Oppenheimer holds $265 on Nvidia (NVDA) ahead of August 26 earnings
Nvidia (NVDA) is in focus ahead of its August 26 earnings report, with Oppenheimer maintaining its Outperform rating and $265 price target on August 20 as bond yields spike and the broader tape sells AI infrastructure names harder than most. The firm expects Nvidia to beat second-quarter estimates and deliver a stronger-than-expected third-quarter outlook, and projects more than $1 trillion in cumulative revenues from the GB200, GB300, and VR200 platforms between 2025 and 2027.
Key takeaways
- Oppenheimer maintained its Outperform rating and $265 price target on Nvidia (NVDA) on August 20, ahead of the company's August 26 earnings report.
- Oppenheimer expects Nvidia to beat second-quarter estimates and issue a stronger-than-expected third-quarter outlook, projecting over $1 trillion in cumulative revenue from the GB200, GB300, and VR200 platforms between 2025 and 2027.
- Nvidia guided to $91 billion in Q2 revenue (plus or minus 2%) with gross margins near 75%, excluding any China data center compute revenue, versus consensus of $91.9 billion.
- Oppenheimer's $265 target sits below peers, with targets ranging up to Bank of America's $350, reflecting disagreement about how much of Nvidia's growth is already priced in.
- Nvidia is the exclusive AI compute provider at SB Energy's PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Ohio, where OpenAI is leasing the site for 20 years with capacity beginning in phases in 2028.
Nvidia (NVDA) is in focus ahead of its August 26 earnings report, with Oppenheimer maintaining its Outperform rating and $265 price target on August 20 as bond yields spike and the broader tape sells AI infrastructure names harder than most. The firm expects Nvidia to beat second-quarter estimates and deliver a stronger-than-expected third-quarter outlook, and projects more than $1 trillion in cumulative revenues from the GB200, GB300, and VR200 platforms between 2025 and 2027.
The numbers behind the call
Nvidia's trailing metrics give Oppenheimer something concrete to work with. Revenue grew 71% over the past 12 months. Gross profit margin sits at 74%. The stock trades at a P/E of 33.64 with a PEG ratio of 0.3, and market cap stands at $5.31 trillion.
On guidance, Nvidia projected $91 billion in Q2 revenue, plus or minus 2%, with gross margins near 75%. Consensus sits slightly above at $91.9 billion. The guidance excludes any China data center compute revenue. Oppenheimer treats China as optionality rather than base case and estimates H200 accelerator sales there could exceed $50 billion if export restrictions shift.
The firm's near-term thesis centers on Blackwell Ultra. The VR200 system is expected to ramp in the current quarter. Oppenheimer's argument is performance per watt: AI data centers are power-constrained, and a chip that delivers more compute per watt reduces operating costs at scale. The firm says Nvidia leads on tokens per minute and cost per token, the two metrics it expects to define commercial AI deployment economics. Oppenheimer also expects Nvidia's Vera CPU to generate approximately $20 billion in revenue in 2026, on a scale comparable to Intel and AMD's CPU businesses, as TheStreet reported.
Oppenheimer's $265 target sits below several peers on the street. Stifel reiterated Buy at $282. TD Cowen maintained Buy at $275. Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider holds Buy at $285 and expects meaningful upside to guidance. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya set a $350 target and models third-quarter guidance of $107 billion to $108 billion. The spread from $265 to $350 reflects real disagreement about how much of Nvidia's growth runway is already priced in. Moody's affirmed the Aa1 senior unsecured rating with a positive outlook; S&P Global Ratings maintained its AA issuer credit rating.
What to watch
The August 26 print is the setup's next gate. Blackwell Ultra ramp confirmation and specifics on the VR200 and Vera Rubin timelines are what the market is waiting on. The Ohio campus commitment adds long-duration texture: Nvidia is the exclusive AI compute infrastructure provider at SB Energy's PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, with OpenAI leasing the site for 20 years, initial capacity of 4.25 gigawatts with an option to expand to 8, Nvidia investing $1.5 billion directly in SB Energy and providing residual value guarantees capped at $105 billion, and capacity coming online in phases beginning in 2028 per CNBC. That commitment is sized to move the long-duration model, but the tape reads the August 26 print first.
Related reading
Filed by the newsroom of MarketPR on August 23, 2026. Source: finance.yahoo.com. Indicative figures are not investment advice.