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Nvidia (NVDA) stock has remained largely range-bound for several months despite strong demand for its artificial intelligence chips, and the company is now making a notable executive hire as it looks to reinvigorate investor enthusiasm.

Shares of the chip maker were down 0.2% at $184.65 in early trading on Friday. The stock has been on a rollercoaster ride this session.

The stock fell 2.2% in Thursday’s session and is down about 1% over the past three months, a period marked by heavy scrutiny over competition, valuation and the sustainability of AI-related spending.

Nvidia names first chief marketing officer

Nvidia has hired Alison Wagonfeld, a senior marketing executive from Google, as its first chief marketing officer.

Wagonfeld is set to join the company in late January, according to a post she shared on LinkedIn.

Wagonfeld spent nearly a decade at Google, where she most recently led marketing for the company’s cloud computing business.

In her post announcing the move, she framed the transition as a shift between two leaders in artificial intelligence.

“I’m thrilled to be moving from one AI leader to another at such a transformational time. Google and NVIDIA share a strong partnership, and we look forward to continued collaboration,” Wagonfeld wrote.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Wagonfeld will report directly to Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, and her appointment will consolidate marketing responsibilities that had previously been spread across multiple executives.

The creation of a dedicated chief marketing officer role marks a structural change for Nvidia as it seeks to sharpen its messaging amid intensifying competition and heightened investor expectations.

Competition concerns weigh on shares

One reason Nvidia’s stock has struggled to gain momentum in recent months has been investor concern about competition from large customers and rivals, including Google’s internally developed Tensor Processing Units.

Those chips are designed to reduce reliance on third-party suppliers for certain AI workloads.

Signs of closer cooperation rather than outright rivalry between Nvidia and Google may help ease some of those concerns.

Wagonfeld’s move, combined with ongoing partnerships between the two companies, could be interpreted by investors as evidence that Nvidia remains deeply embedded in the AI infrastructure ecosystem.

Still, the market reaction has so far been muted, reflecting broader uncertainty over how quickly new growth drivers will translate into incremental earnings.

Analyst raises target, sees AI capex surge

Despite the recent stock softness, optimism among some analysts remains intact.

Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh raised his price target on Nvidia to $275 from $245 in a research note on Friday, reiterating an Outperform rating.

Rakesh estimates that large US technology companies will increase their artificial intelligence capital expenditure by 32% this year, taking total AI-related spending to about $540 billion.

He expects Nvidia to benefit disproportionately from that trend, forecasting revenue growth of 51% for Nvidia in fiscal 2027. He also projects Broadcom revenue growth of 53% in 2026.

“We expect the AI trade to remain intact in 2026, and see AI accelerators unit shipments growing 36% after 2025 grew 34% year-over-year as demand accelerates with Hyperscalers, Neoclouds, Enterprise/Sovereign all continuing to invest in generative AI,” Rakesh wrote.

China developments add complexity

Nvidia’s shares also came under pressure on Thursday after reports related to China.

Bloomberg reported that Chinese authorities will allow imports of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips, a development that initially appeared positive for the company.

However, Reuters said Nvidia has revised payment terms for Chinese customers amid ongoing trade uncertainty. T

he new conditions reportedly include requiring upfront payment, prohibiting order cancellations and preventing changes to system configurations once orders are placed.

Despite the apparent progress on market access, Nvidia shares dropped more than 2.5% on Thursday.

During CNBC’s “Morning Meeting,” Jim Cramer attributed the decline in part to profit-taking, noting that the stock had rallied more than 10% from its mid-December lows heading into the session.

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