Nvidia (NVDA) posted another blockbuster quarter on Wednesday as demand for its artificial intelligence infrastructure drove revenue, earnings and cash flow to record levels.
The company reported first-quarter revenue of $81.62 billion, up 85% from $44.06 billion in the year-ago period and beating Wall Street’s $78.9 billion estimate, according to FactSet data. Adjusted earnings were $1.87 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.76 per share. The company also gave a stronger-than-expected outlook for the current quarter, forecasting revenue of about $91 billion.
Meanwhile, the company also made moves to increase cash returns to shareholders. Nvidia’s board approved an additional $80 billion in share buybacks and raised its quarterly dividend from 1 cent to 25 cents per share.
However, despite the beat, positive outlook, and shareholder returns, the stock was down about 1.5% at the time of publication. Investors were likely focused on potential challenges to Nvidia’s growth opportunities beyond this quarter as competition for AI chips continues to intensify.
Bitcoin miners with exposure to AI and high-performance computing infrastructure rose slightly following Nvidia’s earnings report. Shares of Core Scientific (CORZ) and Cipher Mining (CIFR) each rose slightly in after-hours trading as investors viewed some miners as potential beneficiaries of rising demand for data centers, power capacity and AI computing infrastructure. IREN initially rose, but has since fallen by about 1%.
“Construction of the AI Factory, the largest infrastructure expansion in human history, is accelerating at an extraordinary pace,” CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement. “Agent AI is here to do productive work, create real value, and scale rapidly across businesses and industries,” he added.
Data center growth
There was some good news in the chipmaker’s earnings, especially for Bitcoin miners moving into the data center business.
Nvidia’s data center business continued to drive growth as cloud providers, enterprises and governments ramped up spending on AI infrastructure powered by the company’s chips.
Hyperscalers generated more than half of Nvidia’s $75 billion in data center revenue in the quarter, amounting to about $38 billion, up 12% from the previous quarter, CFO Colette Kress said on an earnings call.
The remaining $37 billion comes from a segment NVIDIA now calls ACIE, which includes AI cloud providers, industrial customers, and enterprise markets. Kress said AI Cloud revenue more than tripled year-over-year as NVIDIA helped rapidly expand AI computing capacity across more than 80 data centers with more than 10 megawatts of capacity.
Kress added that spending on AI infrastructure continues to accelerate and demand for Nvidia’s computing systems remains strong. He also said he expects NVIDIA to generate $20 billion in CPU revenue this year.
Nvidia said its outlook does not assume data center computing revenue from China. Sales of advanced AI chips are restricted in China due to US export regulations.
Investors are watching Nvidia’s earnings closely for signs that spending on AI infrastructure remains strong, despite growing doubts about how quickly the company turns these investments into profits.
So far, Nvidia’s results suggest demand continues to exceed expectations, which could be a positive for data center providers.
