Chip giant Nvidia topped Wall Street expectations for revenue over a recent three-month period, the company said on Wednesday, defying fears of a slowdown in the rip-roaring pace of growth for the artificial-intelligence behemoth.
The California-based company recorded $81.6 billion in sales over three months ending in April, which beat analyst expectations of $79.2 billion. The jump in revenue marked 85% growth compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
Nvidia forecasted revenue of $91 billion in its current quarter, signaling expectations of continued robust expansion.
Analysts view Nvidia as a bellwether for the stock market and the overall economy, which have both come to rely on massive spending on AI to propel continued growth.
Before the latest figures were released, Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at investment firm Wedbush, who is bullish on Nvidia, said he expected the earnings to exceed Wall Street's expectations.
"The entire global market will be carefully watching these results," Ives said in a statement to ABC News.
The earnings, Ives predicted, will mark a "golden moment for the tech space," flexing the strength of demand for AI products and foretelling increased adoption of AI by governments and firms over the next 18 months.
The latest test for the world's most valuable company arrived at a topsy-turvy moment for markets, which have wavered in recent days as the Iran war has shown little sign of an imminent resolution.
Still, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has ticked up slightly since the war began on Feb. 28. Nvidia has soared more than 20% over that period.
As big-tech names spend hundreds of billions on chips and data centers necessary for the energy-intensive technology, the financial benefits remain uncertain. The earnings reported by Nvidia will gauge demand for a key building block of AI, showing whether appetite for the technology remains at a fever pitch.
The results hold major stakes for the U.S. economy, which has shown signs of strain in recent months as inflation has surged and consumer sentiment has dampened.
By some measures, however, the economy has proven resilient. Hiring grew at a solid clip last month, while gross domestic product exceeded expectations at the outset of this year.
Fears of an AI bubble persisted ahead of Nvidia’s previous earnings report, but the company again defied naysayers.
The company boasts a market cap of $5.4 trillion, making it roughly equivalent to the GDP of Japan or Germany. Nvidia expanded at a breakneck pace after an AI craze set off by the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, soaring nearly 700% over the ensuing two years.
Paul Stanley, chief investment officer at New Hampshire-based Granite Bay Wealth Management, which holds $650 million in assets under management, said he expected Nvidia's earnings to justify its high valuation.
"There will come a time when investors may become more skeptical of the AI trade but we are not there yet," Stanley told ABC News before the earnings release.
"Investors need some reassurance that the AI story is still alive and well," Stanley added, saying he expects them to receive "just what the stock market is looking for."