The wait is over and Nvidia has delivered another strong quarter.
The chipmaker beat expectations on both earnings and revenue, raised guidance and insisted demand for its newest architecture is running ahead of supply. Yet even with shares up more than 4% after hours, the bigger question remains whether this is enough to calm a market that has spent days fretting over stretched AI valuations.
For the fourth quarter Nvidia is guiding to revenue of about $65 billion, comfortably ahead of Wall Street’s $62 billion forecast.
CEO Jensen Huang struck an emphatic tone, saying Blackwell demand is running “off the charts” and cloud GPUs are effectively sold out. He described the company as entering a “virtuous cycle of AI”, with adoption broadening across industries and geographies.
Third-quarter numbers reinforced that message. EPS came in at $1.30 on revenue of $57.01 billion, topping estimates of $1.26 and $55.2 billion. Data-centre revenue reached $51.2 billion against expectations of $49.3 billion, underscoring the scale of enterprise AI spending.
Gaming revenue landed slightly shy of forecasts at $4.3 billion. CFO Colette Kress highlighted that Blackwell Ultra is now the company’s leading architecture, while demand for earlier Blackwell chips remains firm. She also noted that revenue from its China-specific H20 chip was insignificant.
The release arrives after days of heavy positioning and high-profile scepticism. Peter Thiel’s hedge fund exited its roughly $100 million Nvidia stake ahead of the print, while SoftBank offloaded $5.8 billion worth as it pursues its own AI investments. Last week, Michael Burry accused companies including Meta and Oracle of flattering earnings by understating data-centre depreciation, adding to broader unease around AI returns.
Still, the wider AI race did not pause. Alphabet shares jumped more than 3% on Wednesday after the debut of Gemini 3, a model early reviewers describe as a meaningful step forward. The launch follows Alphabet’s recent lift from Berkshire Hathaway’s newly disclosed stake, which has added fresh support to the stock.
Nvidia shares are up more than 37% this year and 25% over the past twelve months. AMD, Nvidia’s closest rival, has rallied even harder, buoyed by CEO Lisa Su’s view that the data-centre market could reach $1 trillion by 2030. The scale of that opportunity is the foundation of the current AI trade.
Tonight’s numbers reaffirm Nvidia’s dominance and show AI demand still running hot. Whether that is enough to soothe a market that has spent a week on edge is a different question. The results remove one major source of uncertainty but won’t fully settle nerves unless guidance continues to justify the valuations that have built up around the sector.
