NVIDIA’s Impressive Quarterly Earnings: $12.3 Billion Mark, Up by 769%

Nvidia announced on Wednesday that its profits soared to $12.3 billion in the last quarter, driven by record revenues spurred by demand for its chips used in artificial intelligence systems.

The company reported a net income of $12.29 billion for the quarter, or $4.93 per share, which is a 769% increase compared to $1.41 billion last year or 57 cents per share.

Following the results announcement, Nvidia’s stock rebounded sharply in after-hours trading, surging over 12% to a new record level of $759.

The Silicon Valley semiconductor giant recorded record revenues of $22.1 billion for the quarter ending in late January and record annual revenues of $60.9 billion for the fiscal year.

“Accelerated computing and generative AI have reached a tipping point,” said Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang in a statement. He added, “Demand is increasing worldwide across companies, industries, and countries.”

The company’s data center computing unit reached a record revenue of $18.4 billion in the concluded quarter, more than four times the revenue of the same period last year. Nvidia said it expects its total revenue to reach $24 billion in the current quarter.

The company’s CFO, Colette Kress, had previously warned analysts that new U.S. export control regulations targeting China and other markets, including Vietnam and parts of the Middle East, are expected to negatively impact data center chip sales.

Late last year, the United States announced it would tighten restrictions on exports of advanced AI chips to China.

Calls for stricter controls intensified after the world witnessed the capabilities of AI with the launch of Chat GPT, which released its first version in October/November 2022.

Concerns were also raised in Washington by news that Chinese company Huawei had introduced a new smartphone equipped with an advanced locally-made chip.

When announcing the reinforcement of restrictions, U.S. officials stressed their intention to close loopholes and prevent China from developing AI for military use.

Following that announcement, China said it was “extremely dissatisfied” and “strongly opposes” the restrictions. (Agencies)