Chip manufacturer Nvidia has announced record quarterly revenue of $68 billion (£53.8bn), a 73% increase from the same period last year. The results, reported on Wednesday, underscore the skyrocketing global demand for artificial intelligence computing power.
The company’s data centre business was the primary driver, generating $62 billion in revenue. This was divided into $51 billion from compute products, largely its Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), and $11 billion from networking technology like NVLink.
CEO Points to 'Exponential' Demand
On an analyst call, CEO Jensen Huang framed the current moment as a fundamental shift. “The demand for tokens in the world has gone completely exponential,” Huang stated. He noted that demand is so high that “even our six-year-old GPUs in the cloud are completely consumed and the pricing is going up.”
Huang directly linked compute investment to future revenue for tech companies, arguing, “In this new world of AI, compute is revenue. Without compute, there’s no way to generate tokens. Without tokens, there’s no way to grow revenues.”
China Market Remains Uncertain
Despite the recent easing of some U.S. export restrictions, Nvidia reported no revenue from chip sales to China in the quarter. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress clarified that while small shipments of its H200 products were approved, “they have yet to generate any revenue, and we do not know whether any imports will be allowed into China.”
Kress also highlighted growing competition, noting Chinese firms are “making progress” and “have the potential to disrupt the structure of the global AI industry over the long term.” This is seen as a reference to companies like Moore Threads, which conducted an Initial Public Offering in December.
OpenAI Investment and Future Outlook
Huang addressed the widely reported pending $30 billion investment in AI research company OpenAI, saying, “We continue to work with OpenAI toward a partnership agreement. We believe we are close.” He also mentioned partnerships with Anthropic, Meta, and Elon Musk’s xAI.
However, official filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission tempered expectations, stating there was “no assurance” the investment would ultimately be completed.
For the full financial year, Nvidia reported total revenue of $215 billion. The company’s performance solidifies its position amid an industry-wide surge in capital expenditure directed towards AI infrastructure.