Stephen Guilfoyle — also known as the Sarge — is gearing up for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the high-tech hootenanny slated to hit Las Vegas on Jan. 7 and run through Jan. 10.
This is the first big industry conference of this very new year, the veteran trader noted in TheStreet Pro, and it comes at a volatile time for equity markets.
"There will be press-related events held from Sunday on into the actual show," said Guilfoyle, "so this is really a week-long shindig full of appearances by CEOs and other leaders of elite tech firms as well as leaders from a few firms that one might not think of in that light."
Wedbush analysts noted that CES has become increasingly incremental instead of revolutionary in recent years. However, the firm still expects numerous new product offerings and roadmap updates, "many of which we anticipate will be billed as AI-oriented."
Guilfoyle said he'll be watching AI chipmaking juggernaut Nvidia (NVDA) and semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) , which are both scheduled to hold pre-CES press conferences on Jan. 6.
AMD will be batting lead-off at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Guilfoyle expects Senior Vice President and GM of the Computing and Graphics Group Jack Huynh and several other AMD executives — but probably not CEO Lisa Su — to stay focused on the company's expansion in its share of the PC and gaming businesses.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, AKA 'The Fonz', will likely wear his trademark leather jacket at the CES keynote.Getty
Wall Street veteran: Nvidia is 'It' tech company
Guilfoyle also looks for AMD brass to review or highlight its AI-related product portfolio. In the PC space, the company has had less success competing with Nvidia than it has had competing with Intel (INTC) .
Nvidia joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average in November, replacing Intel.
AMD could also reveal newly updated chipsets at the event, but Guilfoyle believes CEO Su will not appear on stage in Las Vegas unless AMD has a dramatic industry announcement to share.
Nvidia's CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang, whom Guilfoyle referred to as "The Fonz" due to his trademark leather jacket, will give a keynote address at 9:30 p.m. ET to help kick things off.
"Nvidia has been the 'It' chip company, and really the 'It' tech company since the emergence of the data center cloud and then the rise of the revolution in generative artificial intelligence," said Guilfoyle, whose career dates back to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the 1980s.
After Huang's address, Guilfoyle said Nvidia will host media, analysts, clients, and partners at the Fontainebleau Resort in Las Vegas.
"The set-up at that resort will feature hands-on demos meant to showcase innovations in AI, robotics, and accelerated computing across the automotive, enterprise, and robotics fields, as well as a focus on the foray into what it calls the 'Omniverse,' which seems similar to what Meta Platforms (META) calls the 'Metaverse,'" he said.
Omniverse is Nvidia’s real-time 3D graphics collaboration platform.
In November, the company unveiled Nvidia Omniverse Blueprint, which enables industry software developers to build digital twins with realistic real-time physics.
It's safe to say that 2024 was Nvidia's year.
Nvidia, the Dow's top performer in 2024, reached a $3 trillion market cap and temporarily surpassed Apple (AAPL) as the most valuable company on Earth before settling into the No. 2 position.
Wedbush analysts recently named Nvidia one of its Top 10 Tech Winners for the "AI Revolution" in 2025, along with such marquee names as Palantir (PLTR) , Tesla (TSLA) , Salesforce (CRM) , and Apple.
Lisa Su, chairwoman and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, is not expected to attend CES 2025.I-HWA CHENG/Getty Images
Analysts cite AMD's gains in client compute
Voice AI company Cerence (CRNC) , a rival of SoundHound AI (SOUN) , said on Jan. 2 that it would expand its collaboration with Nvidia.
Cerence said Nvidia's AI software platform will speed the development of automotive industry large language models.
Wedbush said Nvidia is expected to provide updates on gaming robotics and client compute.
The firm said one significant question is when compelling and ubiquitous consumer applications built on AI will appear and proliferate.
Wedbush said it would be looking for commentary on this issue, especially since useful AI functionality would not only benefit Nvidia but could drive upgrade cycles across the hardware and member vacations for our entire universe.
AMD is expected to announce a number of new client compute products, including its new Strix Halo APUs and a variety of Ryzen 9 CPUs, Wedbush said.
"We believe AMD share gains in client compute have accelerated somewhat, vis a vis Intel and we expect this trend to continue through 2025, particularly if new GPUs catalyze a fresh recycle for gaming and enthusiast PCs with AMD benefiting from this shift," the firm said.
Both tech giants are scheduled to report earnings in the coming weeks.
AMD is scheduled to report in late January, and Wall Street is looking for adjusted earnings per share of $1.09 on revenue of $7.53 billion.
That would be up from an adjusted 77 cents per share a year ago and be good enough for year-over-year sales growth of 22%, Guilfoyle said.
AMD shares have fallen around 45% since their all-time peak in late spring, shedding roughly $140 billion in value along the way. Investors and analysts expressed concern that supply-chain issues would continue to tame sales growth across its three major business units.
Nvidia is expected to report in late February, and analysts expect the company to earn an adjusted 85 cents per share on $38.03 billion in sales. This would be up from an adjusted 52 cents a year ago and good enough for year-over-year sales growth of 72%.
"I intend to put on a shorter-term long-side trade in NVDA ahead of next week's clambake that would be outside of or around my longer-term position, which is smaller than it had been in November," Guilfoyle said.
He said his current target for that long is $161, but "the shares would have to take out the November high of $153 to get there, and that itself would likely provoke an upside change in target from $161."
