Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares rallied sharply in premarket trading on Thursday following its stellar quarterly report.

The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker reported first-quarter earnings and revenue well above lofty expectations and gave an upbeat quarterly revenue outlook. Investors also cheered management's statements about the new Blackwell AI accelerators beginning to contribute to revenues this year, prospects for sovereign AI factories, and strong generative AI demand.

The company hiked its dividend by 150% to 10 cents per share and announced a 10-for-1 stock split to make its shares more affordable for retail traders.

Following the quarterly results, analysts reaffirmed their bullishness. Deepwater Asset Management's Gene Munster said "Nvidia is in a great spot for the next few years."

John Vinh of KeyBanc Capital Markets was among the first analysts to nudge up price targets for the stock. The firm rates Nvidia an Overweight and increased the price target from $1,200 to $1,300.

If premarket gains hold good, Nvidia is on track to hit a market capitalization of roughly $2.48 trillion, closing in on Apple, which by virtue of its market cap of $2.93 trillion is now the second most-valued global company.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD), which trails Nvidia in the AI chip race but has made solid ground in the arena with its powerful MI300 accelerators, also saw its shares rise solidly.

Nvidia gained 6.69% to $1,013 in premarket and AMD climbed 2.70% to $169.99, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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