Nvidia Expects Data Center and Gaming Growth in Fiscal Second Quarter
Nvidia gave a quarterly revenue forecast in line with estimates, helped by a surge in spending on internet infrastructure and purchases of computer gaming gear.
Revenue will be about $3.65 billion in the fiscal second quarter, the company said Thursday in a statement. The company’s prediction includes a “low-teens percentage” contribution to revenue from its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, which some analysts hadn’t included in their forecasts.
Nvidia has parlayed that strength into a growing position in data centers, where its chips are used for artificial intelligence work. Owners of data centers are buying more chips and other components to handle an increase in online activity spurred by a large chunk of the world’s population sheltering in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Revenue from gaming was $1.34 billion in the quarter. That was a gain of 27% from a year earlier but a decline of 10% from the prior period. Data center sales leapt 80% from the same quarter in 2019 and were up 18% from the fourth quarter, making it the only market to post sequential growth for Nvidia.
Gross margin, or the percentage of sales remaining after deducting the cost of production, will be about 66% in the current quarter, Nvidia also said.
The shares were little changed in extended trading following the report. Earlier, they closed at $351.01 in New York. The stock has surged 49% this year.
Profit in the fiscal first quarter was $917 million compared with $394 million a year earlier. Revenue surged 39% to $3.08 billion and profit excluding certain costs was $1.80 a share in the period, which ended April 26, the company said.
“As the world battles COVID-19, we salute the first responders, healthcare workers, and service workers who courageously step in harm’s way to save lives and keep the world going,” Huang said. “We also thank the scientists around the world racing to find a vaccine for COVID-19.
“NVIDIA had an excellent quarter. The acquisition of Mellanox expands our cloud and data center opportunity. We raised the bar for AI computing with the launch and shipment of our Ampere GPU. And our digital GTC conference attracted a record number of developers, highlighting the accelerating adoption of NVIDIA GPU computing.
“Our Data Center business achieved a record and its first $1 billion quarter. NVIDIA is well positioned to advance the most powerful technology forces of our time – cloud computing and AI,” he said.