LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� Nvidia on Wednesday reported a surge in third-quarter profit and sales as demand for its specialized computer chips that power artificial intelligence systems remains robust.
For the three months that ended Oct. 27, the tech giant based in Santa Clara, California, posted revenue of $35.08 billion, up 94% from $18.12 billion a year ago.
Nvidia said it earned $19.31 billion in the quarter, more than double the $9.24 billion it posted in last year鈥檚 third quarter. Adjusted for one-time items, it earned 81 cents a share.
Wall Street analysts had been expecting adjusted earnings of 75 cents a share on revenue of $33.17 billion, according to FactSet.
Investors took the results in stride, however, and Nvidia鈥檚 high-flying stock slipped about 1% in after-hours trading. Shares in Nvidia Corp. are up 195% so far this year.
鈥淭he age of AI is in full steam, propelling a global shift to Nvidia computing,鈥� Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in a statement.
Nvidia鈥檚 third-quarter data center revenue was $30.8 billion, up 112% from a year ago. That growth was driven by demand for the Hopper computing platform for large language models, recommendation engines and generative AI applications, the company said.
Analysts鈥� were eyeing Nvidia鈥檚 guidance on its Blackwell graphics processor unit, a next-generation artificial intelligence chip that's seen demand from companies like OpenAI and others building AI data centers.
Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said Blackwell production shipments are scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 and will continue to ramp into fiscal 2026.
On an earnings call Wednesday, Kress told investors that both Hopper GPU and Blackwell systems 鈥渉ave certain supply constraints, and the demand for Blackwell is expected to exceed supply for several quarters in fiscal 2026.鈥�
鈥淓very customer is racing to be the first to market,鈥� Kress said. 鈥淏lackwell is now in the hands of all of our major partners, and they are working to bring up their data centers.鈥�
The company, seen as a bellwether for AI demand, will deliver 鈥渕ore Blackwell than we have previously estimated鈥� this quarter, Huang added.
Nvidia has led the sector to become one of the stock market鈥檚 , as tech giants spend heavily on the company鈥檚 chips and data centers needed to train and operate their AI systems.
The company carved out an early lead in AI applications race, in part because of Huang鈥檚 successful bet on the chip technology used to fuel the industry. The company is no stranger to big bets. Nvidia鈥檚 invention of graphics processor chips, or GPUs, in 1999 helped spark the growth of the PC gaming market and redefined computer graphics. The company's third quarter gaming revenue rose to $3.3 billion, an increase of 15% from a year ago.
Demand for generative AI products that can compose documents, make images and serve as personal assistants has fueled sales of Nvidia鈥檚 specialized chips over the last year. Nvidia, the most valuable publicly traded company by market cap as of Wednesday morning, is now , with analysts closely monitoring Nvidia's path to $4 trillion.
Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, said the earnings report shows 鈥渢he AI Revolution is still in the early innings of playing out.鈥�
鈥淲e view this as a Nvidia earnings press release that should be hung in the Louvre,鈥� Ives said. 鈥淏lackwell demand is just beginning. Any sell off (in Nvidia's stock) we would view as short lived, with our view this is a $4 trillion market cap in 2025 as the Godfather of AI Jensen (Huang) drives this spending wave.鈥�
Through the year鈥檚 first six months, Nvidia鈥檚 stock soared nearly 150%. At that point, the stock was trading at a little more than 100 times the company鈥檚 earnings over the prior 12 months. That鈥檚 much more expensive than it鈥檚 been historically and than the S&P 500 in general.
Sarah Parvini, The Associated Press
