Nvidia (NVDA 1.05%) has helped transform the world and absolutely crushed the market over the last five years. The rise of the company's graphics processing units (GPUs) as essential computational hardware for training and running artificial intelligence (AI) applications has helped power incredible sales and earnings growth, and investors who have taken a long-term-holding approach to the company have been richly rewarded.
Over the last five years, Nvidia stock has delivered share price gains of roughly 1,500%. That means that a $10,000 investment in the company half a decade ago would now be worth roughly $160,000. The AI hardware leader has delivered incredible wins for long-term shareholders, and forthcoming chapters in its growth story seem to hold plenty of promise.

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Nvidia continues to dominate the AI hardware market
When it comes to the key computational hardware at the heart of the artificial intelligence revolution, no company has a stronger position than Nvidia. The company's advanced GPUs and AI accelerators have been delivering performance that's significantly exceeding the competition and paving the way for the most important leaps forward in artificial intelligence.
With the company's last quarterly report, revenue increased roughly 69% year over year to reach approximately $44.1 billion, and non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share rose approximately 33% compared to the prior-year period even in the face of some heavy investment in growth projects.
Nvidia's leadership in AI computing technologies is opening the door for the company to potentially become a leader in areas such as processing as a service and robotics, and the tech leader's competitive advantages suggest it could continue serving up wins for patient shareholders.