Nvidia Builds a Full-Stack AI Empire: Vera CPU Targets $200B Market, Blackwell Systems Power Cloud Deals

Nvidia reveals Vera CPU challenging x86 duopoly with 1.5x performance in AI workloads, alongside a $1.6B Blackwell deal with IREN for live deployment.

Nvidia is quietly reshaping its identity from a GPU powerhouse into a full-platform AI infrastructure provider. Two developments this week underscore the breadth of the strategy: a new server CPU designed to challenge Intel and AMD on their home turf, and a concrete Blackwell deployment deal with cloud provider IREN that turns paper plans into live capacity.

The company’s Vera processor marks its most direct assault on the x86 duopoly. Early Phoronix benchmarks show the chip outperforming current 128-core x86 processors by a factor of 1.5 in agentic AI workloads — a category Nvidia believes will define the next wave of inference computing. Vera packs 88 custom Olympus cores and sustains memory bandwidth of 1.2 TB/s, while its LPDDR5X memory system draws less than 30 watts, compared with the 100-plus watts typical of DDR5 configurations.

CFO Colette Kress pegged the additional addressable market from Vera at roughly $200 billion, with Nvidia expecting around $20 billion in CPU-related revenue this fiscal year. That puts the company squarely in competition with Intel, which booked $5 billion in data center and AI revenue last quarter, and AMD, which reported $5.8 billion. The timing is deliberate: agentic inference demands tighter integration between compute and memory, and Nvidia is positioning Vera as the natural companion to its GPUs.

First systems are already shipping to partners including Oracle Cloud, OpenAI, and SpaceX. Oracle plans to deploy hundreds of thousands of Vera CPUs during 2026 to power production-grade agentic AI infrastructure. The broader commercial launch will come with the Vera-Rubin NVL72 stack, combining the new CPUs with next-generation Rubin GPUs in the second half of next year. That timeline puts Nvidia on a collision course with AMD’s Venice EPYC and Intel’s Diamond Rapids, both expected around the same time.

Meanwhile, Nvidia’s Blackwell generation is moving from design wins to real-world deployment. IREN has signed a $1.6 billion purchase agreement with Dell for air-cooled Blackwell systems, to be installed at the company’s Childress, Texas facility with operations slated to begin in early 2027. The order builds on a $3.4 billion five-year cloud infrastructure service contract IREN signed with Nvidia on May 7, under which IREN provides managed GPU cloud services for Nvidia’s internal AI and research tasks.

The Dell deal is not a new Nvidia order — it outfits a previously announced expansion — but it signals that hardware for the cloud project is moving toward delivery. The package includes GPUs, servers, storage, networking, integration and warranties, with payments triggered by shipment. Nvidia also secured the right to buy up to 30 million IREN shares at $70 each, a potential investment of up to $2.1 billion.

IREN expects the Blackwell ramp to lift its annualized revenue rate from $3.7 billion to $4.4 billion, though not all of that is contractually guaranteed. The company fits neatly into Nvidia’s new reporting structure, which splits Data Center into Hyperscale and ACIE (AI Clouds, Industry, Enterprise) — making cloud providers like IREN more visible as a growth driver.

Nvidia’s financial results underscore the stakes. In the first quarter of fiscal 2027, revenue hit a record $81.6 billion, up 85 percent year over year. The Data Center segment alone contributed $75.2 billion, a 92 percent jump. Within that, compute revenue was $60.4 billion and networking $14.8 billion. For the current quarter, management guided for $91.0 billion, plus or minus 2 percent, excluding any compute sales from China.

Despite the operational momentum, the stock has struggled to hold its gains. After the Vera announcement, shares slipped 3.6 percent to $214.86. On the day the IREN deal was disclosed, the stock closed at €184.46 on European exchanges, down 4 percent on the week but still up 14.5 percent year to date. The current price-to-earnings ratio of 32.9 stands well below the five-year median of 61.34, and some valuation models peg intrinsic value at $331.76 — a 35.2 percent discount.

For Nvidia, the near-term focus is execution: ramping Blackwell production, closing the first Vera deployments, and proving that its partners can flip the switch on time. The next catalyst will be second-quarter results due in late August. Until then, the market appears to be watching whether the platform story translates into sustained revenue growth rather than one-off product announcements.