AI Leaders Secure New Deals, Ratings, Targets

Several major semiconductor and AI-focused companies received fresh analyst attention and unveiled new initiatives around late February 2026, underscoring sustained investment in AI infrastructure and applications.

Wedbush and RBC Capital increased price targets on NVIDIA Corporation, Mizuho raised its target on Advanced Micro Devices, and Robert W. Baird maintained a Buy rating on Broadcom, while BTIG reiterated its Buy on Carvana following stronger financial and operating trends.

NVIDIA reported record quarterly revenue of $68.1 billion, up 73% year over year, with data center revenue rising 75% to $62.3 billion. GAAP gross margin reached 75.0%, diluted GAAP EPS was $1.76, and full-year revenue came in at $215.9 billion, up 65%.

Despite the beat and favorable guidance, Nvidia shares fell about 5.5% on Feb. 26, the stock’s worst one-day drop since April 2025. The company guided Q1 2027 revenue to $78.0 billion plus or minus 2%, with expected GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins of 74.9% and 75.0%, respectively, plus or minus 50 basis points.

Wedbush lifted its Nvidia price target to $300 from $230, and RBC raised its target to $250 from $240, both with Outperform ratings, citing stronger-than-expected results, an acceleration in data center sales, visibility extending into 2027 and Rubin product ramps remaining on track despite elevated memory prices.

Separately, Nvidia is expanding sovereign-scale AI projects, including gigawatt-level AI factories in India, and is deepening telecom partnerships through Open RAN and spectrum intelligence efforts, as well as confidential compute and enterprise AI deployments in North America and Australia.

Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh increased AMD’s price objective to $280 from $275 with an Outperform rating, pointing to an expanded partnership with Meta focused on ramping Instinct accelerator deployments. The firm expects about 600 basis points of gross margin dilution from warrants but noted AMD views the Meta deal as accretive to revenue and earnings.

AMD and Nutanix also announced a multi-year strategic partnership to build an open, full-stack AI infrastructure platform for agentic AI applications. AMD will invest $150 million in Nutanix stock at $36.26 per share and may finance up to $100 million to support joint engineering and go-to-market collaboration.

For Broadcom, Robert W. Baird’s William Power maintained a Buy rating and set a $420 price objective, citing AI momentum and earnings potential. The analyst highlighted accelerated demand for Broadcom’s v7 custom ASICs that power Google’s TPU infrastructure, which is used for AI workloads by customers such as OpenAI, Apple, Meta and Anthropic.

The Baird analysis pointed to potential EPS above $30 by 2030, supported by an expected roughly $65 billion in AI revenue this year and an estimated five-year compound growth rate of about 45%. Broadcom also introduced BroadPeak, a radio digital front-end SoC chip designed to enhance 5G massive MIMO systems and remote radio heads.

Intel entered a multi-year partnership with AI chip startup SambaNova to pair Intel Xeon processors with SambaNova AI accelerators, targeting enterprise customers seeking alternatives to established GPU solutions. At the same time, Intel is undergoing a leadership change in its Intel Foundry Services division as its head departs for Qualcomm.

Intel shares recently closed at $45.61, up 15.8% year to date and 92.2% over the past year, while the five-year return remains a 17.4% decline. The stock trades about 3.3% below the US$47.12 analyst price target and is assessed as 33.7% above estimated fair value by Simply Wall St.

Baidu reported Q4 2025 revenue of RMB 32.7 billion (US$4.68 billion), up 5% quarter over quarter, mainly driven by Baidu Core AI-powered business. AI Cloud Infra revenue reached RMB 5.8 billion, with subscription-based AI accelerator infrastructure revenue rising 143% year over year.

Baidu’s net income was RMB 1.8 billion (US$255 million) in Q4 2025. Its Apollo Go autonomous ride-hailing service delivered 3.4 million fully driverless operational rides during the quarter, with weekly rides exceeding 300,000 and total rides increasing more than 200% year over year, as the company continued international expansion.

BTIG analyst Marvin Fong maintained a Buy rating and a $455 price objective on Carvana, supported by the company’s updated financial outlook and valuation framework. Fong slightly raised 2026 revenue forecasts after adjusting ADESA Clear sales to the wholesale segment, implying higher wholesale unit volumes.

The analyst now expects increased adjusted EBITDA for Q1 2026 and full-year 2026, viewing the incremental revisions as reinforcing an improved earnings power that supports a premium multiple on future profitability. Carvana reported selling 596,641 retail units in 2025, up 43% year over year, driving record annual revenue of $20.322 billion, a 49% year-over-year increase.