Citigroup analyst Atif Malik reiterated a buy rating on NVIDIA in a client report on Thursday, stating that recent discussions at Citigroup's Global TMT Conference confirmed expectations for robust artificial intelligence market growth next year and NVIDIA's smooth transition from GB200 to GB300 chips.

However, Malik noted that against the backdrop of widespread GPU shortages, Google is engaging in indirect competition with NVIDIA by providing Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to competitors such as Meta, OpenAI, and Oracle.

"We expect NVIDIA shares to take a breather following strong gains over the past six months, and view Jensen Huang's keynote address at the GTC conference on October 28 as the next catalyst," Malik stated in Thursday's client report.

Malik's $170 price target for NVIDIA suggests limited downside for the high-flying stock, which closed yesterday at $170.62 per share.