Nvidia's sales soar in third quarter as AI spending boom barrels ahead

Nvidia's sales surged in its latest quarter and profits nearly doubled, a sign of the strength of an artificial intelligence boom that has made the company the world's most valuable.

- Asa Fitch

Nvidia on Wednesday also projected around $37.5 billion of revenue for its current quarter, topping forecasts and suggesting its next-generation AI chips, known as Blackwell, are in high demand from customers like Microsoft, Google, Meta and Elon Musk's xAI.

The company, whose chips have powered the rise of AI technology, said it expects the Blackwell chips to ship in the current quarter and be in short supply into its next fiscal year.

Sales were $35.1 billion in the fiscal third quarter, the company said, up 94% from a year prior and ahead of forecasts in a FactSet survey of analysts. Profit reached $19.3 billion, also ahead of Wall Street forecasts.

Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said during a call with analysts that demand for the company's current generation of chips and for Blackwell was "incredible" as leading AI developers scale up their computing infrastructure.

Nvidia's shares fell about 2.5% in after-hours trading, however, with the results falling short of some investors' expectations following several quarters of sky-high revenue and profits.

Nvidia's market capitalization has increased by $2.36 trillion in 2024 through Wednesday's close, greater than the entire current value of Google parent Alphabet.