Nvidia hits another record high as AI takes centerstage

Nvidia's shares, valued at a low $23.3 in 2015, have since surged to hit a high of $190.10 on Monday, with at least four brokerages setting their price targets at $200 or above. Analysts have focused on the company's progress in artificial intelligence, in particular. "Our sense is management believes that investors still severely underestimates the impact of AI and the size of the potential market," Evercore analyst C J Muse wrote in a note on Friday after hosting Nvidia's management. Nvidia has been rapidly expanding into newer technologies including artificial intelligence, cloud computing and self-driving cars, away from designing graphics-processing chips for which the company was known for. Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Vivek Arya listed Nvidia a "top pick", basing his view "on (Nvidia's) underappreciated transformation from a traditional PC graphics vendor, into a supplier into high-end gaming, enterprise graphics, cloud, accelerated computing and automotive markets," according to Seeking Alpha.