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The generative AI wave is still minting money for Nvidia, which has come to be seen as a bellwether for the longevity of hype around the budding technology.
Nvidia execs played up that role in an earnings call this week, touting the success of AI frontrunners—and Nvidia customers—like OpenAI, Google, and Meta in turning AI into a durable business. The company continued its year-long winning streak with a 262% YoY jump in revenue to $26 billion and a profit increase of more than 600% from the same period last year to $14.88 billion.
Nvidia’s ongoing success is fueled by companies of all kinds—but especially cloud giants—continuing to pour funds into building out an infrastructure to train and run massive foundation models. CEO Jensen Huang refers to these advanced data centers as “AI factories” of a “next industrial revolution.”
Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said cloud providers buying Nvidia chips are seeing an “immediate and strong return,” claiming that for every dollar they invest in hosting capabilities, they “have an opportunity to earn $5” in revenue over four years. And Microsoft and Google did indeed post strong cloud revenues this quarter, pointing to an ongoing business appetite for AI tools.
The momentum has continued even as Big Tech companies like Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon have also invested in building their own AI chips to compete with Nvidia. Rivals like AMD and Intel are also developing alternatives.
In the call, Huang promised imminent dispatches of Nvidia’s recently announced Blackwell architecture, with shipments starting next quarter and ramping up the following one. As to whether companies might be tempted to hold off on buying current offerings until the new, more powerful chip hits the market, Huang said the pace of the current AI race leaves no time for waiting.
“The next company who reaches the next major plateau gets to announce a groundbreaking AI. And the second one after that gets to announce something that’s, you know, 0.3% better,” Huang said. “And so the question is, do you want to be repeatedly the company delivering groundbreaking AI? Or the company delivering 0.3% better?”