Goldman is betting Nvidia will get a boost from health care as industry builds out AI capabilities
Nvidia will get a boost as companies in the health care and life sciences industries increase their push into artificial intelligence, according to Goldman Sachs. The investment firm has a buy rating on Nvidia. It also has a $250 price target on shares, implying 51% upside from Monday’s close. “By partnering with life sciences companies, NVDA can apply and achieve in-lab validation for its models. NVDA is also using agentic capabilities for applications such as evaluating digital health records, manufacturing, and automation, highlighting digital twins and simulation, which can improve the quality of lab automation/experiments and manufacturing while lowering costs,” analyst Salveen Richter said Tuesday in a note to clients. In 2023, Nvidia invested $50 million in clinical-stage biotechnology firm Recursion Pharmaceuticals with the aim of developing the biotech firm’s artificial intelligence models for drug discovery. Since then, Recursion and Nvidia have identified several critical applications for AI, including drug development and the organization of clinical trials, across the healthcare and life sciences sectors. At a recent meeting with Goldman Sachs, Recursion Pharmaceuticals said its AI-powered full vertical technology stack featuring multi-modal data enables drugmakers to synthesize 90% fewer compounds. It also allows companies to enter human trials in 17 months on average versus 42 months without those tools. The company also said it uses AI to evaluate appropriate patient populations for clinical trials, in addition to sorting signals from noise, according to Goldman Sachs’ note. AI can also assist with patient recruitment for those trials, with the emerging technology increasing eligible participants between 30% and 50% in one of the biotech firm’s programs, Recursion executives told Goldman Sachs. Finally, AI tools are also contributing to medicine design, enabling drugmakers to simulate their products’ effects using computer simulations, Richter said. Those discoveries have informed Nvidia’s strategy in relation to its foray into the healthcare sphere, according to Goldman Sachs. “NVDA healthcare now sees itself as a computing platform that serves healthcare companies — across the biopharma industry, digital biology, MedTech, and diagnostics — rather than trying to itself become a healthcare company, increasing the importance of taking an ecosystem-level view and of partnerships with innovative life sciences companies,” Richter wrote. Nvidia shares are down more than 8% this year. The pullback comes as some investors wring their hands over AI-linked companies’ sky-high valuations and amid a risk-off shift in sentiment due to uncertainties surrounding the Iran war.