What If You Invested $1,000 in NVIDIA in 2015?

Try your own numbers

If I had putintoat the start of…

it would be worth today

$463,563

+$462,563 profit464x68.4% a year

The same $1,000 in an S&P 500 index fund: $4,597

Its shares paid about $1,083 in dividends over the last 12 months.

Aftertax on the gain, you’d keep$394,178

US federal long-term rates: 15% for most people, 0% on lower incomes, 20% + 3.8% on high incomes. No state tax included; none inside a Roth IRA.

Compare with

Growth Over Time

Performance Metrics

Total Invested

$1,000.00

Current Value

$463,562.50

Total Profit

$462,562.50

Multiplier

464x

CAGR

68.4%

Max Drawdown

-62.8%

Inflation-Adjusted

$337,007.09

Benchmark Comparison

How does $1,000.00 invested in 2015 compare across different asset classes?

Asset	Value Today	Return
NVIDIA	$463,562.50	464x
S&P 500	$4,596.80	4.60x
Gold	$3,465.46	3.47x
Savings (2% APY)	$1,262.87	1.26x

Dividends

Over the last 12 months, the 2,083 shares you'd own now paid about $1,083 in dividends (about $90.28 a month). That's 108% of the $1,000 put in.

Price growth alone turned $1,000 into $443,861; reinvested dividends added the other $19,701, 4.3% of the gain.

Dividends from Yahoo Finance. Shares today assume every dividend was reinvested.

Back in 2015

In January 2015, NVIDIA unveiled Drive PX at CES in Las Vegas, a car computer that used deep learning to help self-driving cars recognize objects. technologyreview.com
In 2015, a gallon of gas averaged $2.43, a movie ticket averaged $8.43 and the new iPhone 6s started at $649 without a contract. eia.gov fonearena.com thewrap.com
During 2015 itself, NVIDIA rose 65%, #3 of the 82 investments we track. The best was Netflix (+121%); the worst was Chipotle (−34%). Full 2015 results →

$1,000 in NVIDIA, year by year

Of the 82 investments we track that were available at the start of 2015, NVIDIA ranks #1 by growth to today, the best of them — ahead of Dogecoin. See the full 2015 ranking →

NVIDIA started 2015 37% below its start-of-2008 high, after rising 30% in 2014. It has been worth more than the $1,000 put in at every January since, and still is today. Today's $463,563 is more than it was worth at any January since. It rose in 9 of the 11 full years since. It has been ahead of the same $1,000 in the S&P 500 at every January since, and still is. Month by month, the deepest fall ran from Nov 2021 ($67,883) to Sep 2022 ($25,239), a drop of 63%.

When	Worth	Change	S&P 500
Start of 2015	$1,000	—	$1,000
Start of 2016	$1,646	+65%	$1,014
Start of 2017	$5,229	+218%	$1,135
Start of 2018	$10,271	+96%	$1,383
Start of 2019	$7,042	−31%	$1,322
Start of 2020	$12,438	+77%	$1,739
Start of 2021	$27,250	+119%	$2,058
Start of 2022	$62,625	+130%	$2,649
Start of 2023	$29,792	−52%	$2,170
Start of 2024	$100,292	+237%	$2,740
Start of 2025	$288,063	+187%	$3,425
Start of 2026	$392,521	+36%	$4,038
Today	$463,563	+18%	$4,597

Values at the start of each year (first trading day for stocks). The S&P 500 column includes reinvested dividends, like the stock values.

Historical Context

In January 2015, NVIDIA was primarily known as a gaming graphics card company. At a split-adjusted price of roughly $0.48, it was a mid-cap semiconductor stock that most investors overlooked. The idea that GPUs would become the backbone of artificial intelligence was confined to academic research papers.

A $1,000 investment at $0.48 would have purchased approximately 2,083 shares (split-adjusted). NVIDIA's transformation began in 2016-2017 as deep learning took off and researchers discovered that NVIDIA's GPUs were vastly superior to CPUs for training neural networks. The stock began its ascent.

