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Thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) stock has been one of 2024's biggest winners. The company's share price has skyrocketed 155% across this year's trading alone, and continued momentum for sales and earnings could help push its valuation even higher.

As eye-catching as Nvidia's big gains in 2024 have been, its long-term performance is actually far more impressive. The company has shifted from primarily being a designer of graphics processing units (GPUs) for video games to the leading provider of processors for data centers and AI. As a result, the tech pioneer has risen from a market capitalization of roughly $10.3 billion a decade ago to a market cap of more than $3.1 trillion today.

Nvidia stock shows the power of long-term investing

Nvidia stock has delivered a total return of more than 27,000% over the last decade. That means that if you invested $1,000 in the stock 10 years ago and held onto your position, your holdings would now be worth more than $271,000.

Nvidia's incredible success and performance for shareholders is a testament to the benefits of long-term investing. The market-crushing run also shows that it only takes a handful of big winners to power incredible gains for your portfolio.

For example, imagine you had invested $1,000 in nine other companies a decade ago in addition to investing the same amount in Nvidia. Even if each of those nine other stocks when to $0 per share, Nvidia's performance would have meant that you would have scored more than $261,000 in profits on your initial $10,000 investment.

Of course, finding these kinds of massive winners is easier said than done -- but there are stocks on the market right now that could go on to be "the next Nvidia." Even the hottest stocks aren't going to turn $1,000 into more than $271,000 overnight, but giving strong companies time to execute their growth strategies and seize new opportunities can be a path to life-changing wealth creation.

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: