Nvidia’s upbeat sales forecast shows AI boom remains strong

Fiscal first-quarter sales will be about US$78 billionAuthor of the article:You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Nvidia Corp., the world’s most valuable company, gave another bullish quarterly revenue forecast, signaling that the massive build-out of AI computing remains on track.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Fiscal first-quarter sales will be about US$78 billion, the chipmaker said in a statement Wednesday. That compares with an average Wall Street estimate of $US72.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.“Our customers are racing to invest in AI compute — the factories powering the AI industrial revolution and their future growth,” chief executive Jensen Huang said in the statement.Canada's best source for investing news, analysis and insight.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Investor will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againInterested in more newsletters? Browse here.The outlook helped soothe concerns about a bubble in AI investments. Huang has repeatedly downplayed fears that the run-up in spending on artificial intelligence hardware isn’t sustainable. He argues that it will take years to replace the world’s installed base of older computers with machines that offer a leap forward in productivity.But some investors had grown weary of that optimism and traded out of stocks like Nvidia. Wednesday’s report provides some evidence that near-term worries may be overblown.Nvidia shares, among the 10 worst-performing chipmaker stocks this year, rose about four per cent in extended trading following the announcement.Nvidia is the dominant seller of accelerator chips, processors designed to handle the huge amounts of data needed to create artificial intelligence models. The semiconductors are also used to run the software — a stage known as inference — when it carries out tasks in response to real-world inputs. Nvidia has branched out into general-purpose processors, networking and full computer systems, giving it an even greater hold on customers.In the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Jan. 25, revenue gained 73 per cent to US$68.1 billion. Profit was US$1.62 a share, excluding certain items. Analysts had predicted US$65.9 billion in sales and US$1.53 a share in earnings.Adjusted gross margin, the percentage of revenue remaining after deducting costs of production, was 75.2 per cent. That also edged past estimates.One cloud hanging over the tech industry: a shortage of memory chips. Like much of the electronics industry, Nvidia’s products are reliant on a steady supply of these components, which provide short-term storage in everything from smartphones to supercomputers. Supply constraints have sent memory prices soaring and made it harder to ship as many devices this year.Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia said in its report that the company has enough supplies. “We have strategically secured inventory and capacity to meet demand beyond the next several quarters,” it said.Nvidia’s data center unit, which is responsible for its industry-leading AI accelerator and networking products, had revenue of US$62.3 billion in the quarter. That compares with an average analyst estimate of US$60.4 billion.Other areas weren’t as strong. Gaming, which offers graphics chips that once provided the majority of Nvidia’s revenue, generated US$3.73 billion in sales. The average estimate was US$4.01 billion. Automotive-related sales were US$604 million, with Wall Street predicting US$643 million.Earlier this month, Nvidia announced that Meta Platforms Inc. has agreed to deploy “millions” of Nvidia processors over the next few years, tightening an already close relationship between two of the biggest companies in AI. Nvidia’s main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., announced this week a similar long-term deal with Meta. That chipmaker said the transaction would be worth multiple tens of billions of dollars.A flurry of such megadeals, aimed at locking down long-term commitments for computing capacity, has been offered by the chipmakers as evidence that the AI economy is strong. But the cozy nature of these transactions — with suppliers and customers sometimes taking financial stakes in one another — has drawn criticism about circular deals potentially inflating demand.Another major question: Nvidia is still waiting for clarity on whether it’s going to be able to do business in China, the largest market for its products. A political standoff between Beijing and Washington has restricted Nvidia’s ability to sell its best products to Chinese customers.Nvidia said Wednesday that it wasn’t including any China data center revenue in its first-quarter sales outlook. But the company indicated in a filing that it was granted a US license this month to ship “small amounts” of its H200 chips to customers in the Asian nation.“To date, we have not generated any revenue under the H200 licensing program, and do not yet know whether any imports will be allowed into China,” Nvidia said. “The license requires that the H200s go through an inspection process in the United States prior to any shipment to the customer. As a result, any H200 shipped under the new licensing program will be subject to a 25 per cent tariff upon importation into the United States.”Bloomberg.comPostmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.