NVIDIA posts $81.6B quarter

NVIDIA said on May 20 that first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue rose to $81.6 billion, up 85% from a year earlier and 20% from the prior quarter, extending a run of sequential growth that has now lasted 14 quarters. The company also reported record Data Center revenue of $75.2 billion, up 92% year over year, and said demand from cloud providers and other large AI infrastructure buyers remained strong. The results came with two capital-return moves: NVIDIA authorized an additional $80 billion in share repurchases and raised its quarterly cash dividend from $0.01 a share to $0.25 a share. The company said the quarter ended April 26, 2026. (nvidianews.nvidia.com) ### Why does the $81.6 billion figure matter so much? The $81.6 billion figure matters because it shows NVIDIA is still growing at a scale that few large companies sustain for long. The prior quarter’s revenue was $68.1 billion, which means NVIDIA added roughly $13.5 billion in quarterly sales sequentially in three months. (investor.nvidia.com) Data Center remained the core of the business. NVIDIA said that segment generated $75.2 billion of the quarter’s $81.6 billion total, underscoring how much of the company’s current growth is tied to AI computing infrastructure rather than gaming or other legacy lines. (investor.nvidia.com) ### What did management say is driving demand? Chief Executive Jensen Huang said global demand for AI infrastructure is still rising as companies and governments build out accelerated computing capacity. In NVIDIA’s earnings release, Huang said AI factories are becoming “essential infrastructure” for a broad set of industries and countries. (investor.nvidia.com) The company’s own numbers point in the same direction. NVIDIA’s revenue moved from $46.7 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 to $57.0 billion in the third quarter, then $68.1 billion in the fourth quarter, and now $81.6 billion in the latest quarter. (nvidianews.nvidia.com) ### What did NVIDIA tell investors about the next quarter? NVIDIA forecast second-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of about $91.0 billion. That guidance implies another sequential increase from the just-reported quarter, though the company did not break out how much of that would come from Data Center in the headline release. (nvidianews.nvidia.com) The forecast covers the quarter ending July 26, 2026, based on NVIDIA’s fiscal calendar. Investors were directed to the company’s earnings webcast and related investor materials for further detail. ### Why did NVIDIA pair earnings with a buyback and dividend increase? (investor.nvidia.com) NVIDIA said the board approved an additional $80 billion for share repurchases and increased the quarterly dividend 25-fold to $0.25 per share. Those steps followed another quarter of record revenue and came alongside the earnings release rather than in a separate capital-allocation announcement. (investor.nvidia.com) The dividend change is mechanically large because the prior quarterly payout was one cent a share. The buyback authorization adds to NVIDIA’s flexibility to return cash even as it continues to spend heavily on product development and supply expansion. That last point is an inference from the company’s capital-return actions and not a separate management quote. (investor.nvidia.com) ### What should readers watch next? July 26, 2026, is the end date of NVIDIA’s current second quarter, the period covered by the company’s $91 billion revenue forecast. NVIDIA’s next formal update is expected with its second-quarter fiscal 2027 results on its investor relations site and earnings webcast materials. (investor.nvidia.com 1) (investor.nvidia.com 2)