Investing often gets framed as a choice.
You’re either chasing the next big AI winner, or you’re the “boring” one collecting dividends.
But the smartest portfolios don’t pick a side – they hold both.
This article explores why owning both NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) and DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05) could give young investors exposure to two powerful but different wealth-building engines.
What NVIDIA Brings to a Portfolio
NVIDIA’ is the dominant supplier of GPUs – specialised chips that power data centres training and run today’s AI models, like ChatGPT and Gemini.
For the quarter ended 26 April 2026 (1QFY2027), revenue was US$81.6 billion, up 85.2% from a year earlier (1QFY2026: US$44.1 billion).
Net profit grew even faster, jumping more than 200% year-on-year (YoY) from US$18.8 billion to US$58.3 billion.
Gross margin was around 74.9% (+14.4 points YoY), meaning for every US$1 of chips sold, roughly US$0.75 is left after production costs.
That’s an extraordinarily high margin for a hardware company.
While data centre products now make up nearly 90% of total revenue, its growth potential goes beyond chatbots.
AI adoption, cloud computing, autonomous driving and robotics are still early-stage markets that will need enormous computing power as they mature – each as a separate growth runway layered on top of the others.
This growth comes at a price.
NVIDIA’s trailing-twelve months (TTM) price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio sits around 30.7 times.
While it’s slightly high, it’s arguably justified given how fast earnings are growing.
Free cash flow (FCF) is also surging alongside earnings, generating US$48.6 billion in 1QFY2027 alone, nearly double the US$26.1 billion from a year earlier.
However, NVDIA’s valuation only holds up if earnings keep pace.
Competition is also intensifying, from rival chipmakers and tech giants building their own custom AI chips.
And because so much of NVIDIA’s value rests on future expectations, the share price tends to swing harder than most large companies.
What DBS Brings to a Portfolio
Singapore’s largest bank just released its earnings for the second quarter of 2026 (2Q2026) today, 6 August 2026.
DBS reported a record net profit of $3.08 billion, up 9% YoY, as total income rose to a new high of $6.09 billion despite a challenging rate environment, driven by higher non-interest income.
Return on equity (ROE) stood at 17.9%, a strong sign of profitability for a bank this size.
Growth came from three sources.
Net fee income rose 25% to S$1.46 billion, led by wealth management fees that grew 42% to a record S$919 million.
Treasury customer sales and other commercial book non-interest income climbed 30% to a record S$681 million, while markets trading income rose 12% to S$469 million.
Net interest income (NII), however, slipped 2% YoY to S$3.58 billion as lower interest rates pushed net interest margins(NIM) down 18 basis points to 1.87%.
Loan and deposit growth, along with proactive hedging, cushioned most of the impact.
This is a reminder that rate cuts squeeze the gap between what banks earn on loans and pay on deposits.
Despite that pressure, DBS remains well-buffered on capital.
CET1 ratio stood at 16.6%, or 14.6% fully phased-in, both comfortably above regulatory minimums, while leverage ratio of 5.8% was also well above the 3% regulatory floor.
This gives DBS a thick cushion to absorb shocks before capital becomes a concern.
The board also declared a total dividend of S$0.81 per share this quarter (S$0.66 ordinary plus S$0.15 capital return), bringing forward dividend yield to 4.3%.
The combination of solid profitability and balance sheet, and continuous growing dividends is what makes DBS a reliable income anchor even as rate cycles shift.
Different Businesses, Different Economic Drivers
The question now is: “How can each company play a different role in my portfolio?”
NVIDIA thrives when AI spending and chip demand surge, making it a vehicle for capital appreciation – the share price doing the heavy lifting over years, backed by strong earnings growth.
On the other hand, DBS thrives when loans grow, wealth management flourishes, and the broader economy stays healthy.
It is built for stable income – cash landing in your account every quarter, supported by continuous dividend increments.
They don’t move for the same reasons, which is exactly the point.
Why This Combination Appeals to Gen Z Investors
If you’re in your 20s or early 30s, time is your biggest advantage.
With decades ahead for compounding to work and more room to ride out short-term volatility, you can afford to hold a high-growth stock like NVIDIA.
But building the habit of owning dividend payers like DBS means you start compounding passive income early too.
Additionally, diversifying your portfolio across industries and geographies helps reduce overall portfolio risk.
Common Mistakes Young Investors Make
A few traps often catch young investors, and they tend to run in opposite directions.
Some go all-in on growth stocks, chasing the excitement, until a sharp fall in the share prices erases years of gains in a matter of days or weeks.
Others avoid dividend stocks entirely because they seem “boring” and end up missing out on the power of compounding.
Either way, owning just one exciting stock isn’t the same as being diversified – even a great company is still a single bet, no matter how convincing the story sounds.
And perhaps the easiest mistake of all is judging a stock’s P/E purely by the number itself, rather than weighing it against its own long-term average or its earnings growth.
That’s usually how people end up overpaying.
What Investors Should Monitor Going Forward
For NVIDIA, the story really comes down to whether data centre demand keeps growing as fast as it has, and whether that growth shows up in its gross margins and FCF.
Just as important is that its forward P/E stays justified by actual earnings growth.
For DBS, keep an eye on NIM and ROE as signs of how well the bank is managing rate pressure.
Its dividend payout ratio will show whether shareholder returns stay consistent, and its P/E is worth tracking against its historical average to gauge whether the stock is fairly priced.
Get Smart: The Best Portfolio Doesn’t Force You to Choose
NVIDIA and DBS represent two different paths to building wealth, but there’s no need to choose one story over the other.
Owning both means participating in the future while still getting paid along the way.
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Disclosure: Si-Fan T. owns shares in NVIDIA and DBS.
