It’s no secret that Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares have absolutely smashed it over the last few years. In fact, since December 2020, the stock has surged almost 1,200%. And even in 2025, its market momentum has continued climbing by another 24% despite already being a multi-trillion-dollar enterprise.
That means anyone who bought £5,000 worth of Nvidia shares back in January now has around £6,180 sitting in the bank. And for those who were smart enough to see the opportunity back in 2020, they’re sitting pretty on a massive £64,410 nest egg.
And yet looking at the latest projections from analysts, even more explosive growth could be coming in 2026.
So, just how much money could investors make from buying Nvidia shares right now?
Bullish forecasts
Even though AI infrastructure investments have ramped up drastically in 2025, even more spending is expected next year. And as the leading provider of top-tier high-performance AI chips, Nvidia has been enjoying a bit of a technological monopoly that still continues.
2026 sees the launch of its Blackwell Ultra GB300 chip, which has significantly more processing power than its once-flagship Hopper H100 from 2022. Yet by 2027, the impressive GB300 chip could be made redundant by an even more powerful chip under Nvidia’s in-development Rubin architecture.
With AI data centres racing to secure the best hardware, the company appears to be on track to enjoy even more order surges. And since its closest competitors continue to lag its technological capabilities, Nvidia’s pricing power just continues to expand, driving fatter profit margins.
This enormous tailwind is why the average analyst consensus projects Nvidia shares could climb to as high as $250 by this time next year. That’s roughly 41% higher than today’s stock price. And if these forecasts prove accurate, it means that investing £5,000 today could grow to just over £7,000 in the next 12 months!
What to watch
While Nvidia is impressive, it’s far from a guaranteed success story in 2026.
Almost all of its hardware sales stem from just a handful of tech giants, specifically Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Meta, and Apple. The trouble is, each customer is investing aggressively in developing their own custom AI chips to eliminate their expensive dependency on Nvidia hardware.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, AI company DeepSeek demonstrated that through superior AI algorithm efficiency, less powerful AI chips could be more than sufficient to train advanced models. And if compute power requirements continue falling, AI infrastructure spending on Nvidia products could collapse, wiping out the stock’s premium valuation.
So, where does that leave investors today?
Underestimating Nvidia so far has been a costly mistake. And if AI demand remains buoyant next year with hyperscalers not holding back on hardware upgrades, a $250 share price could indeed be on the table.
However, it’s impossible to ignore the rapidly shifting risks surrounding this business. With the stock seemingly priced for perfection, even a slight dip in AI capex could be all that it takes to spook investors and trigger a substantial sell-off.
That’s why I’m not rushing to buy Nvidia shares right now, especially since there are other compelling opportunities to explore today.
