Prediction: This Unstoppable Stock Will Soar to $20 Trillion by 2030, According to a Certain Wall Street Analyst

The biggest debate on Wall Street these days involves the future potential of artificial intelligence (AI). After several years of blistering returns, some investors have begun to avoid the key players in the space due to concerns about slowing growth and talk of a bubble. Yet the truth is much more nuanced, and the available evidence suggests that AI adoption continues unfettered.

Take AI chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), for example. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) have become the gold standard for AI training and inference in data centers, and while relative growth has slowed, absolute demand is still eye-catching.

Just last week, one Wall Street analyst doubled their five-year price target, positing Nvidia will be a $20 trillion company by 2030. Let's examine Nvidia's recent results, why this analyst is so bullish, and what it would take for the company to achieve a $20 trillion market cap.

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The AI revolution is alive and well

By any normal measure, Nvidia's results over the past decade have been exemplary: Revenue has grown 3,970%, while its net income has surged 15,320%. That performance, combined with rapid adoption of AI, has driven a blistering rise in its stock price, which has soared 23,490% (as of this writing).

The company's recent results help put the eye-popping numbers into context. In its fiscal 2026 third quarter (ended Oct. 26), Nvidia's results reaccelerated. It delivered record revenue of $57 billion, which jumped 62% year over year and 22% sequentially. This fueled earnings per share (EPS) that rose 67% to $1.30.

Driving the results was the data center segment -- which includes AI chips used for data centers and cloud computing -- as sales soared 66% to $51.2 billion, providing the clearest evidence yet that demand for AI continues.

Management's outlook suggests the best is yet to come. For the fourth quarter, Nvidia's forecast calls for revenue of $65 billion, which would represent year-over-year growth of 66% at the midpoint of its guidance.

Capital expenditures (capex) by the biggest technology companies continues to ramp higher. While projections originally stood at $250 billion for AI-centric capex in 2025, that number has climbed to $405 billion and continues to rise. Furthermore, spending is expected to be higher still in 2026.

Nvidia is the dominant supplier of data center GPUs with an estimated 92% of the market, according to IoT Analytics, so it is well-positioned to profit from this ongoing tidal wave of AI-related spending.

The path to $20 trillion

Nvidia currently boasts a market cap of roughly $4.4 trillion (as of this writing). The company would need to deliver stock price gains of 352% to drive its value to $20 trillion. According to Wall Street, Nvidia is on track to generate revenue of roughly $213 billion for its fiscal 2026 (which ends in January), resulting in a forward price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 21. Assuming its P/S remains constant, Nvidia would need to grow its revenue to roughly $919 billion annually to support a $20 trillion market cap.

Wall Street is forecasting annual revenue growth of 31% for Nvidia over the coming five years. If the company can achieve that growth rate, it could reach a $20 trillion market cap as early as 2030. Wall Street has a tendency to underestimate chipmakers' results, so I suspect it will cross that threshold even sooner.

Don't take my word for it. Beth Kindig, CEO and lead tech analyst for the I/O Fund, recently doubled her price target for Nvidia, and her math supports what might at first seem like a sensational proclamation. Kindig said the company needs to grow its data center revenue by 36% annually over the coming five years to hit a $20 trillion market cap:

This is supported by Nvidia's aggressive 1-year product roadmap, an impenetrable software ecosystem through CUDA [Compute Unified Device Architecture], and its evolution into a full-stack AI systems provider. When these elements are modeled together -- alongside the rapid expansion in global AI infrastructure capex -- the path to $20 trillion becomes less sensational and more a reflection of compounding fundamentals.

Keep in mind that back in 2019 -- when Nvidia had a market cap of just $550 billion -- Kindig made the audacious call that Nvidia would surpass Apple to become the world's most valuable company, a prediction that has since come true. As such, I tend to give her analysis more weight.

Nvidia has been and will likely continue to be a volatile stock, so the path ahead will no doubt be a bumpy ride, with numerous peaks and valleys on the road to new heights.

Nvidia's valuation could be a sticking point for some investors, as the stock is currently selling for 45 times trailing-12-month sales. However, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio falls short when assessing high-growth stocks like Nvidia. Using the more appropriate price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio returns a multiple of 0.8, when any number less than 1 is the standard for an undervalued stock.

Danny Vena, CPA has positions in Apple and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.