Netapp's AI Opportunity Can Support Higher Growth, Says Bofa - Raises Target After INSIGHT Event

• Several announcements at INSIGHT highlighted the AI opportunity BofA noted.
• NetApp and Supermicro announced jointly validated infrastructure targeting AI factories, neoclouds, enterprise deployments and sovereign AI.
• A new NetApp storage service will run natively on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, with general availability planned within the next 12 months.

NetApp Inc. (NTAP) is giving investors another reason to focus on its AI strategy. Bank of America raised its price target on NTAP stock to $220 from $200 after attending the company's INSIGHT 2026 event, saying artificial intelligence is expanding the addressable market for the storage provider.

According to the Fly, BofA analyst Wamsi Mohan maintained a Neutral rating, but said the firm is applying a higher valuation multiple to the incremental opportunity created by AI. The shift comes as NetApp expands its AI infrastructure strategy through new partnerships with Supermicro Corp (SMCI) and Oracle (ORCL).

NetApp Targets AI Factories With Supermicro

Several announcements at INSIGHT illustrated the AI opportunity highlighted by BofA.

NetApp and Super Micro Computer Inc. (SMCI) announced a strategic collaboration to create jointly validated AI infrastructure spanning large-scale AI factories, enterprise deployments, neoclouds and sovereign AI projects.

The companies are pairing Supermicro's compute and rack-scale systems with NetApp's data platform to improve graphics processing unit (GPU) utilization and reduce the complexity of deploying AI infrastructure.

Novus Takes Aim At Large-Scale AI Infrastructure

NetApp also introduced Novus, a new architecture aimed at AI infrastructure providers operating large GPU environments. The company said it is being built to support a zettabyte-scale file system and keep large GPU clusters supplied with data. 

Oracle Partnership Expands NetApp's Cloud Reach

NetApp's push extends beyond dedicated AI infrastructure.

The company and Oracle Corp. (ORCL) announced Oracle Cloud Infrastructure NetApp Storage Service, which will bring NetApp ONTAP data-management capabilities natively into Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

The fully managed service is intended to support migration and management of AI and enterprise workloads, including databases, virtualized environments and AI data pipelines. General availability is planned within the next 12 months.

NetApp also used INSIGHT to announce new AI Data Engine capabilities designed to discover, govern, and make enterprise data available for AI where it already resides, rather than requiring companies to create additional copies of that data.

What Retail Thinks About NTAP Stock

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around NTAP stock flipped into 'bullish' territory. The stock hit a record high in the previous session.

So far this year, NTAP stock has gained over 96%. In comparison, the First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR), which holds the stock, has risen about 44% over the same period.

See Also: Apple Reportedly Prepares Major Smart-Home Push With Siri AI At Center - New Hub, Apple TV And HomePod Mini Nearly Ready

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