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If You'd Invested $500 in Nvidia 5 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

By Neil Patel | October 11, 2025, 7:00 AM

Key Points

  • Nvidia shares have benefited tremendously from the robust demand the business is seeing for its powerful GPUs.

  • Any slowdown in AI spending will likely add lots of downward pressure on the stock price.

When the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) comes up, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is probably the first company that comes to mind. The prosperous technology enterprise is helping to build out AI infrastructure across the globe. Shareholders who have been along for the ride should have zero complaints.

If you bought $500 worth of this thriving AI stock five years ago, here's how much money you'd have today.

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Investors have reaped massive rewards from this AI stock

Over the past five years, Nvidia shares would've turned a $500 investment into an unbelievable $6,800 today (as of Oct. 7). That's a 1,250% total return. Nvidia is now the most valuable business on Earth, with a colossal market cap of $4.5 trillion.

Nvidia is the top winner in the AI boom

It seems that companies have no desire to let up on the gas pedal, as they are investing copious amounts of capital in AI-related infrastructure. Nvidia has been a direct beneficiary; its customers have insatiable demand for its data center graphics processing units. Nvidia's revenue totaled $46.7 billion in its fiscal 2026 second quarter (ended July 27). This was a monster increase of 618% compared to exactly five years ago.

Wall Street analysts believe the top line will grow 149% between fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2028. That's an exciting outlook. However, if there's any sign of a slowdown in AI spending, Nvidia's stock might experience a rapid sell-off.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $663,905!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,180,428!*

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*Stock Advisor returns as of October 7, 2025

Neil Patel has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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