NVIDIA Stock Gains on Strategic AI Licensing Deal, Caps a Strong 2025

NVIDIA Corporation’s NVDA stock climbed 1% on Friday, Dec. 26, after it announced a strategic licensing partnership with AI inference chipmaker Groq and the integration of key Groq leadership into Nvidia’s teams. This was, in essence, further evidence of Nvidia’s expanding role in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, especially beyond its core GPU training prowess. As traders closed out a holiday-shortened week, Nvidia’s shares finished the session at around $190.53.

Throughout 2025, NVDA, part of the Zacks Semiconductor - General industry, has delivered robust gains amid surging global demand for AI hardware and continued optimism about the company’s long-term growth trajectory. Friday’s uptick came as Nvidia detailed its non-exclusive licensing agreement with Groq, under which it will integrate Groq’s inference technology into its portfolio and welcome Groq’s founder and other senior personnel to help scale the licensed technology. While the deal stops short of a full acquisition, the arrangement reinforces Nvidia’s bet on bolstering its AI chip capabilities across both training and inference workloads.

Nvidia’s year-end strength reflects broader confidence in AI as a structural growth driver for technology markets, even as macroeconomic and regulatory uncertainties linger. While investors remained concerned about whether AI is actually a bubble, the stock’s performance this year has outpaced many peers in the semiconductor sector. This has aligned with sustained investor appetite for companies positioned to benefit from the ongoing AI-driven transformation of computing infrastructure.

Year to date, NVDA’s shares have risen about 42% compared with the Zacks sub-industry's growth of 38.6%, supported by strong earnings, expanding data-center deployments and a series of partnerships and investments that have reinforced its position at the heart of the AI boom. STMicroelectronics N.V. STM and Texas Instruments Incorporated TXN, two of its peers from the same industry, have moved 5.1% and -5.7%, respectively, in the same period. While NVDA has a Zacks #2 (Buy), both STM and TXN carry a #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Bottom Line

As Nvidia heads into 2026, its ability to leverage strategic partnerships like the Groq deal, alongside continued innovation in next-generation chips and AI platforms, will likely remain a focal point for the AI boom and tech sector in general.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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