In brief: Few companies have benefited from the AI boom quite like Nvidia. Team Green's latest quarterly financial report showed revenue tripling compared to a year earlier, while net income was up 1,259% year-over-year. It's good news for CEO Jensen Huang, who is now the world's 27th richest person thanks to a $44 billion fortune tied to Nvidia's stock price. However, concerns about new restrictions on Chinese exports linger.
Nvidia announced revenue of $18.12 billion for the third quarter of its financial year, beating Wall Street expectations of $16.18 billion. That marks a 206% increase compared to the $5.9 billion of revenue brought in during the same quarter last year. It's also a 34% jump over Q2's $13.5 billion.
Net income was especially impressive: $9.24 billion in Q3, versus $680 million in the third quarter of 2022, marking a 1,259% rise.
Nvidia's data center business, which includes its lucrative AI products, saw a record revenue of $14.51 billion, up 41% from the previous quarter and 279% from a year ago. Nvidia said half of this segment's revenue came from cloud infrastructure providers, while the other half was from large companies and consumer internet entities.
Nvidia's gaming segment has rebounded from last year, up 81% to $2.86 billion and 15% from the previous quarter. Professional Visualization revenue, meanwhile, was up 108% YoY to $416 million, while Automotive revenue was flat (up 4% YoY) at $261 million. The differences in growth and revenue once again illustrate why Nvidia is considered an AI company rather than a gaming company these days.
There is a dark cloud on Nvidia's horizon in the form of US export controls on AI products to China. The Biden administration tightened restrictions in late October, adding the A800, H800, and RTX 4090 to the list of (essentially) banned products.
CFO Colette Kress wrote "These licensing requirements did not have a meaningful impact on our revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2024 as they were announced near the end of the fiscal quarter and we had additional demand from customers outside of the named country groups."
But with around 25% of Nvidia's data center revenue coming from China, Kress added "We expect that our sales to these destinations will decline significantly in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, though we believe the decline will be more than offset by strong growth in other regions." Nvidia's China's sales increased from $1.15 billion in Q2 2022 to $4.08 billion in Q2 2023.
Nvidia's stock is up around 240% this year, thanks mostly to the excitement around AI – even though the majority in the tech industry think it's overhyped. The rising price has certainly helped Huang. His net worth has been climbing over the years, skyrocketing in the last 12 months and propelling him onto the list of the top 30 richest people in the world with a $44 billion fortune.