Nvidia reports record revenue and $43 billion in startup holdings

Nvidia announced record financial results for the quarter ending April 26, driven by demand for its data center products. In response to this performance, the company authorized a significant capital return program. The key financial figures from the quarter include:

• Quarterly revenue: $81.6 billion, representing a 20% increase from the previous quarter.
• Data center revenue: $75.2 billion, a record high for the company.
• Share repurchases: $80 billion authorized by the board.

Alongside its core hardware business, Nvidia revealed an expanding investment portfolio in private companies, which are classified in filings as private company stakes. The value of these holdings nearly doubled between January and April, growing from $22 billion at the start of the quarter to $43 billion. This expansion was driven primarily by $18.5 billion in purchases of private stakes during the quarter, compared to $649 million in purchases made during the previous quarter. These figures do not include Nvidia’s investments in publicly traded companies like Corning and IREN. However, they do reflect deep strategic ties with artificial intelligence model makers. For instance, Nvidia committed to investing $30 billion in OpenAI in February. The company is also expanding its relationship with Anthropic. “The amount of capacity we’re going to bring online for Anthropic this year and next year is going to be quite significant,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who added that Nvidia’s coverage for Anthropic had previously been largely zero.

Despite these record results, Nvidia issued a tempered revenue forecast for the upcoming quarter. The company projects $91 billion in revenue for the next quarter, which represents a 12% growth rate—a slowdown from the 20% growth achieved in the quarter ending April 26. Nvidia CFO Colette Kress stated that the company’s Blackwell architecture has been adopted and deployed by every large cloud service provider, cloud provider, and major model maker. However, the company faces ongoing uncertainty regarding its business in China. While Nvidia’s H200 chips have been approved for U.S. export, Kress noted that the company has yet to generate any revenue from them and is uncertain whether any imports will be allowed into China.

Why it matters

Nvidia is evolving from a pure hardware supplier into a massive venture capital force, using its record-breaking cash flow to cement its ecosystem through deep financial ties with AI model makers.