Catenaa, Friday, April 17, 2026- Nvidia stock is on an 11-day winning streak, with the share up by 21% so far in April, as the chipmaker has cemented itself at the heart of the AI boom with a monopoly on the most powerful chips to train and run models.
CEO Jensen Huang admits to past missed opportunities in AI investments, but Nvidia is now focused on expanding its role in the AI ecosystem.
Nvidia recent launch of quantum AI models has attracted attention, indicating strong market demand and positioning the company for future growth.
The collaboration between Broadcom, Google, and Anthropic could influence Nvidia’s competitive landscape, as tech firms seek to reduce reliance on its infrastructure.
Despite the positive momentum, Nvidia’s recent earnings performance and market consolidation could present challenges in maintaining its rally.
Investors are throwing huge sums behind them. In 2026, AI chip startups raised $8.3 billion in funding globally, according to Dealroom.
Barring a near-total collapse of the market, the sector is expected to see record sums pumped into it this year.
While Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs), which were originally designed for gaming, have been effectively repurposed for AI training, focus is now shifting to the most efficient ways to actually deploy the tech in applications, known as AI inference.
The argument of these chip upstarts is this: GPUs weren’t purpose-designed for AI, and therefore, novel system architecture will bring big savings in energy and cost.
Nvidia, which has huge advantages as the world’s most valuable company with an almost limitless supply of cash, is still racing to develop new chips to power AI.
In December, the company acquired assets from AI inference startup Groq for $20 billion and announced it had invested $4 billion into two companies developing photonics technology in March.
The chip giant also spent more than $18 billion on research and development in its most recent full financial year, ending January 2026.
But investors haven’t been deterred from throwing money behind new, and often untested at scale, AI chip technology.
In the US, where many of the biggest rounds have been raised, Cerebras Systems picked up $1 billion in February, and there have been $500 million rounds in 2026 for MatX, Ayar Labs, and Etched.
European companies have raised comparatively smaller sums, but Axelera and Olix have both raised rounds north of $200 million this year.
Others, including Euclyd and Optalysys, told me they’re planning rounds of at least $100 million in 2026, as are Fractile and Arago, according to reports.
“It’s no longer a niche bet,” said Carlos Espinal, managing partner at European VC Seedcamp, which backed chip startup Vaire Computing. “It’s becoming a core part of how people think about AI infrastructure.”
