Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock has gained enough over the past 15 years to have minted many millionaires. We’re talking about a gain of 33,000%!
To put that mind-boggling figure into context, any investor who put £5k into Nvidia back then and held on for the ride would have over £1.5m today. Actually, I calculate it would be nearer £1.9m because the pound has lost value against the dollar since 2011.
Of course, in reality, most investors would never hold a stock this long. It takes a lot of courage to keep holding your winners, year after year. Someone who gets anxious when a stock becomes pricey would have sold Nvidia many moons ago.
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Blowing a raspberry to other FTSE 250 stocks
Unfortunately, investors don’t have many UK tech stocks to choose from. But Raspberry Pi (LSE:RPI) is one that has been touted as a potential domestic tech giant in the making.
Could this be another Nvidia-type stock to mint millionaires?
Well, looking at the recent recent share price performance, it has certainly made some investors a lot of money this month. Since the first week of February, this FTSE 250 stock has soared 77%.
This makes it the best-performing mid-cap share in 2026 so far. Yet even after the sudden rise, it’s down 30% over the past year.
Similarities
Looking at the company, I do see some similarities to Nvidia. The most obvious is that the firm makes computing hardware, specifically low-cost single-board computers. Think credit-card sized computers, microcontrollers, and accessories that are used by schools, hobbyists, and for industrial control systems.
Both firms are also run by founders — Eben Upton at Raspberry Pi and Jensen Huang at Nvidia. And the companies are very innovative in their own respective tech fields.
Furthermore, the UK firm’s products are being deployed across various industries. This reminds me of Nvidia, whose GPUs are used to power gaming graphics, AI large language models, self-driving cars, humanoid robots, and much else.
Below are the markets in which Raspberry Pi’s products can be found.
Speaking of AI, the stock has surged recently due to the technology. Clusters of its cheap mini-computers are being used for certain AI projects. For example, its new Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ 2 product offers the capability to run generative AI models on devices.
Key difference
On the other hand, the two firms are worlds apart. And I don’t just mean in size, with Nvidia the world’s largest listed company versus Raspberry Pi’s modest £900m market cap.
No, Nvidia is at the heart of the global AI revolution, while Raspberry Pi is quite literally at the edge. This year, the US chip giant’s expected to growth revenue 54% and earnings over 65%. In contrast, Raspberry Pi’s top-line growth is forecast at 15%, with earnings dipping lower.
So, despite being infinitely larger, Nvidia is also growing much faster. To become a tech giant, Raspberry Pi needs to be growing a lot faster than it is today.
While sales might accelerate in future, it’s currently facing supply chain risks, which threaten growth.
Meanwhile, Nvidia’s contending with rising competition from AMD and Broadcom. However, with the stock trading at 30 times forward earnings versus Raspberry Pi’s 55, I think Nvidia is the superior growth stock and worth considering today.
