Nvidia reported earnings after the bell that beat Wall Street expectations, and provided stronger-than-expected guidance for the current quarter.
Nvidia shares fell 3% in extended trade.
Here’s how the company stacks up against LSEG consensus expectations:
- Earnings per share: 68 cents adjusted vs 64 cents
- results: $30.04 billion vs $28.7 billion expected
Nvidia said it expects about $32.5 billion in revenue for the current quarter, versus $31.7 billion expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount. This will be an 80% increase from the previous year.
Revenue continued to rise at the chip maker, rising 122% year over year during the quarter, after three consecutive periods of year-over-year growth of more than 200%.
Net income more than doubled to $16.6 billion, or 67 cents per share, in the quarter, from $6.18 billion, or 25 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
Nvidia has been a major beneficiary of the ongoing artificial intelligence boom. Nvidia shares have risen more than 150% this year after rising almost 240% in 2023. The market capitalization recently exceeded $3 trillion, and Nvidia is the most valuable public company in the world, although it is currently second only to Apple.
Revenue in Nvidia’s data center business, which includes AI processors, rose 154% from a year earlier to $26.3 billion, accounting for 88% of total sales. It also exceeded StreetAccount’s expectations of $25.24 billion.
Not all sales are chips. Nvidia said Wednesday that $3.7 billion in revenue came from the company’s networking products.
Most of the business is targeted at a number of cloud service providers and consumer internet companies including Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla. Nvidia chips, such as the H100 and H200, are used in the majority of generative AI applications, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Many customers are waiting for Nvidia’s next generation AI chip, called Blackwell. Nvidia said it sent samples of Blackwell chips during the quarter, and made changes to the product to make it more efficient to manufacture.
“In the fourth quarter, we expect to deliver several billion dollars in Blackwell revenue,” Nvidia CFO Colette Kress wrote in prepared remarks.
However, Nvidia said it expects its current generation of chips, called Hopper, to increase total shipments for the next two quarters.
“Demand for Hopper remains strong, and the anticipation for Blackwell is incredible,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, in a press release.
Nvidia’s gaming business used to be the company’s main focus before the data center shutdown. Gaming revenue increased 16% from a year ago to $2.9 billion, beating StreetAccount’s estimate of $2.7 billion. The company says that’s partly due to increased shipments of PC game cards as well as “game console SOCs.” Nvidia supplies chips for Nintendo consoles.
Nvidia also makes chips for high-end graphics designers as well as cars and robots in its smaller division. The company’s graphics business grew 20% and reported $454 million in revenue. Nvidia reported $346 million in automotive and robotics revenue, compared to expectations of $344.7 million.
Nvidia also said it approved a $50 billion share buyback.
