Nvidia (NVDA) Q1 2025 Earnings Report

• Earnings per share: $5.59, adjusted
• Income: $24.65 billion

A chipmaker that was a niche maker of 3D gaming hardware a decade ago has found itself at the center of the tech action.

Nvidia’s report comes about a year after the company first signaled to investors that it was about to embark on a surge fueled by demand for artificial intelligence chips from companies including Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and OpenAI.

Revenue has grown more than 200% in each of the last two quarters, and Wall Street expects that trend to continue, with estimates pointing to a 243% increase in the first quarter compared to a year earlier. Net profit is expected to be more than five times higher than last year.

Nvidia’s stock has more than tripled since the company reported fiscal first-quarter earnings last year and gave a surprisingly strong outlook for the second quarter.

The current generation of AI graphics processing units (GPUs), called Hopper, are required by leading artificial intelligence researchers to develop chatbots, translators and image generators. Over the past year, customers have been buying them in droves, and leading cloud and internet companies have spent billions of dollars on technology to build their infrastructure.

However, there are questions swirling about the sustainability of Nvidia’s meteoric rise as many customers need to start showing profits on all their massive expenses. Running AI software costs significantly more than traditional software, in part due to the outlay required for Nvidia GPUs.

Nvidia is also starting to ship next-generation AI GPUs, called Blackwell. Some companies may be paying attention to upcoming chips, which could cause sales of existing technology to stall.

Starting in its fiscal second quarter, Nvidia will face tough year-over-year comparisons with its early days of AI-driven growth. Analysts expect the expansion to drop below 100% in July and then slow down significantly in the next two periods.