Nvidia Earnings Top Expectations As Sales Soar Amid Booming AI Demand

Nvidia (NVDA) reported fiscal first-quarter earnings Wednesday that beat analysts' expectations and surpassed the increasingly high bar set by investors, as data center sales surged to record high amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI). Shares gained following the release.

Nvidia reported record revenue of $26.04 billion for the fiscal first quarter, more than triple what it was in the year-ago period, and above analysts' expectations, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Sales in Nvidia's data center segment surged to $22.6 billion, quintupling year-over-year and breaking the record set the previous quarter.

Nvidia's net income came in at $14.88 billion or $5.98 per share, versus $2.04 billion or 82 cents per share reported in the same period a year prior, also beating analysts' projections.

Along with its earnings beat, Nvidia announced a 10-for-1 forward stock split, meaning shareholders will get ten shares for each one they held before the split. The chipmaker said the stock split could help make the stock more accessible to employees and investors.

Each shareholder as of market close on Thursday, June 6, will receive nine additional shares of Nvidia's common stock, to be distributed after market close the following day on Friday, June 7. The stock is expected to begin trading on a split-adjusted basis at market open on Monday, June 10.

The company also announced it will increase its quarterly cash dividend to 10 cents per share from 4 cents a share.

"The next industrial revolution has begun—companies and countries are partnering with NVIDIA to shift the trillion-dollar traditional data centers to accelerated computing and build a new type of data center—AI factories—to produce a new commodity: artificial intelligence," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in the earnings release.

Nvidia shares were up 4% at $987.49 in extended trading as of 5 p.m. ET Wednesday following the company's earnings release. They've nearly doubled in value so far this year.