Nvidia revenue nearly doubles as AI chip demand remains strong

Some of Nvidia's product line is displayed as Jensen Huang, the company's chief executive, speaks in San Jose, California, earlier this year. Photo / Jim Wilson, the New York Times

Nvidia’s revenue almost doubled from a year ago in the latest show of strength for the chipmaker that has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom.

Revenue for the quarter to the end of October was US$35.1 billion ($59.7b), up 94% from a year ago.

It was a slower pace of growth from the previous quarter but still well above analysts’ expectations for US$33.25b.

Nvidia’s revenue guidance for the current quarter was US$37.5b, plus or minus 2%, which met consensus expectations of US$37b. The shares were down about 1.8% in after-hours trading ahead of the company’s earnings call.

Data centre revenue, which includes Nvidia’s Hopper chips that have powered the first wave of the AI market boom, was up 112% year on year to US$30.8b.

Big tech companies have poured billions of dollars into the data centre infrastructure that can train and run the models, with the spending spree expected to grow into 2025.

Analysts have been watching closely to see how Nvidia’s new generation of chips, known as Blackwell, launched earlier this year, might affect short-term revenue growth, and whether the chip is encountering any technical issues as it is implemented at scale.

According to a recent report from the Information, the Blackwell chips have experienced problems with overheating in servers.

The chip also faced production issues earlier this year.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said in a statement that the Blackwell chip, now in full production, was seeing “incredible” anticipation from customers, with demand for its previous generation chip, known as Hopper, still strong.

The company’s shares are up more than 200% year to date.

The race to develop and adopt AI has fuelled Nvidia’s breakneck growth.

With a market value of US$3.6 trillion, it is the world’s most valuable listed company and has come to have an outsized impact on the stock market. Earlier in the year it was driving about a quarter of the gains on the S&P 500.

Expectations around the chipmaker’s quarterly results have been sky-high, with investors taking it as a measure of the health of the overall tech market, with all the biggest tech companies making major investments in AI.

Gross margins were 75%, in line with consensus estimates. Adjusted net income was US$20b, while earnings per share was US$0.78, exceeding analysts’ expectations.

Citi analysts said the results were better than expected, with demand for Blackwell expected to exceed supply well into the 2026 financial year.

Written by: Michael Acton in San Francisco

© Financial Times