Nvidia earnings: Congrats, we get to keep on having an economy

The world’s most valuable company posted better-than-expected Q4 results and very strong sales guidance for the current quarter.

Nvidia posted $68.13 billion in revenue (of which $62.31 billion came from data centers) and gave guidance for $78 billion in revenue for this quarter, which blasts past expectations of $72.8 billion.

Nvidia itself rose on the news, as were the other boats riding the tide: data center stocks Applied Digital, IREN, CoreWeave, and Nebius, as well as foundry giant TSMC and optical communications firm Corning, caught a bid in after-hours trading thanks to the strong results and guidance from Nvidia.

The chip designer’s massive outlook for Q1 sales — with the midpoint at $78 billion, versus a consensus estimate of $72.8 billion — underscores the magnitude of the near-term demand for AI compute and chips. As if the hyperscalers’ massive capex budgets hadn’t already done that!

In November, the knee-jerk boost in Nvidia following solid Q3 earnings and Q4 guidance didn’t last long, with shares ending well in the red the next session.

The Takeaway

Near-term demand for Nvidia’s chips isn’t really in question, thanks to the gargantuan capex budgets unveiled by hyperscalers this reporting period. Wall Street will be looking to see if the chip designer can maintain high profitability as it delivers racks, particularly with memory chip prices elevated and its next-gen Vera Rubin offering coming to market.

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