Nvidia Q1 profit surges on gaming, datacenter; crushes estimates

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) Thursday reported record results for the first quarter as the chipmaker’s growing prowess in GPU computing and artificial intelligence drove broad-based revenue growth. Shares of the company, meanwhile, dipped more than 2% following the earnings announcement, after hitting a record high during the regular session.

The Santa Clara, California-based company said first-quarter net income more than doubled to $1.24 billion or $1.98 per share from $507 million or $0.79 per share last year, crushing the street estimates. Adjusted earnings jumped to $2.05 per share during the quarter.

Revenues surged 66% year-over-year to a record high of $3.21 billion and far exceeded expectations. Driving the top-line growth, Gaming and Datacenter revenues jumped 68% and 71%, respectively. The Professional Visualization segment grew 22% and Automotive revenues moved up 4%.

“At the heart of our opportunity is the incredible growth of computing demand of AI, just as traditional computing has slowed. The GPU computing approach we have pioneered is ideal for filling this vacuum. And our invention of the Tensor Core GPU has further enhanced our strong position to power the AI era,” said CEO Jensen Huang.

During the quarter, Nvidia returned $746 million to shareholders through a combination of share repurchases and dividends. In the whole of fiscal 2019, the company intends to return $1.25 billion to stockholders. It is looking for revenues of around $3.10 billion for the second quarter. Unadjusted and adjusted gross margins are expected to be 63.3% and 63.5%, respectively, in the second quarter.

While expanding its core business involves the development of graphics processors for PCs and gaming consoles, the graphics-chip maker has made large strides in making chips for automated vehicles, cloud data centers, and artificial intelligence applications.

Meanwhile, there are apprehensions that the recent setback suffered by the autonomous transport segment, following accidents involving the driverless cars of Tesla (TSLA) and Uber, could have a ripple effect on Nvidia’s operations in that area.

Nvidia’s primary competitor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) posted better than expected earnings for its first quarter aided by a 40% growth in revenues.