Nvidia reported first-quarter results that exceeded Wall Street expectations and used its earnings call to outline an expansion of its addressable markets. The company delivered $81.62 billion in revenue, topping the consensus estimate of $78.86 billion, and posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.87 versus the $1.76 figure analysts had forecast.
Data center sales, the engine behind Nvidia’s recent growth, came in at $75.2 billion compared with an expected $72.8 billion. For the fiscal second quarter, management guided to revenue of $91 billion, plus or minus 2%, materially above the $86.84 billion estimate that analysts had forecast.
Alongside the operational results, Nvidia announced a substantial return of capital to shareholders: a new $80 billion share repurchase authorization and an increase in the quarterly cash dividend to $0.25 per share from $0.01. Management also disclosed $30 billion in cloud computing agreements, up from $27 billion in the previous quarter, which the company characterized as supportive of its research and development activities.
CEO Jensen Huang used the call to reassure investors about Nvidia’s trajectory and to highlight growth beyond the company’s existing GPU-centric franchise. He pointed to a wider base of customers and new product introductions as reasons Nvidia can sustain its fast expansion. In particular, Huang introduced the company’s new “Vera” central processors as opening a fresh addressable market that management pegs at $200 billion.
Management expects Vera-related chip revenue to reach $20 billion by the end of the fiscal year. Importantly, Nvidia said that this $20 billion outlook for Vera is separate from the company’s prior projection that Blackwell and Rubin GPUs would generate $1 trillion in sales between 2025 and 2027. Huang stated that he expects Vera to become the second-largest sales contributor after that $1 trillion opportunity for Blackwell and Rubin, and he said customers have shown strong enthusiasm for Vera.
At the same time, Huang warned of supply-side constraints, saying his sense is that Nvidia will be supply-constrained for the entire life of the Vera Rubin combined platform, which the company plans to launch later this year. That cautionary note, coupled with the view that many large customers continue to explore custom silicon, helps explain why investors did not send the share price sharply higher in premarket trading despite the strong quarter and aggressive capital returns.
Analyst reactions
Responses from institutional research teams generally leaned positive, while emphasizing different drivers behind the result and the outlook:
- Goldman Sachs said the firm sees a clearer path for the stock to outperform over coming months, pointing to potential upside in hyperscaler capital-expenditure forecasts and improved capital allocation that could increase investor confidence in Nvidia’s balance of product investment and returns to shareholders.
- Morgan Stanley noted that Vera Rubin is on schedule and argued it should deliver attractive economics, while also saying that the company’s position as the most important AI chip supplier remains unassailable despite current comparisons in ASIC timing.
- BofA highlighted Nvidia’s diverse growth engines across hyperscale and AI cloud/enterprise markets, noting the roughly 50/50 mix today and viewing AI cloud/enterprise to accelerate faster, an area where Nvidia offers full-platform support that custom ASICs cannot match.
- Bernstein described the quarter as strong but relatively quiet on the surface, noting powerful results, the capital-return announcement, continued demand for Blackwell, and Rubin’s on-track launch in the third quarter consistent with the $1 trillion trajectory through 2027.
- Raymond James emphasized Vera’s contribution to growth in the CPU market, calling out Nvidia’s $20 billion CPU sales expectation this year and the company’s long-term $200 billion total addressable market view for that segment.
- Citi welcomed Nvidia’s decision to break out data center revenue into two sub-groups - Hyperscale and ACIE (AI Clouds, Industrial, & Enterprise) - saying the move provides better visibility for comparison purposes.
- Wolfe Research observed that the market’s reaction likely reflects focus on calendar-year 2027 and noted that other AI compute companies have provided firmer visibility into next-year expectations, which has influenced relative performance.
- Stifel said Nvidia cleared on every line, raised its target price to $282 with the introduction of fiscal 2029 estimates, and expressed a directional bias to the upside while stressing measured cadence tied to the timing of Vera Rubin ramps.
- Macquarie reiterated the $20 billion CPU order expectation for 2026, cited strong GPU demand, and noted rental prices for both the A100 and H100 were up.
- Evercore ISI highlighted the step-up in capital returns - the increased dividend and the new buyback authorization - noting this could imply higher shareholder returns in calendar-year 2026 than previously previewed.
Market reaction and broader implications
Despite the beat on the top and bottom lines and an optimistic guide, Nvidia shares were only modestly higher in premarket trading, a reflection of investor attention to medium- and long-term competitive risks. One chief concern is that many of Nvidia’s largest customers are investing in their own custom chips, which represents a potential long-term threat to Nvidia’s dominance. Management’s message emphasized growth relative to hyperscalers and the rapid revenue growth from a newer subgroup of data center customers described as AI-specific cloud firms - a cohort that matched hyperscaler sales in the quarter but expanded at a faster rate.
The company’s disclosure of $30 billion in cloud agreements and the explicit separation of hyperscale versus AI cloud/enterprise revenue are intended to give the market more clarity on where demand is coming from and how Nvidia views the sustainability of that demand. Management also signaled confidence in multiple growth levers - Blackwell and Rubin GPUs, the Vera CPU family, and expanding cloud engagements - while acknowledging potential supply constraints that could limit throughput in the near term.
For markets and sectors, the results and guidance are most directly relevant to semiconductor suppliers, data center operators and cloud service providers, and to investors focused on companies tied to the AI computing ecosystem. The capital-return measures are also likely to influence investor discussions about the balance between reinvestment for growth and direct shareholder payouts.