Nvidia stock price surged 4% in after-hours trading after the chipmaker delivered a blowout second-quarter earnings beat, with revenue of $96.2 billion crushing analyst expectations of $92.2 billion and signaling relentless demand for its AI chips.
The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.22, topping the consensus estimate of $2.09, while guiding third-quarter revenue to $108 billion — well above Wall Street’s forecast of roughly $104.2 billion. The beat marks another strong quarter for Nvidia, which has now beaten earnings in 22 of the past 24 quarters, according to pre-earnings analysis.
Data center revenue, which represents over 92% of Nvidia’s total sales, climbed to $89 billion, a 117% year-over-year surge. The growth reflects accelerating adoption of the company’s Vera Rubin chips and continued heavy spending by cloud providers and enterprises building AI infrastructure. CEO Jensen Huang said the AI market has reached an inflection point, with demand expanding far beyond the handful of hyperscaler companies that historically drove growth.
Huang projected that Nvidia’s fiscal 2028 revenue would grow 70%, significantly higher than the 44% growth analysts had expected. The company also announced that Amazon Web Services will purchase 2 million Nvidia GPUs, underscoring the scale of AI infrastructure investment among major cloud providers. Nvidia’s supply commitments more than doubled to $279 billion from the prior quarter, largely driven by procurement of high-performance memory chips.
The strong guidance reflects confidence in the AI buildout, though the company faces headwinds. Nvidia warned that gross margins will compress to 74% in the current quarter, down from 75%, as memory prices continue to surge due to supply constraints. The chipmaker has spent heavily to secure supply, committing $145 billion in the first quarter alone to lock in components ahead of demand.
Nvidia’s earnings beat comes despite a pattern that has weighed on the stock in recent quarters. The company has beaten earnings estimates in each of the past five quarters, yet its shares have fallen the day after reporting results in four of the last five earnings releases. Investors have grown accustomed to extraordinary growth from Nvidia, making the bar for outperformance increasingly difficult to clear. Even with the after-hours rally, Nvidia shares remain down about 12% year-to-date, underperforming a broader market recovery, as concerns about AI infrastructure spending and rising competition linger.
The company’s forward guidance and Huang’s bullish 2028 outlook suggest Nvidia believes the AI spending cycle is far from peaking. Nvidia’s non-hyperscaler customers — a diverse set of enterprises and industrial AI buyers — generated $40.3 billion in revenue, up 138% year-over-year, indicating that demand is broadening beyond the handful of giant cloud companies that have dominated the AI narrative.
Sources
- CNBC — Nvidia Q2 earnings beat, 4% after-hours stock jump, CEO Huang’s fiscal 2028 guidance of 70% growth, Amazon GPU deal details
- Wall Street Journal — Nvidia Q2 revenue of $96.2 billion beating consensus of $92.3 billion
- Yahoo Finance — Q2 EPS of $2.22 vs. estimate of $2.09, data center revenue of $89 billion up 117% YoY
- ECIKS — Nvidia Q2 earnings beat, Q3 guidance of $108 billion, 22 of 24 quarter beats, Vera Rubin production ramp
