Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Nvidia reported a nearly 70 per cent surge in quarterly revenues, as the boom in spending on artificial intelligence chips continued despite rising economic uncertainty and export controls that have dented the chip company’s China sales.
Nvidia on Wednesday reported revenue of $44.1bn for the quarter to April 27, up 69 per cent year on year and above Wall Street’s expectations of $43.3bn.
But the US chip designer at the heart of a global spending spree on the infrastructure powering AI said it expected revenue of $45bn for the current quarter, plus or minus 2 per cent, slightly below Bloomberg consensus estimates of $45.5bn.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said the company was seeing “incredibly strong” demand for its products.
The company is navigating the impact of US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, as well as new export restrictions in April that have prevented it from selling AI chips designed specifically for the China market.
Nvidia shares were up almost 3 per cent in after-hours trading immediately following the announcement.
Net income jumped by 26 per cent to $18.8bn, slightly below estimates of $19.5bn.
Adjusted gross margins — a measure of profitability that excludes operating expenses — were 71.3 per cent, in line with the 71 per cent the company said it expected at its last earnings report in February and what Wall Street had been expecting.
Nvidia’s margins slipped earlier this year with the company citing the transition to its more complex and higher-cost Blackwell chip systems, which launched last year. Nvidia and its suppliers have recently resolved technical issues with Blackwell servers that threatened to delay the rollout.
Ahead of the results, analysts had warned that new China sales restrictions would bring margins down further for the quarter.
The company is contemplating how to redesign its chips to serve the Chinese market while complying with the latest US export controls.
