NVIDIA BEATS EARNINGS EXPECTATIONS AS INVESTORS EYE DEMAND FOR BLACKWELL AI CHIPS

Nvidia on Wednesday reported a surge in third-quarter profit and sales as demand for its specialized computer chips that power artificial intelligence systems remains robust.

For the three months that ended Oct. 27, the tech giant based in Santa Clara, California, posted revenue of $35.08 billion, up 94% from $18.12 billion a year ago.

Nvidia said it earned $19.31 billion in the quarter, more than double the $9.24 billion it posted in last year’s third quarter. Adjusted for one-time items, it earned 81 cents a share.

Wall Street analysts had been expecting adjusted earnings of 75 cents a share on revenue of $33.17 billion, according to FactSet.

Investors took the results in stride, however, and Nvidia’s high-flying stock slipped about 1% in afterhours trading. Shares in Nvidia Corp. are up 195% so far this year. Nvidia said it expects fourth quarter revenue to grow to $37.5 billion, plus or minus 2%. Analysts are expecting, on average, $37.09 billion.

“The age of AI is in full steam, propelling a global shift to Nvidia computing,” Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in a statement.

Nvidia’s third-quarter data center revenue was $30.8 billion, up 112% from a year ago. That growth was driven by demand for the Hopper computing platform for large language models, recommendation engines and generative AI applications, the company said.