One of the biggest trends since early 2023 has been the growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The advancements in that arena are viewed by many as the most important technological developments in decades, and the paradigm shift they are driving has sparked an AI gold rush as businesses scramble to adapt.
While it's still evolving, generative AI holds a great deal of promise. These systems can create original content -- including images, text, and video -- but can also take specific sets of data and summarize it, or use it to create presentations, or automate mundane and time-consuming tasks, increasing worker productivity. And new applications for the technology are still being developed rapidly.
Now, AI chip specialist Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA) and global tech consultancy Accenture(NYSE: ACN) are joining forces to help more businesses join the AI revolution.
Image source: Getty Images.
A pairing of titans
In a press release that dropped last week, Nvidia and Accenture announced that they were expanding their existing partnership, aiming "to help the world's enterprises rapidly scale their AI adoption." The companies marked the occasion with the launch of the new Accenture Nvidia Business Group, which will be staffed by 30,000 subject matter experts who are getting a crash course in the intricacies of AI. These professionals will be tasked with helping "clients reinvent processes and scale enterprise AI adoption with AI agents," said Accenture in its press release.
To facilitate these objectives, the companies have launched the Accenture AI Refinery, a platform outfitted with Nvidia's AI Foundry, AI Enterprise, and Omniverse systems. The platform will help users build custom large language models (LLMs), the systems that underpin generative AI. These LLMs will incorporate "domain-specific knowledge," which will result in powerful AI systems designed to help address business-specific needs. The Accenture AI Refinery "will be available on all public and private cloud platforms," with the ultimate goal of deploying business-centric "agentic" AI agents.
According to Accenture, agentic AI represents the next evolution of AI systems, giving them a new degree of autonomy. Rather than responding to prompts like their predecessors, agentic AI models will act with minimal oversight, seeking to understand the intent of their users and acting accordingly. As a result, these systems will be able to make decisions and act autonomously to achieve assigned tasks by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable steps.
One of the key benefits of the Accenture/Nvidia pairing is that it will remove one of the last major roadblocks to AI adoption by enterprises -- namely, potential clients' lack of the in-house knowledge necessary to implement such complex systems. By leaning on Accenture's experts and using Nvidia's state-of-the-art platforms, companies will be able to develop AI systems that address their specific needs.
The AI winning streak
Both Nvidia and Accenture are working to extend their advantages as businesses scramble to adopt AI.
In its fiscal 2024 (which ended Aug. 31), Accenture reported several AI-specific developments. Despite revenue that grew just 1% to $64.9 billion, it generated record bookings of $81.2 billion, an increase of 13%. When bookings increase at a faster rate than revenue, this usually signals that growth is accelerating.
Indeed, the company delivered $3 billion in AI-related bookings for the year, with $1 billion in the fourth quarter alone. One of the more notable developments has been Accenture's embrace of AI. Its staff attended 44 million hours of training in fiscal 2024, a number that was up by 10% "predominantly due to [generative AI] training." (Notably, the company's workforce now exceeds 700,000.)
Nvidia's AI journey has been well documented: It has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI revolution thanks to its industry-leading graphics processing units (GPUs), which are well suited to provide the computational horsepower needed to train and run AI software. In Nvidia's fiscal 2024 (which ended Jan. 28), revenue soared 126% to $60.9 billion, while earnings per share surged 586% to $11.93. Its rapid growth continued into the first six months of its fiscal 2025, as revenue climbed 171% year over year to $56 billion, and earnings per share jumped 284% to $1.27.
Management's guidance for the current quarter is for revenue growth of 79%. While that's a far cry from the triple-digit percentage growth it has generated for the past five consecutive quarters, it's still enviable by any measure.
Is the deal a game-changer?
The most obvious benefit of a deal like the one Nvidia and Accenture just announced is its potential to keep the AI flywheel spinning.
Accenture gets access to Nvidia's cutting-edge technology, and it can use its expertise to help customers implement AI solutions. For its part, Nvidia is enlisting what is arguably the world's largest network of IT consultants to train customers to use Nvidia's AI solutions. Accenture boasts a data and AI-centric workforce of roughly 57,000, and its goal is to increase that to 80,000 by the end of its fiscal 2026.
Given their growth prospects and the potential opportunity represented by AI, both stocks offer compelling opportunities, although each will likely appeal to a different group of investors.
Accenture is attractively priced at 28 times forward earnings. It's the more conservative choice. Nvidia is not nearly as cheap, but attractive nonetheless. Based on earnings expectations for the fiscal year that will begin in January, the stock trades at a forward multiple of 33, a premium to the S&P 500's trailing earnings multiple of 30. However, that's a reasonable price to pay for a company that's expected to grow its earnings at an annualized rate of more than 50% over the next five years.
This deal benefits both partners by accelerating the adoption of AI among Accenture's customers, using Nvidia's technology to get there. While it might not quite qualify as a "game-changer," it certainly increases the prospects for both companies, giving them additional advantages as the AI revolution plays out.
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Danny Vena has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Accenture Plc and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2025 $290 calls on Accenture Plc and short January 2025 $310 calls on Accenture Plc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
