Chip designer Nvidia cited demand for AI-capable silicon as a factor in earnings gains during its fiscal Q2 2024 (ending 30 July), with founder and CEO Jensen Huang pointing to a global trend of companies transitioning away from general-purpose computing set-ups.

In an earnings statement, Huang highlighted growing demand for accelerated computing and generative AI.

“The race is on to adopt generative AI”.

On its earnings call, CFO Colette Kress noted large cloud players including AWS, Google, Microsoft and Oracle were among companies deploying systems based on Nvidia’s core GPUs.

Regulatory concerns
Kress addressed concerns the US could restrict Nvidia’s exports to China, explaining global demand for its products left it confident any additional limits on its data centre GPUs would not have an immediate material impact on its earnings.

“However, over the long-term, restrictions in prohibiting the sale of our data centre GPUs to China, if implemented, will result in a permanent loss of an opportunity for the US industry to compete and lead in one of the world’s largest markets.”

Fiscal Q2
Revenue of $13.5 billion was up 101 per cent year-on-year, with net income rising 843 per cent to $6.1 billion.

Scott Raynovich, founder and principal analyst at research company Futuriom, told Mobile World Live the bulk of growth in infrastructure is presently being driven by AI, and “Nvidia is the only game in town”.

“This is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.”

Nvidia’s data centre revenue grew 141 per cent to $10.3 billion.

Gaming revenue grew 22 per cent to $2.5 billion.

Automotive-related chips generated $253 million, up 15 per cent.

The company predicted revenue of around $16 billion for its fiscal Q3 and also announced it will buy back $25 billion in shares.