The real inflection point came in 2023 with the ChatGPT explosion. Suddenly, every major tech company needed NVIDIA's chips. Revenue went parabolic, and NVIDIA briefly became the most valuable company in the world. The $1,000 investment from 2015 rode the entire wave — from gaming company to the engine powering the AI revolution.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much would $1,000 in NVIDIA in 2015 be worth today?

A $1,000 investment in NVIDIA at the start of 2015 would be worth approximately $463,562.50 today — a 464x return ($462,562.50 profit) over 11.8 years.

What was NVIDIA's compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2015?

NVIDIA's CAGR from 2015 to October 2026 was 68.4% per year. For comparison, the S&P 500 has historically averaged around 10% annually. NVIDIA significantly outperformed traditional equity markets on an annualized basis.

How does NVIDIA compare to the S&P 500 since 2015?

The same $1,000 invested in an S&P 500 index fund in 2015 would be worth approximately $4,596.80 today. NVIDIA outperformed the index by $458,965.70 — 101x the return of the S&P 500.

How much of the NVIDIA gain would you keep after taxes?

Sold today, the $462,562.50 gain would be a long-term capital gain for US federal tax. At the 15% rate most people pay, you'd keep about $394,178.13. At the top rate of 23.8% (20% plus the 3.8% net investment income tax) you'd keep about $353,472.63, and lower incomes pay 0%. State tax is extra, and gains inside a Roth IRA aren't taxed.

How much would the NVIDIA shares pay in dividends?

Over the last 12 months, the 2,083 shares you'd own now paid about $1,083 in dividends (about $90.28 a month). That's 108% of the $1,000 put in. Price growth alone turned $1,000 into $443,861; reinvested dividends added the other $19,701, 4.3% of the gain.

What is the inflation-adjusted return on $1,000 in NVIDIA since 2015?

Adjusted for cumulative US inflation since 2015, the real purchasing-power value of the NVIDIA position is approximately $337,007.09 in 2015 dollars. Even after inflation, this is an extraordinary real return — inflation only marginally reduces gains of this magnitude.

What drove NVIDIA's stock price since 2015?

NVIDIA's growth came in waves: gaming GPU dominance (2015-2017), cryptocurrency mining demand (2017-2018), data center expansion (2019-2022), and the AI/ChatGPT revolution (2023-2025). Each wave expanded the company's total addressable market.

What was NVIDIA's biggest drawdown since 2015?

NVIDIA's largest drawdown was approximately 66% from its November 2021 high to the October 2022 low, driven by the crypto mining bust, semiconductor oversupply fears, and the broader tech selloff. The stock recovered all losses within a year as AI demand exploded.

Could NVIDIA's growth continue at this rate?

Extremely unlikely. NVIDIA is now a multi-trillion dollar company, making percentage gains of this magnitude mathematically improbable. However, AI infrastructure spending continues to grow, and NVIDIA maintains a dominant competitive position in the GPU market.

Methodology & Sources

Price data: Historical prices are the closing price on the first trading day of each year, adjusted for splits and dividends (so returns assume dividends were reinvested), from Yahoo Finance and MacroTrends. Current prices come from Yahoo Finance and refresh hourly; if that source is unavailable, the last saved price is used.

Calculation: Assumes a single purchase at the start of 2015 (or the first trading day, for companies that listed that year), held until today. No transaction fees, taxes, or slippage are included.

Benchmarks: The S&P 500 comparison uses the S&P 500 Total Return index (dividends reinvested, like an index fund) at the start of2015 and today. Gold uses the price per troy ounce. Savings account assumes a 2% APY compounded annually.

Inflation adjustment: Uses U.S. CPI-U annual averages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 2026 CPI value is estimated.

Educational purposes only. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Not financial advice.