NVIDIA Buybacks: A Frank Assessment of Value, Signal, and Risk
NVIDIA’s buybacks do create shareholder value — just not in the dramatic, thesis-driving way some bulls think, nor in the self-destructive way critics like Michael Burry argue.
The repurchase program works because it:
Offsets very large SBC issuance,
Provides real share-count shrink,
Adds ~1% EPS uplift versus a no-buyback world,
And acts as downside liquidity support.
But the program is not the engine of NVIDIA’s stock performance.
The stock trades on AI data-center earnings, TSMC/HBM/CoWoS supply, hyperscaler capex, and macro positioning, not on the authorization size.
