Chip giant Nvidia has once again shattered its own records, reporting first-quarter revenue of $81.6bn (£60.7bn) - up 85% year-over-year - and net income that more than tripled to $58.3bn. The company, which supplies chips to OpenAI, Meta, and essentially every AI model developer with a pulse, seems to have found the cheat code for endless growth.
CEO Jensen Huang declared on an analyst call that "demand has gone parabolic," adding that "the era of agentic AI is here." The company forecasts spending on AI infrastructure will hit $3tn to $4tn annually by decade's end. So far, so record-shattering.
Yet Nvidia's shares fell 1.6% in after-hours trading. Analysts suggest investors have simply grown accustomed to the company delivering the financial equivalent of a perfect score every time. "It's a law of large numbers," explained Ruth Foxe-Blader of Citrine Venture Partners. "Nvidia represents 8% of the S&P 500. Unless there's a belief in continued parabolic growth, it's hard to get super excited."
Victoria Scholar of interactive investor offered a more poetic diagnosis: "Investors bought the rumour, sold the fact - shares had already rallied ahead of earnings." She also noted growing concerns about competition as hyperscalers develop their own chips. Because nothing says "peak performance" like a 1.6% drop on a quarter where you tripled your profit.