A lot of people have a lot riding on NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) when the chipmaker reports earnings on Wednesday evening, has been the most popular share on UK investment platforms this summer.
The US semiconductor giant, which has been in extra demand in the past two years for its chips' abilities to enable developments in generative artificial intelligence, has been the most bought share by private investors on the UK's largest platform, Hargreaves Lansdown, platform in the three months since the start of June.
It is also the most bought share on AJ Bell, the third biggest UK platform, so far in August, and was top of the list on the second largest platform, Interactive Investor, for the past three months.
It's hardly surprising, with Nvidia's past three quarters seeing revenue growth of over 200% and with the shares having skyrocketed around 150% so far this year and surging roughly 3,000% over the past five years.
The gains in the share this year alone have added $1.82 trillion to the company's market value and also provided a key driver to the gains made in the S&P 500 hitting an all-time high last month and approaching again.
This is one indication of how much is riding on the results.
If the results are short of expectations, investors are "going to sell off every company in AI", said one fund manager at Synovus Trust, which owns shares in many US tech titans, including Nvidia, to Reuters.
After hitting all-time highs of $140, there were sharp sell-offs in June, July and early August to below $100, before strong buying in recent weeks lifted the price above $128 this week.
UK's most popular shares
The next most bought shares on HL over the past three months included two other US stocks, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) after a mini-revival in 'meme stocks' earlier in the summer, along with a mix of FTSE 100 income stocks and commodity plays.
Second and third in the list were Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN) and BP PLC (LSE:BP.), while investors have retained an affection for Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.), a pandemic favourite and one of the best performers last year, which has notched up new highs in 2024.
One small cap share makes the list, explorer Helium One Global Ltd (AIM:HE1, OTCQB:HLOGF).
HL most bought shares June-Aug
- NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD)
- Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN)
- BP Plc
- GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME)oration
- National Grid
- M&G plc
- Rio Tinto plc
- Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)
- Helium One Global Ltd (AIM:HE1, OTCQB:HLOGF)
- Rolls Royce Holdings Plc
Most bought in the past week
- NVIDIA
- Legal & General Group
- BP
- Helium One Global
- Rolls Royce Holdings
- ABT Group
- Aviva
- Novacyt
- Vanguard Funds
- MicroStrategy
Most bought shares on AJ Bell in the past month
- NVIDIA
- Vodafone
- Legal & General
- British American Tobacco
- Rolls-Royce Holdings
- BP
- Amazon.com
- MicroStrategy
- Tesla
- Aviva
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves, noted that Nvidia was top of the share picks over the summer as some investors took advantage of its loss of value in July.
"Amazon also has its fingers deep in the AI pie through AWS cloud services and a wobble in its share price is also likely to have sparked fresh interest."
She said Helium One was a sign of "speculative action" as it remained "a super-popular pick, despite the uncertainty over its exploration potential".
She added: "When investing, it’s crucial for investors to keep their eye on the long-term horizon and ensure their holdings are well diversified. Individual shares should be held as side dishes to a main course of funds, ensuring there is a good geographical and sector mix in a portfolio."