Nvidia’s Q1 revenue exceeded market expectations, increasing by 69% to $44 billion on strong AI data center demand and impressive gaming segment growth.
Nvidia (NVDA) has posted strong financial results for its fiscal first quarter 2026, surpassing market expectations. The chipmaker reported revenue of $44.1 billion, marking a 69% year-on-year increase and topping analyst estimates of $43.3 billion.
Adjusted earnings per share (EPS), excluding the charge for the H20 chips, came in at $0.96, surpassing estimates for $0.88. However, data center revenue arrived lower than anticipated, being confirmed as $39.1 billion versus $39.2 billion.
Following the earnings announcement, Nvidia stock climbed 5% in premarket trading on Thursday. It now sits just 8% behind its all-time high price, which it reached back in January 2025.
According to Nvidia CFO Colette Kress, Nvidia generated just under 50% of its data center revenue via hyperscalers like Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), and Microsoft (MSFT). It is currently the world’s largest publicly traded company, surpassing Microsoft and Apple in terms of market capitalisation.
Nvidia’s automotive and robotics segment increased by $567 million, up 72% year-over-year. The company recently partnered with General Motors to develop next-gen vehicles using Nvidia Omniverse, Nvidia Cosmos, and Nvidia Drive AGX.
As for its professional visualisation segment, Q1 revenue rose 19% year-over-year to $509 million). Since the start of 2025, the AI giant has launched the Nvidia RTX Pro Blackwell series for servers and workstations. It has also introduced the Nvidia DGX Spark and DGX Station personal AI supercomputers during the quarter.
Nvidia CEO responds to the earnings beat
Reacting to the Q1 earnings report, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attributed the sustained growth to strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), particularly from major cloud service providers. He confirmed that the company’s most advanced AI chip, Blackwell, is now in full-scale production across system makers and cloud service providers.
“Global demand for Nvidia’s AI infrastructure is incredibly strong. AI inference token generation has surged tenfold in just one year, and as AI agents become mainstream, the demand for AI computing will accelerate,” Huang said.
“Countries around the world are recognising AI as essential infrastructure, just like electricity and the internet, and Nvidia stands at the centre of this profound transformation,” he added.
Ongoing issues remain for Nvidia
Despite the strong operational performance, the company continues to face considerable challenges. Export controls imposed by the US government have significantly restricted Nvidia’s ability to ship high-performance chips to certain markets, including China.
Upon announcing its quarterly results, Nvidia confirmed that it took a $4.5 billion charge due to a write-down in inventory. This came in less than the $5.5 billion hit expected, and relates to chips it produced in Q1 but now cannot sell due to the new export rules.
Initially, the H20 chip was designed to comply with export rules aimed at limiting China’s access to cutting-edge AI chips. However, further restrictions followed reports that Chinese firm DeepSeek had developed strong AI models using downgraded Nvidia hardware.
In response, the US government informed Nvidia that the H20 would require an export license to be sold to China. While the implementation of these restrictions were later paused, Nvidia began redesigning the chip to meet revised US performance limits. So far no release date has been officially scheduled.
Looking ahead at the wider picture, the company maintains a positive outlook. Production of its next-generation AI chip, Blackwell, is now fully underway across system manufacturers and cloud providers, signalling the firm’s continued onward momentum.
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