Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, XETRA:NVD) has comfortably beaten Wall Street expectations with record second-quarter revenue of US$96.2 billion, as accelerating demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure powered another surge in sales and profit.
Revenue for the quarter ended July 26 rose 106% year-on-year and 18% from the previous quarter, beating Visible Alpha consensus expectations of about US$92.2 billion and Nvidia's own guidance of around US$91 billion.
Adjusted earnings per share of US$2.22 also topped market expectations of around US$2.09, while data centre revenue reached US$89.0 billion, ahead of forecasts of roughly US$85.7 billion.
Data centre growth accelerates
Data centre revenue jumped 117% from a year earlier and 18% quarter-on-quarter as hyperscalers, AI developers and other customers continued investing heavily in computing infrastructure.
Founder and chief executive Jensen Huang said AI had reached an “inflection point”, with demand accelerating as more laboratories, start-ups and companies scale their AI operations.
“The AI infrastructure buildout is at full steam,” Huang said, adding that Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform is now in full production.
GAAP net income climbed 126% to US$59.7 billion, while diluted earnings per share rose 128% to US$2.46.
Adjusted net income reached US$54.0 billion, up 118%, while gross margin stood at 75.0%.
Guidance also beats expectations
Nvidia expects the momentum to continue, forecasting third-quarter revenue of around US$108 billion, plus or minus 2%.
That was also ahead of Wall Street expectations, with FactSet consensus sitting at about US$104.9 billion before the result.
The company expects gross margins of around 74%, plus or minus 0.5 percentage points.
Importantly, the forecast assumes no data centre compute revenue from China, meaning any recovery in sales to the market could provide additional upside.
AI infrastructure buildout expands
Nvidia highlighted continued deployment of its Vera Rubin platform alongside partnerships with major cloud providers and infrastructure groups.
The company also announced partnerships with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR aimed at mobilising more than US$500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure over time, subject to definitive agreements.
Nvidia returned about US$26 billion to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends during the quarter and finished the period with approximately US$99 billion remaining under its repurchase authorisation.