Nvidia (NVDA) reported third-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday that beat expectations on the strength of sales of its high-powered AI chips that are powering what CEO Jensen Huang called the “AI era.”
Nvidia, the world’s largest publicly traded company by market capitalization, reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.81 and revenue of $35.1 billion. Analysts had expected earnings per share of $0.74 on revenue of $33.2 billion.
Nvidia also said it expects revenue of $37.5 billion, plus or minus 2%. That’s ahead of Wall Street’s forecast of $37 billion.
Nvidia’s stock price fell nearly 1% on the news.
“The era of artificial intelligence is at its peak, driving the global shift to NVIDIA computing,” CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement. “The demand for Hopper and the anticipation for Blackwell – in full production – is incredible as core model makers expand the scope of pre-training, post-training and inference.”
The chip giant’s data center business, which makes up the vast majority of its revenue, generated $30.8 billion in the quarter, beating analysts’ expectations of $29 billion and jumping 112% versus the $14.5 billion the sector generated in the third quarter of last year.
Nvidia’s gaming revenue was $3.3 billion of the $2.8 billion the division brought in last year. Analysts were looking for $3 billion.
Nvidia stock has continued to skyrocket throughout 2024, thanks to explosive growth in artificial intelligence across the tech landscape and beyond.
Nvidia also appears to be alleviating concerns about a potential slowdown in availability of its next-gen Blackwell chip, with CFO Colette Kress saying the AI GPU will start shipping in the current quarter and continue into next year.
“Both Hopper and Blackwell systems have certain supply constraints, and demand for Blackwell is expected to exceed supply for several quarters in fiscal 2026,” she added.
Nvidia shares were up 192% year to date as of Wednesday, handily outperforming any of the company’s chipmaking rivals. AMD (AMD), the closest competitor, has seen its stock price fall more than 5% year to date, while Intel (INTC), facing a difficult turnaround, has seen its stock fall nearly 52%.
Nvidia faces an uncertain future, given Donald Trump’s threat to impose sweeping tariffs on products from around the world.
Additionally, the president-elect has raised the specter of tariffs on chips made in Taiwan. This would constitute a potential alternative to the CHIPS Act, which aims to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States.
The vast majority of Nvidia chipsets are manufactured by TSMC in Taiwan. The tariff could mean that Nvidia would charge higher fees for its AI chips, resulting in lower margins, or pass the additional cost on to its customers. Investors are sure to be looking for any guidance Hwang has to offer on the subject.
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