Nvidia sees Blackwell outperforming prior guidance, says Citi

Citi says that during its 2025 CES special address, Nvidia (NVDA) further laid out its hybrid artificial intelligence platform, which will use the company’s graphics processing units in the cloud to run the largest language models. The firm maintains a Buy rating on the shares with a $175 price target after meeting with management at CES. Management expects Blackwell will likely outperform the prior guidance of a couple of billions of dollars, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Citi says Nvidia also confirmed Hopper and Blackwell combined will grow in the January quarter and believes the growth is sustainable. Management mentioned four major trends, including the company benefiting from what is likely the tail-end of the $2 trillion traditional compute market as it believes most workloads will eventually be accelerated, the firm notes. It points out Nvidia believes quantum computing is good at small data problems such as cryptography, and not necessarily large data problems AI is currently addressing. Management believes quantum computing will start to be truly helpful in 15-30 years, Citi adds.