On March 18, 2024, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang delivered a keynote speech on the latest innovations in artificial intelligence at the Developer Conference held at the SAP Center in San Jose, California.
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NVIDIA Shares of the company fell 4.63% in U.S. premarket trading on Thursday as the company’s gross margin fell slightly in the fiscal second quarter and its revenue performance eclipsed a backdrop of rising expectations.
Nvidia reported on Wednesday that its July quarter revenue exceeded $30 billion, an annual increase of 122%.
This is the fourth consecutive quarter of triple-digit revenue growth. But as Nvidia continues to expand rapidly, year-to-year comparisons are becoming increasingly difficult.
Nvidia reported better-than-market revenue guidance of $32.5 billion for its fiscal third quarter. This represents 80% year-over-year growth, but a slowdown from the June quarter.
At the same time, the company said that its full-year gross profit margin will be “around 70%.” Analysts expected full-year profit margins of 76.4%, according to StreetAccount.
However, analysts said Nvidia would have to far exceed all expectations to see its stock price rise after the data is released.
Thursday’s pullback in the stock also follows a rapid rise that has seen Nvidia shares rise more than 150% so far this year. The stock has risen more than 750% since the start of 2023, making it one of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom. Big tech companies have been increasing investment and buying Nvidia’s graphics processing units to train large artificial intelligence models.
The current decline in Nvidia’s stock price has also weighed on the stock prices of global semiconductor companies, with well-known companies including memory manufacturer Samsung and chip manufacturer TSMC falling on Thursday.
Nvidia addressed another issue on the earnings call – reported delays in its next-generation Blackwell AI chips.
“In the fourth quarter, we expect Blackwell’s revenue to be in the billions of dollars,” Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said on a conference call with analysts.
The company also announced a $50 billion stock buyback program.
– CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report.
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