Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock surpassed $1,000 for the first time in extended trading on Wednesday after the chipmaker reported fiscal first-quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates. As with its several previous reports, the chipmaker received a flurry of bullish comments and price target increases after releasing the print, signaling more growth room for the AI darling.
Nvidia earnings
Over the past year or so, Nvidia's earnings report has become a key indicator of the AI boom's strength.
The company’s latest quarterly report reinforced the trend, showing that demand for Nvidia’s sophisticated AI chips remains robust, with CEO Jensen Huang announcing that revenue from their next-generation AI chip, Blackwell, will be seen later this year.
Nvidia stock rose around 7% in premarket trading Thursday. Based on this, the shares are set to reach a new high at today’s market open.
In addition to financial results, the chipmaking giant also announced a 10-to-1 stock split.
For the fiscal Q1 2025, Nvidia reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $6.12, beating the $5.59 adjusted consensus estimate. Revenue rose to $26.04 billion, also above the expected $24.65 billion.
For the current quarter, Nvidia expects sales of $28 billion, plus or minus 2%, while Wall Street anticipated earnings per share of $5.95 on sales of $26.61 billion, according to LSEG.
Nvidia’s largest and most significant segment is its data center sales, which include AI chips and components for large AI servers.
This division saw a 427% growth from the previous year in the first quarter, reaching $22.6 billion in revenue, driven by shipments of the Hopper graphics processors, including the H100 GPU, as highlighted by finance chief Colette Kress.
Despite the substantial growth, Huang indicated that the company's next-generation AI GPU, Blackwell, will drive further expansion.
“We will see a lot of Blackwell revenue this year,” the CEO told analysts, adding that the new chip would hit data centers by Q4.
Nvidia stock is already up 91% this year, set to approach triple-digit gains following today’s market open.
Nvidia stock outlook
Unsurprisingly, analysts on Wall Street voiced bullish comments in the wake of Nvidia’s report after the chipmaker topped their sky-high expectations once again.
Evercore ISI: “We remain buyers of NVDA after it beat and raised by 9%/4%, consistent with our preview. We continue to view NVDA as our top “4th Tectonic Shift in Computing” pick. Mgmt comments increased our conviction in our thesis that every computing era is typically dominated by a single ecosystem provided by a single company that supplies a vertically integrated chip+software+hardware solution, and that ecosystem captures 80% of the value created in that computing era.”
HSBC: “Overall, results were in-line with our estimates but still a beat and raise relative to consensus.”
“We believe the market is still underestimating the transition towards the NVL server rack architecture with the GB200 platform, which will be the most important driver to its FY26e datacentre momentum, given the significant NVL36/72 ASP premium.”
“Our FY25e and FY26e forecasts remain unchanged along with our target price of USD1,350 based on an unchanged target PE of 30x.”
Piper Sandler: “In our view, the highlight of the call was that the Blackwell architecture is now in full-scale production and NVDA is expecting to ramp Blackwell in FY3Q with full-scale deployment by FY4Q ended January. In addition, NVDA is also seeing very strong demand for its Hopper architecture with a transition to H200. NVDA's sovereign customers are also expected to contribute HSD billions in revenue dollars by the end of the current FY. Last but not least, NVDA expects demand to be greater than supply for Blackwell well into next year.”
Wedbush: “With NVDA again lifting the bar, no signs of any pause in demand, and a forthcoming data center product cycle that we believe will act as another revenue catalyst in just a few quarters driving both higher demand for GPUs as well as more ancillary NVDA content within systems, results and the CFO commentary only bolster our optimistic stance heading into today's earnings call.”
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC): “While pre-qtr sentiment had likely reflected more F1Q25 Data Center (DC) upside, NVDA comments on Hopper H200 (F2Q25 ship) + Blackwell demand > supply into FY25 will (should) be taken as key positive. With above in mind, we highlight NVDA's Inventory + Purchase Commits expansion to ~$30.3B, +$3.9B q/q and + $15.0B y/y. We think NVDA's comments on enterprise AI + cloud rental represented an incremental takeaway. We con't to think this represents an inflecting driver of NVDA's AI Enterprise (now w/ NIMs) software monetization.”
Melius Research: “While revenue outperformance and outlook met expectations for "whispers" you can't help feeling Nvidia left a lot of gas in their tank to beat and raise from here. Here are the reasons: 1) Revenue from the new Blackwell product line is starting in F2Q and ramping into year-end, with an earlier and larger contribution to FY25 than expected, 2) Demand for the new H200 and Blackwell products is outstripping supply well into next year, 3) We anticipate a positive mix shift to more richly configured systems with Blackwell and 4) Revenues from "Sovereigns", Ethernet networking and software are still in the very early innings of becoming multi-billion dollar businesses within 2 ye.”
BofA: “Reiterate Buy, top sector pick on NVDA’s unparalleled combination of: 1) turnkey system design that we think can sustain 80%+ market share in AI accelerator market that could double YoY to ~$100bn in CY24, and can double again to $200bn by CY27 and then $300bn+ by CY30, 2) Incumbency across wide range of customer verticals, and 3) Consistent roadmap execution ensuring smooth transition to next-gen Blackwell product, as well as sustained networking growth. Demand continues to exceed supply and this situation could persist at least through most of CY25E, according to NVDA.”
UBS: “Results + guidance were well ahead of Street but were both as we previewed and met investor bogeys. More than the numbers though, several other factors skew the debate in a positive direction. 1) mgmt is subtly extending revenue visibility farther into the future with commentary that demand may exceed supply "well into next year"; and 2) NVDA is giving very little air to investor concerns that there could be any pause ahead of Blackwell shipments, though we do note that our callback still supported our view that both B100/GB200 don't really start to ship in any material volumes until FQ4 (Jan) and the lack of an "air pocket" is created more by Hopper remaining sold out rather than Blackwell shipping any time prior to FQ.”
Baird: “AI momentum continues unabated as the return on AI investments is high. We continue to model $103B in DC revenue for this year, based on a 4.7M GPU shipment assumption, and a 6M+ GPU unit forecast for F2026. Demand continues unabated for Hopper while Blackwell availability should more than double at launch vs. Hopper. Nvidia expects a strong cadence of new networking products including Spectrum- X Ethernet. Gross margin outlook in the mid-70%s for the rest of the year reflects immature cost curves on initial new product ramp.”
JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM): “We were more impressed with the increasing breadth of the customer demand, with enterprise/enterprise verticals driving strong Q/Q growth in addition to consumer internet hyperscalers. More importantly, the team noted that demand will continue to outstrip supply into CY25, and potentially easing fears of an inventory build/ correction in the 2H of next year.
“The team remains on track to begin initial production shipments in FQ3 and full ramp in FQ4 of its next-gen Blackwell solution (GB200/ B200/B100) - and we anticipate this to be a strong driver in CY25.”