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Invest Fest 2023
Cathie Wood, Getty Images
Yeesh

Ark missed the Nvidia boat

Cathie Wood cautions investors to be wary of a stock that she sold too soon.

Jack Raines

Last week, Ark Invest founder Cathie Wood warned investors to be cautious with Nvidia, comparing the chip maker’s recent performance to Cisco in the 90s:

Cisco Systems (CSCO) offers a good history lesson. I remember well the stock's behavior at a similar technology moment in time. In the three and a half years leading to March 9, 1994, CSCO soared ~31-fold from $0.07 to $2.24 split-adjusted, as its routers, switches, and other equipment dominated the buildout of the internet backbone globally. The capital markets began to fund competitors, even those with systems inferior to Cisco’s, which confused strategic planners in corporations and cast a short-term pall on spending. In the four months leading up to July 15, 1994, CSCO dropped 51% as companies—already worried about a potential recession—reassessed their spending commitments and deliberated. After the coast cleared, CSCO entered another ~73-fold run into the peak of the internet bubble during 2000.

Today, Nvidia (NVDA) is that company. Central to the AI age, NVDA has soared ~117-fold in the roughly nine years since February 8, 2015, when analysts were beginning to understand that breakthroughs in Deep Learning were accelerating the pace of AI change, to the benefit of GPUs (graphic processing units). NVDA also had appreciated 23-fold in the five years since its last inventory correction, one triggered by a crypto winter that hit it in October 2018 and trounced the stock by 56% in three months.

Wood’s argument is fair: Nvidia’s revenue growth will likely decelerate as supply catches up with demand and key customers continue developing their own chips in-house. It was, however, surprising to hear such prudence from Wood, whose firm predicted less than a year ago that Tesla could reach an $8 trillion market cap by 2027 primarily driven by $613 billion in robotaxi revenue (reality check: Tesla currently generates $0 in robotaxi revenue). So, why the sudden caution about Nvidia?

It feels, to me, like a justification for missing the $2 trillion disruptive innovation of the last few years: Nvidia.

In September 2022, Ark owned 757,481 Nvidia shares. However, between October 2022 and January 2023, they sold their entire stake in the chip maker, despite the AI goldrush kicking off in November when OpenAI launched ChatGPT. Had Ark held their entire stake, it would be worth $677 million at today's prices.

Nvidia’s stock is up 4.9x since Ark closed their position, while Ark’s Innovation ETF is up 1.3x. Sure, it's wise to be cautious when a stock has climbed 700% in 18 months, but this "warning" feels a lot like self-justification.

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Broadcom jumps after locking down Google as a customer for future generations of TPUs

Shares of Broadcom rose more than 3% in postmarket trading on Monday after its most important customer doubled down on the custom chip specialist’s ability to produce its most valuable commodity.

In a filing, Broadcom said that it entered into a long-term agreement with Google to supply future generations of TPUs (custom AI accelerator chips) as well as a supply assurance agreement for networking and other equipment “through up to 2031.”

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon indicated that Broadcom’s investor relations team told him that Google’s long-term agreement “has revenue commitments that go along with it through the timeline.”

Gemini 3 launched to rave reviews in November. The model was trained on TPUs co-developed by Broadcom and Google.

The same Monday filing showed that Broadcom, Google, and Anthropic expanded a partnership that will see the Claude developer access 3.5 gigawatts of AI compute capacity beginning in 2027, powered by the TPUs co-designed by the custom chip specialist and the search giant.

Bernstein’s Rasgon added that Broadcom’s team suggested these 3.5 gigawatts are “only part of a larger partnership over time.” He thinks Broadcom’s fiscal year 2027 guidance for AI revenues of $100 billion “is looking increasingly light” thanks to this news.

For what it’s worth, the enhanced pact with Anthropic hinges upon the firm’s ability to afford AI compute. But based on the insane trajectory of its run-rate revenue that may not be a big hurdle to clear.

“Broadcom’s expanded agreements with Google and Anthropic add rare multi-year visibility, reinforcing a $40-$50 billion AI revenue opportunity tied to Anthropic’s 3.5 gigawatt deployment starting in 2027, while building on the previously disclosed 1GW ($10 billion) starting in 2H,” wrote Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Kunjan Sobhani and Oscar Hernandez Tejada.

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Health insurers surge after Medicare agrees to pay 2.48% more in 2027, a bigger-than-expected boost

Health insurance stocks are surging after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it plans to boost Medicare Advantage and Part D payments by 2.48% in calendar year 2027.

The likes of CVS, Humana, UnitedHealth, Molina Healthcare, Oscar Health, and Elevance Health are gaining in postmarket trading.

Wall Street analysts had anticipated that rates for 2027 would go up between roughly 1% and 1.5%.

These stocks had gotten crushed in late January when the Trump administration proposed relatively flat federal payment rates.

Insurance companies that provide government-sponsored plans, like Medicare Advantage, faced headwinds from higher-than-expected costs in 2025.

markets

Iran war winners Dow, LyondellBasell downgraded by Bank of America

Dow, Inc. and LyondellBasell — two petrochemicals stocks that surged as markets priced in shortages due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — should decline as investors focus on the long-term outlook for normalized petrochemical prices once the war resolves, Bank of America analysts wrote in a note downgrading the two stocks Monday.

BofA moved its rating on the shares from “neutral” to “underperform,” writing:

“Over time, as chemical markets normalize, we expect 1) investor focus to shiſt back to ‘normal’ or ‘sustainable’ earnings profiles and 2) the conflict to resolve without material asset rationalization, both of which likely bias shares lower over the next twelve months.”

Analysts also lowered their stance on another petrochemicals and building materials stock, Westlake, to “neutral” from “buy.”

While cutting those ratings, BofA actually raised its more near-term price targets for the shares. It upped LyondellBasell to $68 from $55, and Dow to $35 from $31.

But those price targets still imply declines of more than 10% compared to where both shares were trading late Monday morning. Both stocks are up roughly 30% since the start of the Iran war.

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