Nvidia Quarterly Profits Surge 628 Percent as Data Center Demand Reaches Record Levels

Why this is trending right now

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is trending following the release of its first-quarter fiscal 2025 results, which outperformed analyst expectations across every major financial metric. According to the official earnings statement released by Nvidia on May 22, 2024, the company achieved record quarterly revenue of $26.04 billion, representing an 18% increase from the previous quarter and a 262% surge from the same period last year. The primary driver of this growth is the relentless demand for Blackwell and Hopper architecture chips, which power large-scale generative artificial intelligence (AI) models. Forbes reported that Nvidia's net income exploded to $14.88 billion, a 628% increase year-over-year, effectively cementing the firm's position as the primary hardware beneficiary of the global AI transition. Furthermore, the company announced a 10-for-1 forward stock split effective June 7, 2024, and increased its quarterly cash dividend by 150%, from $0.04 to $0.10 per share on a pre-split basis. These shareholder-friendly moves, combined with a data center revenue peak of $22.6 billion, have triggered a significant spike in investor interest and search volume.

The last 24 hours: a timeline

Late in the evening of May 21, 2024, market anticipation reached a localized peak, with Bloomberg reporting that traders were pricing in an 8% move in either direction for Nvidia stock. By 9:00 AM ET on May 22, the stock opened with modest volatility as investors awaited the 4:00 PM ET closing bell.

At 4:05 PM ET, Nvidia officially filed its Q1 results with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The immediate data showed revenue of $26.04 billion against the $24.65 billion expected by consensus estimates. Within minutes, the stock price rose over 6% in after-hours trading, crossing the $1,000 per share threshold for the first time in company history.

By 4:20 PM ET, CEO Jensen Huang issued a formal statement characterizing the current period as the beginning of the "next industrial revolution," citing partnerships with major cloud providers and sovereign nations to build "AI factories."

At 5:00 PM ET, Nvidia executives commenced the quarterly earnings conference call. During the call, CFO Colette Kress confirmed that demand for the H200 and Blackwell chips remains significantly ahead of supply, a situation she expects to persist well into 2025. By 6:30 PM ET, the stock's after-hours gain stabilized near 7%, adding approximately $140 billion in market capitalization in a single evening.

What could happen next

Market analysts from FactSet and Deutsche Bank indicate that the 10-for-1 stock split scheduled for June 7 will likely increase retail participation by lowering the per-share entry price from approximately $1,000 to $100. This structural change does not alter the company's valuation but historically correlates with increased liquidity and short-term price appreciation in high-growth tech stocks.

In the broader industrial context, the record data center revenue suggests that capital expenditure from "hyperscalers" like Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta remains aggressive. As noted in The Guardian's analysis, these four entities alone have signaled plans to spend $200 billion this year on AI-related infrastructure. Based on Nvidia’s current 80% to 95% market share in AI accelerators, it is inferred that Nvidia will capture the majority of this expenditure. However, the company faces growing regulatory scrutiny regarding export controls to China and potential antitrust investigations in the EU and US. While the Q1 report showed that Nvidia has successfully mitigated some China-related revenue losses through new, compliant chip variants, any further tightening of US Department of Commerce restrictions could pose a material risk to future guidance. Observers should monitor the Blackwell architecture's production ramp-up in late 2024, as any manufacturing delays at TSMC—Nvidia's primary foundry partner—would directly impact the company's ability to meet the multi-quarter backlog described by Kress.