Artificial intelligence darling and the world's most valuable company, Nvidia has once again turned out quarterly results that exceeded Wall Street's forecasts, yet failed to satisfy even higher hopes, leaving stocks mixed on close.
The company has seen quarters of soaring demand for its semiconductors, which are used to power artificial intelligence applications.
Revenue nearly doubled in the latest quarter from the same period a year earlier, Nvidia reported Wednesday.
The company reported revenue for the third quarter ending Oct. 27 of $35.1 billion, up 17% from the previous quarter and up 94% from a year ago.
The company expects further revenue growth in the current quarter that ends in January, albeit at a slower pace and investors will be watching to see if demand for the company's next-generation AI chip called Blackwell can help it maintain the red-hot pace.
“The age of AI is in full steam, propelling a global shift to NVIDIA computing,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia.
The new line of processors has been embraced by Nvidia's customers and the company will exceed its initial projections of several billion dollars in sales of the processors in the fourth quarter, Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress told analysts on a conference call on Wednesday.
The company’s journey to be one of the most prominent players in AI has, however, produced some eye-popping numbers and left analysts and investors with lofty expectations ahead of any quarterly results.
Here's a look.
Nvidia’s total market value as of the close Wednesday, tops in the S&P 500. It regained the No. 1 spot from Apple ($3.461 trillion) earlier this week. Microsoft is the only other company with a market value above $3 trillion ($3.089 trillion). One year ago, Nvidia's market value was around $1.243 trillion.
A $100,000 investment in Nvidia two years ago would now be worth more than $950,000. Shares fell about 1% in after-hours trading following the release of the company's earnings.
That's how much of the S&P 500's gain for the year could be attributed to Nvidia alone, as of Oct. 31. Nvidia replaced Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average earlier this month.
Nvidia's revenue from its data center business for the quarter ended Oct. 31, up 112% from a year ago. Overall revenue rose 94% from a year ago to $35.1 billion while by comparison, revenue growth for all the companies in the S&P 500 is expected to be about 5.5% for the latest quarter, according to FactSet.
Nvidia's estimate for overall revenue in the fourth quarter is "plus or minus 2%." That translates to a range of $36.8 billion to $38.3 billion, compared to Wall Street's estimate of $37.1 billion. Revenue in the year-ago fourth quarter totaled $22.1 billion.
