"Blackwell sales have shattered records, and cloud GPUs are sold out," NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced in Wednesday’s earnings statement.
This Wednesday, the world’s most valuable publicly traded company delivered a record-breaking performance: third-quarter revenue reached $57 billion, up 62% year-over-year, with net profit jumping 65% to $31.9 billion.
Even more impressive, NVIDIA’s guidance for fourth-quarter revenue stands at $65 billion, far exceeding market expectations.
01 Earnings Highlights: Results Surpass Expectations, AI Demand Remains Strong
NVIDIA’s Q3 earnings report shows earnings per share at $1.30, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.24.
Total revenue of $57 billion also topped the forecasted $55.19 billion, underscoring the company’s commanding position in the AI chip market.
These results reflect not only significant year-over-year growth but also robust quarter-over-quarter momentum. Revenue rose 22% from the previous quarter, and net profit increased 21% sequentially.
On the earnings call, Jensen Huang commented, "Computing demand in both training and inference continues to accelerate and compound—each is growing exponentially. We’ve entered a virtuous cycle for AI."
02 Data Center: Core Growth Engine Delivers Outstanding Performance
The data center business emerged as NVIDIA’s strongest growth driver this quarter, setting a record with $51.2 billion in revenue.
This figure represents a 25% quarter-over-quarter increase and a 66% year-over-year jump, even surpassing analysts’ expectations of $49 billion.
The data center’s robust performance proves that demand for AI chips is still accelerating, contrary to concerns about market saturation.
Huang emphasized the rapid expansion of the AI ecosystem: "More and more foundational model developers and AI startups are emerging, spanning more industries and more countries."
03 Financial Health: High Profit Margins, Strong Shareholder Returns
NVIDIA’s excellence isn’t limited to revenue scale; its profitability is equally impressive. Third-quarter GAAP gross margin reached 73.4%, with non-GAAP gross margin at 73.6%.
Such margin levels are exceptional among hardware technology companies, reflecting NVIDIA’s strong pricing power in the AI chip market.
On cash flow and shareholder returns, NVIDIA also delivered stellar results. In the first nine months of this year, the company returned $37 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.
As of the end of Q3, NVIDIA still had $62.2 billion available for future share repurchases.
04 Market Impact: Dispelling AI Bubble Fears, Boosting Industry Confidence
Prior to NVIDIA’s earnings release, concerns over an AI bubble had reached a peak.
The Nasdaq Index has fallen more than 6% since hitting a record high in October.
Some savvy investors have started to take profits. SoftBank sold 32.1 million shares of NVIDIA, cashing out $5.83 billion; Michael Burry, famed for predicting the subprime mortgage crisis, has begun shorting NVIDIA and other AI leaders.
Yet NVIDIA’s solid results have proven the authenticity and sustainability of AI demand to the market.
Following the report, NVIDIA’s stock price rose more than 4% in after-hours trading, delivering a strong boost to the entire AI sector.
05 Crypto Market Reaction: Divergence from AI Sector Performance
On the same day, the cryptocurrency market saw an overall decline, with most major coins experiencing varying degrees of pullback.
As of November 20, CoinMarketCap data showed AB (AB) as the biggest loser, currently priced at $0.64, down 17.19%; FIL (Filecoin) was at $1.87, down 5.80%.
Bitcoin was quoted at $91,756.33, down 0.59% over 24 hours, with a high of $104,000 and a low of $88,526.83.
This divergence suggests that capital may be reallocating among different risk assets.
06 Outlook: The AI Wave Is Still in Its Early Stages
NVIDIA’s outlook for the next quarter caught the market’s attention—Q4 revenue is projected to reach $65 billion, with a margin of plus or minus 2%.
This guidance far exceeds market expectations and shows the company’s strong confidence in its future.
Huang summed up the AI trend in a single sentence: "AI is everywhere, doing everything."
Kress added that the AI factories and infrastructure projects announced this quarter will require a total of 5 million GPUs, covering all markets—including cloud service providers, sovereign agencies, modern enterprises, and supercomputing centers.
07 Strategic Positioning: Strengthening Technological Leadership, Expanding the Ecosystem
NVIDIA isn’t just satisfied with its current growth—it’s actively planning for the future.
The Blackwell platform has already achieved significant market recognition, with the GB300 accounting for about two-thirds of Blackwell’s total revenue. It now leads product transformation and has earned widespread customer approval.
The next-generation Rubin platform is scheduled for mass production in 2026. The first chip has been delivered, with a focus on backward compatibility and rapid ecosystem adoption.
Strategically, NVIDIA continues to invest in AI model developers like OpenAI and Anthropic to deepen its ecosystem impact and optimize performance.
The company also announced partnerships with AWS, Humane, Suzuki, Intel, ARM, and other collaborators, further expanding its technological influence.
08 Significance for the AI Industry: Solid Foundation, Sustainable Growth
NVIDIA’s strong performance is not just a company success—it’s powerful evidence of the healthy development of the entire AI value chain.
Unlike the dot-com bubble era, today’s AI leaders have robust profitability and cash flow, marking a fundamental difference.
The performance of Microsoft Azure also validates the viability of the AI business model, with revenue up 39% year-over-year and $368 billion in contract reserves.
Microsoft’s CFO noted that even with accelerated spending, early leasing, and rapid deployment of CPUs and GPUs, "we continue to see sustained demand."
Outlook
NVIDIA’s earnings report is like timely rain falling on the parched ground of an AI market plagued by doubt. Huang’s remarks offer a candid perspective: "There’s been a lot of discussion about an AI bubble, but from our vantage point, what we see is entirely different."
As a leader riding the crest of the AI wave, NVIDIA has made its voice heard through its results and products. In the virtuous cycle of AI, NVIDIA is not just a participant—it’s a defining force.
