Entire AI trade hinges on midterm results, says Alger's Ankur Crawford
Speakers
Ankur Crawford
— Head of Digital Assets, VanEck
Summary
Ankur Crawford of Alger discusses Nvidia ahead of its earnings, arguing that the reported quarter matters less than the 2028/2029 debate and that NVDA looks like a coiled spring at a low multiple. She also says Nvidia's commentary should be positive for the broader AI trade, while data center backlash and midterm politics are key risks for AI growth.
- Crawford says Nvidia's current quarter numbers matter less than the 2029 margin and growth debate.
- She sees NVDA as cheap on 2028 whisper estimates at 10-12x earnings and calls it a coiled spring.
- She believes broader AI adoption will make compute demand more real and help unlock Nvidia.
- She is concerned about data center backlash and misinformation around water, noise, and electricity.
- She warns the midterms could become a 'kill the AI moment' that risks stopping US AI growth.
- After Nvidia's report, she expects near-term positivity for the rest of the AI trade, but the 2029 capacity peak overhang remains unresolved.
Ideas
NVDA is coiled spring at low multiple.
Nvidia is undervalued on 2028 street whisper numbers because it trades at a low double-digit multiple of 10-12x, which is too cheap for a company with that growth duration; Crawford calls it a coiled spring and expects AI compute demand to unleash the stock as AI applications become more real.
AI trade positive near term, 2029 unresolved.
Whatever Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says tonight is likely positive for the rest of the AI trade, but the AI trade still has an overhang around whether 2028 is the true peak because too much capacity was built; that argument will not be resolved tonight and may require several more earnings calls.
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This CNBC video, published August 26, 2026, features Ankur Crawford discussing NVDA, AI trade. 2 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Ankur Crawford · Tickers: NVDA, AI trade