On Sept. 19 the Chinese automaker Nio’s (NIO) electric-vehicle Onvo sub-brand launched its first model: the L60, a midsize family smart electric SUV.
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The L60 helped push Nio third-quarter sales into record territory: The automaker delivered 61,855 EVs in the quarter, with sales rising 11.6% from the year-earlier period and 7.8% from Q2.
Nio, which recently announced a $1.9 billion investment, said that “by offering a spacious design, enhanced safety features and advanced technologies, the L60 maximizes user value while optimizing life-cycle ownership costs.”
Nvidia had a hand in those advanced technologies. The chipmaking giant said its Drive Orin serves as the artificial-intelligence brain of Onvo’s smart-driving system — known as OSD — and delivers up to 254 trillion operations per second of high-performance computing.
Nvidia said Drive Orin enables highly automated driver-assistance and autonomous-driving systems, along with other features that can be software-updated over the air.
Getty
“The launch of the Onvo L60 marks the latest in Nio and Nvidia’s decade of collaboration,” the company said.
Nvidia’s stock has been taking a wild ride recently.
Related: Nvidia shares buffeted by global security concerns
The shares fell recently on a report that China was telling local developers of AI applications to use only Chinese-made chips in their products.
China is an important market for the chipmaker. Sales to the country totaled $6.1 billion, about 11% of its first-half revenue.
Nvidia stock recouped its losses, however, finishing September up 1.7% and the third quarter down 1.7%.
Analysts at JPMorgan affirmed an overweight rating on Nvidia with a $155 price target after hosting a meeting with investor relations.
The discussion focused on the company’s data-center business before it ramps up shipments of its next-generation Blackwell platform, according to The Fly.
Nvidia remains on track to ship its next-generation Blackwell graphics-processing-unit platform in high volume production in the fourth quarter, the JPMorgan said.
The investment firm said the company still expects several billion dollars of Blackwell revenue to come in the fourth quarter.
“Blackwell is in full production, Blackwell is as planned, and demand for Blackwell is insane,” Chief Executive Jensen Huang said on CNBC’s Closing Bell. “Everyone wants the most, and everyone wants to be first.”
Blackwell is expected to cost between $30,000 to $40,000 per unit and is in demand from companies like Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) , as well as other firms building AI data centers to power products like ChatGPT and Copilot
Huang said that at a time when the technology is moving so fast, “it gives us an opportunity to triple down, to really drive the innovation cycle so that we can increase capabilities, increase our throughput, decrease our costs, decrease our energy consumption.”
“We’re on a path to do that, and everything’s on track,” Huang said.
Huang said Nvidia plans to update its AI platform each year to increase performance by two to three times.
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Huang was on CNBC with Accenture (ACN) CEO Julie Sweet to discuss their expanded partnership, which will see the consulting company training 30,000 employees on Nvidia’s artificial-intelligence software platform.
TheStreet Pro’s James “Rev Shark” DePorre has been keeping a sharp eye on Nvidia shares. DePorre noted that worries about Israel’s response to Iran and higher oil prices are building.
In addition, he said, the ADP jobs report was a little hotter than expected, and that is creating some concern about a rebound in inflation. Friday’s jobs report is going to be very important in terms of economic confidence, DePorre said.
“The question now is whether the dip buyers will stick around and keep things running,” he said.
DePorre noted earlier this week that dip buyers have been consistently rewarded when they jump in quickly on weakness, “so they are well-trained to go to work just when the bears are hoping to generate some momentum.”
Related: Apple may have a big problem on its hands
He said he had used the weakness in Nvidia to make a partial buy around the 50-day simple moving average.
“My thinking is that optimism about NVDA will build before its next earnings report on Nov. 14,” he said. “It is holding right now at the 50-day, but if the market weakens, it could easily move back down toward the $102.”
DePorre said that he was prepared to add shares down to that point and will be making some incremental buys as things develop.
“It is still two months until earnings are released, and there should be some volatility to trade in the interim,” he said.
“I am not optimistic that this corrective action is over, but frankly that may not be a bad thing as it would create some better opportunities if we see some panic selling.”
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