NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) shares rose 0.37% to $213.84 in Wednesday’s premarket trading as investors prepared for its fiscal second-quarter 2027 earnings report after market close. The stock is up 12.6% year-to-date in 2026.

Wall Street attention centers on the company’s financial performance, strategic updates regarding customer concentration, and the upcoming Rubin product cycle. Deepwater Management managing partner Gene Munster highlighted the emerging role of SpaceX, which represented around 4% of revenue in the quarter and has the potential to become a 10% customer by the end of calendar 2027. Munster described SpaceX as becoming the "fifth horseman" alongside Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, which collectively make up around 80% of NVIDIA’s data center revenue.

Earnings Expectations And Valuation

Analysts project NVIDIA will report second-quarter earnings per share of $2.09, up from $1.04 a year earlier. Revenue is forecast to reach $92.03 billion, compared with $46.74 billion in the prior year period. The company has beaten analyst estimates for revenue in 15 straight quarters and for earnings per share in 14 straight quarters.

Munster expects NVIDIA to beat estimates by 4% and raise revenue guidance for October by 3%. He noted that investors will want to see hyperscaler growth of 8% year-over-year and ACIE (data centers) growth of 150% year-over-year. Munster emphasized that ACIE has higher growth potential for long-term expansion.

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon told CNBC on Saturday that he expects NVIDIA to report strong quarterly results but will closely watch management's comments on the Rubin ramp. NVIDIA's three-year outlook points to roughly $500 billion in data center revenue next year, Rasgon said. Still, Rubin build plans suggest revenue could exceed that level. Therefore, he wants to know whether management will raise its expectations.

Rasgon will also watch whether NVIDIA can keep gross margins in the mid-70% range as memory and wafer prices rise. Management previously indicated that margins could remain near current levels. In addition, he wants more details about NVIDIA's financial support for major data center projects. Rasgon sees the company's balance sheet as a strategic advantage, noting that using excess cash to support customers could expand the AI ecosystem and strengthen long-term demand for NVIDIA's products.

The stock trades at 32.6 times earnings, reflecting a premium valuation. NVIDIA carries a Buy consensus rating. Its average price forecast is $328.79. Raymond James raised its price forecast to $352 from a previous level Tuesday and maintained a Strong Buy rating. Rosenblatt maintained a Buy rating and a $325 price forecast Monday. KeyBanc also maintained an Overweight rating and a $330 price forecast Monday.

Market Sentiment And Options Activity

Ahead of the report, UBS Private Wealth Management Managing Director Alli McCartney told CNBC that enthusiasm surrounding NVIDIA likely helped fuel the broader market rebound. However, traders appear to expect a more muted reaction this quarter. NVIDIA’s options market is pricing in its smallest earnings-related move in eight quarters. McCartney said that aligns with UBS’ expectations for less dramatic changes in the company’s results, growth and forward estimates than in previous quarters.

The broader market offered little support before the open. Nasdaq futures slipped 0.06%, while S&P 500 futures fell 0.02%.

Strategic Customer Diversification

The Data Center segment split reported last quarter underscores that NVIDIA’s business is becoming less dependent on hyperscalers, which Munster views as a positive development. While the "four horsemen" dominate current revenue, the rise of SpaceX suggests a broadening customer base. Munster stated he does not expect any new material commentary on potential revenue from China, though he noted the topic is almost guaranteed to come up given China represents about a quarter of global GPU spending.

Technical Position And Market Context

NVIDIA shares trade within a 52-week range of $164.07 to $236.54. The stock remains in a long-term uptrend. It trades about 9.3% above its 200-day simple moving average of roughly $195.43. Its 50-day average also remains above the 200-day average, which is a bullish signal.

Shares are holding above their 50-day and 100-day averages. The stock traded 0.4% below its 20-day simple moving average of $214.58. A move above that level could strengthen the near-term trend. Failure to reclaim it could keep the stock range-bound. The relative strength index stood at 49.58. That neutral reading suggests neither buyers nor sellers hold a clear advantage.

Short-term momentum has weakened. The moving average convergence divergence indicator is below its signal line, while its histogram is negative. That indicates the recent rally is losing momentum. The Benzinga Edge scorecard gives NVIDIA a momentum score of 56.33, pointing to consolidation rather than strong acceleration.

Resistance sits near $214, close to the stock's short-term moving-average zone. A sustained move above that level could open a path toward the 52-week high of $236.54. Support stands near $190, where buyers previously stepped in. A break below that level could signal a deeper pullback.

Rasgon cautioned that strong earnings may not produce an immediate stock gain. Other semiconductor companies have recently reported solid results without receiving a positive market reaction. However, he believes NVIDIA remains essential to the global AI infrastructure buildout. The stock trailed several semiconductor peers for much of the past year but has recently started to outperform the group. Rasgon sees the Rubin cycle as a potential catalyst for further gains. Historically, NVIDIA's new product cycles have created favorable conditions for the stock.

ETF Exposure

NVIDIA represents 9.79% of the First Trust Innovation Leaders ETF (NYSE: ILDR). It also accounts for 9.73% of the Franklin Focused Dynamic Growth ETF (NASDAQ: FFOG) and 9.60% of the Sapient Quality Select ETF (NASDAQ: SQS). Heavy exposure means fund inflows or outflows could drive additional buying or selling in NVIDIA shares.

What The Numbers Show

The projected revenue growth of nearly 97% YoY aligns closely with the EPS growth of 101%, indicating stable net margin expansion. The emergence of SpaceX as a significant customer, potentially reaching 10% of revenue by 2027, signals a structural shift in NVIDIA’s data center mix. This diversification reduces reliance on the top four hyperscalers, who currently account for 80% of data center revenue, thereby mitigating concentration risk while maintaining high growth rates in the ACIE segment. Additionally, the focus on gross margins in the mid-70% range amidst rising input costs highlights the company's pricing power and operational efficiency as key drivers of profitability. The options market pricing in the smallest earnings-related move in eight quarters contrasts with the high valuation multiple of 32.6x earnings, suggesting investor caution despite strong fundamental expectations.

OpenAI’s custom inference chip, Jalapeño, delivered up to 3.6x lower latency and 1.9x higher performance per watt compared to Nvidia’s GB200 and GB300 chips in internal benchmarks.

Benchmark Performance

OpenAI stated that Jalapeño, developed with Broadcom Inc., achieves higher throughput and lower latency simultaneously across three AI models: GPT-OSS 120B, DeepSeek R1 670B, and Kimi K2.5 1T. The company plans to deploy the chip within its infrastructure by the end of 2026, with production ramping further in 2027.

Richard Ho, OpenAI hardware vice president, told Bloomberg TV that performance per watt could be 1.8x to 4x better than existing chips. He noted this efficiency could allow the company to lower customer token prices as Jalapeño scales into production.

Market Reaction

Jim Cramer dismissed the potential competitive threat to Nvidia Corp. In a post on X, Cramer stated, "Every day I read about some chip that is superior to Nvidia. And every year I see no real competitors."

Nvidia shares closed at $213.05, up 2.19% on Tuesday. The stock rose another 0.31% to $213.70 in after-hours trading. According to Benzinga Edge Rankings, Nvidia ranks in the 99th percentile for growth.

What the Numbers Show

OpenAI explicitly stated it does not view Jalapeño as an outright Nvidia replacement. The company plans to continue deploying accelerators from Nvidia and other partners for both training and inference tasks. This suggests the custom chip is intended to optimize specific inference workloads rather than displace Nvidia’s broader ecosystem dominance.