Nvidia smashes earnings expectations on AI chip demand

Nvidia is under pressure to meet high expectations with its upcoming Blackwell processing system to boost artificial intelligence (I-Hwa CHENG)
Nvidia is under pressure to meet high expectations with its upcoming Blackwell processing system to boost artificial intelligence (I-Hwa CHENG)

US chipmaking behemoth Nvidia said on Wednesday it made a profit of $19 billion on a record high last quarter as demand continued for its hardware to power artificial intelligence.

Nvidia reported quarterly sales of $35.1 billion, another $2 billion more than market expectations.

“The age of AI is here, driving a global revolution for Nvidia computing,” said co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang.

“AI is changing every industry, company and country.”

Huang said that Nvidia was looking forward to the Blackwell platform being in full production and that the company is seeing “tremendous demand” for the new offering along with the latest-generation Hopper processors.

“Enterprises are adopting agent AI to change trends,” Huang said.

“Industrial robotics investments are increasing with success in physical AI, and countries have woken up to the importance of improving their national AI and infrastructure.”

Nvidia overtook Apple earlier this month to become the world’s most valued company as artificial intelligence continues to impress Wall Street.

Following its quarterly report, Nvidia’s stock rose nearly 2 percent in after-hours trading to $143.24.

Investors may have been worried about the company saying its margin, the amount of money it makes from processors, is expected to decline.

“Despite Nvidia’s technological leadership through CUDA and its first-mover advantage in AI infrastructure, there is little room for execution in 2025,” said Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne.

“Especially given the uncertainty surrounding Blackwell’s release and increased competition from both AMD and key customers’ in-house chip development efforts.”

The market can also weigh geopolitical factors, such as the possibility of trading volatility in China after Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.

Nvidia relies on TSMC in Taiwan for its coveted graphics processing units.

Major international technology companies have invested tens of billions of dollars in Nvidia’s powerful AI chips and software to get their ChatGPT-style AI models.

Microsoft, Google, Meta, Tesla and Amazon all rely on Nvidia technology to train the AI ​​models and perform the heavy computing tasks required to deliver new technology.

Before the latest earnings, Nvidia’s share price had tripled year-to-date and accounted for a third of the broad-based S&P 500 index’s gains this year.

gc/dec

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