Shares jumped 12% in pre-market trading after it was reported that Nvidia (NVDA.US) would delay its new chip launch. Wall Street analysts maintained their outlook.

Shares of Nvidia (NVDA.US) are up in pre-market trading after news that the chip giant had delayed releasing new Blackwell series graphics processing units (GPUs) to customers. This led to a downgrade of Nvidia's sales forecast for fiscal 2025 by Citigroup. Citigroup reiterated its "buy" rating on Nvidia, with a target price of $150, but removed the stock from its 30-day catalyst watch list.

Analyst Atif Malik at Citigroup said that the demand for AI-related chip usage has not slowed down, and the increase in customer demand for H100 and H200 can help Nvidia "partially offset" the performance decline related to the delayed release of new chips. The new chip will be delayed by three months or more, according to reports.

Malik reduced his sales forecast for Nvidia in fiscal 2025 by 5%, but kept his forecast for fiscal 2026 unchanged, as he believed any sales could be just a quarter delay.

Nvidia may still be the leader in the AI GPU field, with an estimated 90% market share. However, the delayed release of new products may help AMD (AMD.US) become a stronger second supplier, Malik added.

Other research firms also weighed in on the news of Nvidia's delayed release of new chips.

Bernstein said the news "is unlikely to provide much comfort to current AI sentiment," but it was not yet alarming. Bank of America analysts said "partial delay of Blackwell can be made up by H100/H200 and B200A."

Nvidia is scheduled to report its latest quarterly earnings later this month. Analysts generally expect the company to report revenue of $28.5 billion and earnings per share of $0.82.

As of the time of writing, Nvidia shares were down 11.54% to $94.89.