Nvidia tops estimates and says sales will jump 170% this quarter, driven by demand for AI chips

Nvidia shares climbed 8% in extended trading on Wednesday after the chipmaker beat estimates for the second quarter and issued optimistic guidance for the current period.

• Earnings: $2.70 per share, adjusted, versus $2.09 per share expected by Refinitiv.
• Revenue: $13.51 billion versus $11.22 billion expected by Refinitiv.

Nvidia said it expects third-quarter revenue of about $16 billion, higher than $12.61 billion forecast by Refinitiv. Nvidia’s guidance suggests sales will grow 170% on an annual basis in the current quarter.

Net income jumped to $6.19 billion, or $2.48 a share, from $656 million, or 26 cents, a year earlier.

Nvidia’s strong sales and forecast underscore how central the company’s technology has become to the generative AI boom. Nvidia’s A100 and H100 AI chips are needed to build and run AI applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other services that take simple text queries and respond with conversational answers or images.

Revenue in the second quarter doubled from $6.7 billion a year earlier and increased 88% from the prior period.

“A new computing era has begun,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in the press release. “Companies worldwide are transitioning from general-purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI.”

Even before Wednesday’s report, Nvidia’s stock price had more than tripled for the year, making it the top performer in the S&P 500. It jumped past $507 after hours, a level that would mark a record if it closes there on Thursday. Its prior closing high was $474.94 on July 18.

Nvidia’s performance was driven by its data center business, which includes AI chips, as cloud service providers and large consumer internet companies like Alphabet, Amazon and Meta snapped up next-generation processors. The company reported $10.32 billion in revenue for the group, up 171% on an annual basis and above the $8.03 billion estimate, according to StreetAccount.

Nvidia added that it saw its adjusted gross margin increase 25.3 percentage points to 71.2%, because of growth in data center sales, which are more profitable.

Nvidia’s gaming division, which used to be its core business, saw revenue increase 22% from a year earlier to $2.49 billion, topping the $2.38 billion average estimate.

Nvidia also makes chips for high-end graphics applications. That business shrank 24% year-over-year to $379 million. It reported $253 million in automotive revenue, which grew 15% on an annual basis.

Nvidia said its board of directors authorized $25 billion in share buybacks. It said it had purchased $3.28 billion in shares during the quarter.

Executives will discuss the results on a call with analysts at 5 p.m. ET.

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