Semiconductor manufacturer Nvidia, now the world’s most valuable company, reported Wednesday that its second-quarter sales jumped 56% in a welcome sign for the artificial intelligence industry.
Nvidia received $46.74 billion in revenue from May to July and made $26.42 billion in profit, representing a 59% increase from last year. The current quarter’s revenue is expected to rise 54% from a year ago to $54 billion.
The latest earnings report comes as tech companies, including Google, pour billions into AI-powered data centers. Nvidia plays a significant role in the AI boom, considering the company primarily supplies the computer chips to power tech companies’ data centers.
The AI chipmaker is continuing to roll out a new class of chips, called Blackwell, sales of which are accelerating. The company is distributing about 72,000 Blackwell chips per week for an estimated price of $30,000 each to cloud computing companies, such as Meta and Amazon.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said demand for the company’s products was “extraordinary,” adding that “Blackwell is the platform” at the center of the AI race.
Earlier this month, Nvidia was one of two companies that preliminarily agreed to pay 15% of their sales in China to the United States in exchange for export licenses to gain access to the Chinese market. The deal has not been finalized yet, according to Nvidia.
The company’s latest quarterly results have further cemented its position as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, now exceeding $4.4 trillion in market value after initially surpassing the $4 trillion mark in July. Nvidia sits above Apple and Microsoft, both of which briefly became the most valuable company at different times this year.
While Nvidia is optimistic about AI’s future, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned investors of overhyping the technology by comparing the AI boom to the infamous dot-com bubble that led to rapid investments in internet companies during the 1990s before the bubble eventually burst in 2000.
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“When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth,” Altman recently said, adding that he believes investors are “overexcited about AI.” However, he does say AI is the “most important thing to happen in a very long time.”
Despite Altman’s cautious statement, OpenAI has experienced rapid growth as the AI startup nears a $500 billion valuation — up from $300 billion in March. If it surpasses the $500 billion mark, OpenAI would become the world’s most valuable privately held company.
