Today we’re rolling out our 5-year model for Nvidia, joining Loup Ventures’ Apple, Tesla, and iRobot model coverage. It’s important we write on Nvidia given its products are an integral part of the future of technology, based on their use in datacenters, autonomous vehicles, virtual and augmented reality platforms, cryptocurrency mining and eSports. We’re believers in the long-term story of Nvidia. While shares of NVDA has performed exceptionally well this year, up 100% YTD (market cap of $129 billion), we think there is further upside given Nvidia’s foundational exposure to frontier technologies.

25+% CAGR Story Through 2023. We expect Nvidia’s core gaming business to continue to grow, but decrease as an overall percentage of revenue (57% today, to 41% by 2023). In addition, we see Nvidia’s datacenter and automotive segments taking second and third place, growing to 36% and 14% of revenues respectively.  We believe Nvidia will see 20+% annual revenue growth through 2023, driven primarily by four catalysts:

Catalyst #1 – Demand for core gaming business products remains strong.  Historically, Nvidia has been known for providing high-quality GPUs for gaming. Nvidia was well-known in the PC gaming space in the mid-t0-late 1990s, and even won the contract to provide graphics hardware for the original Microsoft Xbox. Nvidia has maintained its leadership in the space, and stands as the go-to GPU component for gamers. Despite competition from AMD, ASUS, and Intel, Nvidia has remained a leader. In addition there are two trends that add to the growth of Nvidia’s gaming business:

ESports continues to rise in popularity. Newzoo expects the ESports market to reach $1.5B by 2020, up from $696M in 2017. Not only are more users participating in ESports, but more advertisers are flocking to the industry as well.

Gaming is becoming more social. This is driving engagement and bringing more people on to various platform, including PC platforms where Nvidia’s products are often used. While this can partially explain the rise in ESports, the trend impacts users that opt out of participating in eSports in favor of playing with their friends. Most platforms are spending more time creating online communities where users can interact with each other. Separately, with more kids using tablets and mobile phones at an early age, the exposure and transition to gaming is greater than ever before. As parents continue to let devices act as virtual babysitters, the number of children that get into gaming grows.

Catalyst #2 – Companies are adopting artificial intelligence in order to remain competitive. Nvidia’s datacenter business (20% of revenue today, to 36% by 2023) has seen triple digit growth for the past six quarters. A big part of this growth is due to the expanding use of artificial intelligence by companies, specifically deep learning. Even more positive for Nvidia, we are only in the early innings of the game. Just as all companies evolved to be internet companies in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and mobile companies in the late 2000s, they will soon evolve to be AI companies. On Nvidia’s last earnings call, CEO Jensen Huang shared:

“…Artificial intelligence and its emergence and applications to solving problems that we historically thought were unsolvable. Solving the unsolvable problems is a real realization. I mean, this is happening across just about every industry we know, whether it’s Internet service providers, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, logistics, you name it.” – Jensen Huang

We expect Nvivia’s datacenter segment to continue to see high growth as companies rely more on artificial intelligence. By 2023, we expect Nvidia’s datacenter business to account for over one-third of its revenues and be growing at 30% annually.

Catalyst #3 – The market for autonomous vehicles will be bigger than most people think. Nvidia’s opportunity in the automotive space (6% of revenue today, to 14% by 2023) is bigger than many anticipate. As stated in our Auto Outlook 2040, we expect 90% of vehicles on the road in 2040 to have level 4 or 5 automation, which would require a platform such as Nvidia’s DRIVE PX. Nvidia’s products are used in two different instances as it relates to autonomous vehicles. First, Nvidia’s DGX system is used to train neural networks at data centers. Second, Nvidia’s DRIVE PX platform provides cars with the necessary on-board computing strength for autonomous capabilities. Currently, Nvidia has partnered with Toyota, Mercedez-Benz, Audi, Volvo, and Tesla, among other. We see the ramp of autonomous vehicles beginning in late 2020 as autonomous taxis enter the field, and further expanding in 2021 as autonomous consumer vehicles enter the market. By 2023, we expect Nvidia’s automotive segment growth to accelerate from 16% in 2017 to 100% y/y in 2023. 2023 is only the beginning of autonomous vehicles, and Nvidia’s automotive segment will continue to accelerate past the 5-year window. Based on our auto outlook, we feel 2028 is the year where there will be an influx of demand for level 4 and level 5 autonomous vehicles. We expected Nvidia’s automotive segment growth will continue to accelerate until that time.

Catalyst #4 – Nvidia has planted seeds in other industries with bright futures. OEM & IP is 8% of revenue today, to 3% by 2023.

Virtual Reality. Nvidia’s GPUs are a core component for virtual reality solutions. Today, high-quality VR solutions require a headset tethered to a desktop or laptop computer, which are often running off of an Nvidia GPU. While we believe that VR content will move to standalone devices in the future, those devices will still require enough processing power to delivery high-quality experiences. Nvidia’s solution, the Tegra mobile processor line, is currently a leading option for manufacturers. Nvidia is well-positioned to benefit from the growth of virtual reality gaming, as its products are used in three (mobile, PC-based, standalone) of the four VR solutions, missing out on only console-based VR; for now.

Augmented Reality. We’ve written many times before about the future of augmented reality and the impact that it will have on how we interact with the world in the future. Similar to VR, AR requires sufficient computing capacity on any device. As the market for AR develops, Nvidia will benefit as either a manufacturer of specific solutions for customers, or tangentially through expanding cloud use for deep learning algorithms used by AR applications.

Cryptocurrencies. Lastly, Nvidia is poised the benefit from the continued growth of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies require individuals to dedicate computing power to the the blockchain, those that do are referred to as miners. Miners often turn to GPUs for the necessary processing power to complete blocks on the blockchain. Here is an explanation of how mining works, and why it is necessary.

If you read that article, your reaction might match James Franco’s above. Putting it another way, miners rely on GPUs to provide a cryptocurrency network with the necessary processing power to function. As a particular cryptocurrency is mined (with GPUs), customers will ask for specific ASICs to be built by companies such as Nvidia (positively impacting OEM and IP). As these custom ASIC components are deployed, the specific coin’s mining market becomes monopolized, and forces smaller miners to move a different currency in order to remain profitable. The smaller miners will turn back to GPU-based solutions (positively impacting Gaming) before the cycle repeats itself. Because of this ebb-and-flow and the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, modeling the impact of cryptocurrency mining is difficult. While highly speculative and volatile, we feel that cryptocurrencies will be a part of the future. We are modeling OEM and IP business to grow by the low single digits in the future.

Bottom Line. Artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, and augmented reality are technologies that will have a profound impact on our lives. As these technologies take hold, companies supporting the development of the underlying components are sure to benefit. Betting on Nvidia is betting on frontier technologies, and Nvidia has planted seeds in numerous areas that we are optimistic about. Despite competition from Intel and AMD, Nvidia will continue to be the dominant component supplier in various spaces.

Disclaimer: We actively write about the themes in which we invest: artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, and augmented reality. From time to time, we will write about companies that are in our portfolio. Content on this site including opinions on specific themes in technology, market estimates, and estimates and commentary regarding publicly traded or private companies is not intended for use in making investment decisions. We hold no obligation to update any of our projections. We express no warranties about any estimates or opinions we make.