  Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer an ideal platform to
experimentally realize Dirac fermions. However, typically these exotic
quasiparticles are located far away from the Fermi level, limiting the
contribution of Dirac-like carriers to the transport properties. Here we show
that NiTe2 hosts both bulk Type-II Dirac points and topological surface states.
The underlying mechanism is shared with other TMDs and based on the generic
topological character of the Te p-orbital manifold. However, unique to NiTe2, a
significant contribution of Ni d orbital states shifts the energy of the
Type-II Dirac point close to the Fermi level. In addition, one of the
topological surface states intersects the Fermi energy and exhibits a
remarkably large spin splitting of 120 meV. Our results establish NiTe2 as an
exciting candidate for next-generation spintronics devices.
