Nvidia reported on Wednesday stronger-than-expected first-quarter results after Wall Street trading closed, beating analysts’ forecasts and issuing an upbeat outlook for the current quarter.
The chipmaker posted revenue of $81.62 billion, up 85%, and net earnings of $1.87 per share. Analysts had expected earnings of $1.77 per share on revenue of $78.97 billion.
Nvidia forecast revenue of $91 billion for the current quarter, above the average analyst estimate of $86.79 billion. Its shares rose 1% in after-hours trading.
The company’s board also approved an $80 billion share buyback plan and raised its quarterly dividend to 25 cents per share from 1 cent.
The results are being closely watched by analysts and investors as a key test of the AI-fueled rally that pushed the Nasdaq and S&P 500 to new highs earlier this month.
Investor interest in Nvidia remains high because of its central role in the global chip market and its importance to advances in artificial intelligence. But the company also faces growing challenges, including increased competition. Rival Cerebras drew attention last week with an IPO that beat expectations, while AMD said it plans to launch a new server system later this year. Amazon and Google are also continuing to invest billions of dollars in expanding their AI businesses.
Nvidia’s results came about a week after CEO Jensen Huang visited China with Donald Trump and a delegation of senior business leaders. Investors had hoped the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping would help advance Nvidia chip exports to China. But Trump told reporters after the meeting that China preferred to focus on developing its own chips.
Difficulties selling chips to China have led Nvidia to lose its market share there, Huang said.
“Nvidia had, you know, call it 90-some odd percent of the world’s market share,” he said in an interview late last month. “Today, in China, we have now dropped to zero.”
During the first quarter, Nvidia announced several new products, including its Groq 3 language processing unit and a server based only on a processor. Huang also said he expects $1 trillion in sales from Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin chips.
For the previous quarter, Nvidia reported adjusted earnings of $1.62 per share on revenue of $68.12 billion, up 73% from the fourth quarter a year earlier.