Missed the Nvidia rally? These 10 companies are buying its chips — and their stocks are rallying

Published Thu, Mar 7 20246:20 PM ESTUpdated Fri, Mar 8 20241:16 AM EST

Shares of Nvidia have risen 280% over the past year thanks to surging sales of its chips that power artificial intelligence applications. However, the Silicon Valley company isn't alone in the AI-fueled rally. Investors are also ploughing their money into companies buying these chips, amid expectations that AI will help improve productivity and profits. CNBC Pro screened for companies that are customers of Nvidia, and also have total returns that are highly correlated with the chip giant — in other words, their share prices tend to rise and fall in tandem with Nvidia's. Super Micro , Tokyo Electron Device , Meta Platforms , Tata Motors and Mitsui are among the stocks that have seen the most significant gains over the past year. According to FactSet, their share price movement correlates between 93% and 98% of the time with Nvidia's stock. The above table also shows the strength of the monetary relationship between the AI chip buyers and Nvidia, according to FactSet. Microsoft , for example, holds the relationship rank of No. 1 as it is Nvidia's biggest customer of AI chips. TSMC is ranked No. 2 as it is Nvidia's near-exclusive contract chip manufacturer. Meta While the drivers of each stock's rally might vary, Meta revealed earlier this year that it is spending billions of dollars on Nvidia's popular computer chips, which are at the heart of artificial intelligence research and projects. The owner of Facebook and Instagram needs these heavy-duty chips as it pursues research in artificial general intelligence (AGI), which Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has described as a "long-term vision" for the company. Super Micro Super Micro, which makes computer servers, has benefitted directly from using Nvidia's AI chips in its products. Tech investor Paul Meeks, co-chief investment officer at Harvest Portfolio Management, told CNBC Pro that Super Micro is his favorite alternative AI stock . The stock has risen by over 1,000% over the past 12 months. " Super Micro makes customized servers that are used by AI customers, so it uses Nvidia's chips in their servers and ... [Super Micro] sells their servers to folks like Microsoft, and then they put them in a data center. And so Super Micro has done a pretty good job of transitioning its focus to AI customers," said Meeks. Tokyo Electron Device Tokyo Electron Device is a distributor of Nvidia's chips in Japan. The country wants to become a leading investment destination for generative AI deployments and has relaxed laws that typically raise copyright infringement risks in developed markets. Tokyo Electron Device is a listed subsidiary of Tokyo Electron , Japan's largest chip-manufacturing equipment maker. Shares of the company have rallied more than 180% over the past 12 months. Mitsui Japanese conglomerate Mitsui is building Tokyo-1, a supercomputer that is designed to power generative AI for the pharmaceutical industry. The supercomputer will utilize a large number of Nvidia's most powerful GPUs. The stock is up almost 60% over the past 12 months. — CNBC's Jonathan Vanian and Weizhen Tan contributed reporting.