Nvidia extends 2-day jump to 17% as Wells Fargo raises price target and investors cheer chip maker's metaverse ambitions

• Nvidia stock extended its two-day rally Friday, a day after Wells Fargo raised its price target.
• The investment firm cited massive growth potential for the chipmaker related to the metaverse.
• Wells Fargo reiterated its overweight rating and hiked its price target by 30% to $320 from $245.

Nvidia stock extended its two-day rally Friday, after Wells Fargo touted massive metaverse-related growth potential for the chipmaker and raised its price target.

On Thursday, analysts at the San Francisco-based financial firm reiterated an overweight rating for Nvidia and hiked their price target by 30% to $320 from $245.

Nvidia's stock price rallied 12% to a record high on Thursday, rising for the sixth straight session to mark the chipmaker's longest winning streak since June. Shares climbed 4% to $309.99 as of 11:19 a.m. ET Friday, extending gains to around 17% from Wednesday's close. They are up nearly 130% year-to-date.

Nvidia was also the top trending stock on Reddit's WallStreet Bets forum with 979 mentions in the past 24 hours, according to data by Quiver Quant. Peloton followed at 562 mentions and Tesla at 487.

Wells Fargo said it is bullish on the company's Omniverse virtual platform, which is set to launch next week. According to Nvidia's website, it's built for virtual collaboration and real-time physically accurate simulation.

"We see Nvidia Omniverse as a key enabler/platform for the development of the metaverse across a wide range of vertical apps - industrial, manufacturing, design & engineering, autonomous vehicles/robotics, etc," Wells Fargo said in its Thursday note led by senior equity analyst Aaron Rakers.

The new enterprise represents a significant platform expansion strategy for Nvidia, the analysts said, and presents a "halo effect to the company's product portfolio." Subscriptions to Omniverse start at $9,000 a year, the analysts added.

"Long term, we think the market opportunity could be even greater as digital assets and digital twins become significant economic drivers," they said.

The analysts also see the metaverse equating to a $10 billion incremental market opportunity for Nvidia over the next five years and view Omniverse as a "key pillar of future growth" for both its artificial intelligence and high-performance computing strategies.

The word metaverse refers to a future version of the internet that users can access using technology like virtual and augmented reality headsets, as Insider recently reported.

Tech giants such as Facebook - now known as Meta - and Microsoft have both announced separate initiatives to dive into this budding field.