Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund credited Nvidia's shift from a GPU maker into a broader AI infrastructure platform for part of its second-quarter 2026 gains. The fund's investor letter points to first-quarter revenue growth of 85%, an $82 billion quarterly haul, and a $5.3 trillion market capitalization as evidence of the expansion.
Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund said Nvidia's first-quarter revenue grew 85% and earnings per share grew 131%, pointing to a business broadening from GPUs into a full AI infrastructure stack. GPUs remain the core driver, but the fund said AI adoption is expanding from training toward inference, agentic workflows, and enterprise use cases.
Fund letter ties growth to a widening AI stack
The fund returned 26.9% net in the second quarter of 2026, a period in which the MSCI ACWI index posted its strongest quarterly gain since 2020. According to Sands Capital: "reinforcing NVIDIA's evolution from a GPU supplier into a systems-level provider", citing management's commentary on standalone CPU revenue visibility. The fund said it believes Nvidia remains one of the most evident beneficiaries of a large AI capital-spending cycle it thinks the market may still underappreciate.
Stock closes at $218.99 as hedge fund backing grows
Nvidia shares closed at $218.99 on July 17, 2026, up 6.43% over the trailing month and 22.90% over the past 52 weeks. Those gains gave the company a market capitalization of $5.3 trillion.
Hedge fund interest has kept climbing alongside the stock. Nvidia ranked fourth on a list of the 40 most popular stocks among hedge funds heading into 2026, with 275 hedge fund portfolios holding the stock at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 264 the prior quarter.
The company's fiscal first-quarter revenue for fiscal year 2027 reached $82 billion, an 85% year-over-year increase tied to sustained AI infrastructure demand.
Source: Insider Monkey
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