The AI boom isn’t slowing down—it’s accelerating. Nvidia proved the skeptics wrong on Wednesday, delivering a blowout third-quarter report for fiscal 2026 that topped Wall Street estimates across the board and sent its stock climbing over 4% in after-hours trading.
The Headline Numbers
Nvidia continues to operate in a league of its own, delivering results that highlight the tech industry’s voracious appetite for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
- Revenue: $57.01 billion (vs. $54.92 billion expected by LSEG).
- Earnings Per Share: $1.30 adjusted (vs. $1.25 expected).
- Net Income: Skyrocketed 65% year-over-year to $31.91 billion.
- The Forecast: The company expects Q4 sales to hit a staggering $65 billion, blowing past the $61.66 billion analysts had predicted.
“Off the Charts” Demand
Addressing fears of a potential “AI bubble,” CEO Jensen Huang was emphatic during the earnings call. “From our vantage point, we see something very different,” Huang said, noting that demand is stronger than ever.
He revealed that demand for the company’s new “Blackwell” generation of GPUs is “off the charts,” and noted that “cloud GPUs are sold out.” This demand is being driven by the massive capital expenditures of major customers like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta, who are collectively expected to spend over $380 billion on AI buildouts this year.
Nvidia CFO Colette Kress added that the company has a $500 billion order book for 2025 and 2026 combined, stating simply: “The number will grow.”
Sector Breakdown
- Data Center: The engine of Nvidia’s growth generated $51.2 billion in revenue (up 66% year-over-year), easily beating the $49.09 billion forecast. This segment includes the “compute” chips used to train AI models.
- Gaming: Returning to its roots, the gaming division saw revenue climb 30% to $4.3 billion.
- Professional Visualization: Sales rose 56% to $760 million, boosted by new AI desktop workstations.
- Automotive & Robotics: A key growth area, sales here rose 32% to $592 million.
The China Headwind
The only sombre note in an otherwise stellar report was performance in China. The company expressed “disappointment” over export restrictions preventing the shipment of current-generation Blackwell chips to the region. Sales of the export-compliant H20 chip were muted at just $50 million, with Kress citing geopolitical tensions and fierce local competition as barriers to major purchase orders.
Shareholder Returns
Nvidia continues to return value to its investors, executing $12.5 billion in share repurchases and paying out $243 million in dividends during the quarter.