If you invest long enough, you'll eventually run into an "I wish I had invested in that earlier" situation. They are par for the course. For me, one such missed opportunity is Nvidia (NVDA +1.50%), a stock I noticed but glossed over years ago.
From where it traded five years ago, Nvidia's stock is up by around 1,240%, meaning a $1,000 investment then would be worth around $13,400 today.
An AI must-have
There's no doubt that Nvidia's role in the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem -- as the main supplier of high-end graphics processing units (GPUs) and other key data center hardware and software -- has played a huge role in its recent success. In the past five years, its revenue has increased by more than 1,000% (to $57 billion in its last fiscal quarter), and it's now the world's most valuable public company.
NASDAQ: NVDA
Key Data Points
As the use of AI continues to grow and companies continue to invest in AI infrastructure, Nvidia will undoubtedly be one of the biggest beneficiaries. It won't always have the level of dominance in the AI accelerator market that it does now, but it has solidified itself as a cornerstone of the industry.
I wouldn't expect it to repeat its stock performance of the last five years over the next five, but the signs still point to it being a good long-term play.
