Nvidia posts record-breaking Q4 as Blackwell GPUs drive massive growth

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: Nvidia has reported record fourth quarter earnings of $39.3 billion for the three-month period ending January 26, 2025. That's an increase of 12% compared to the third quarter and up 78% versus the same period a year earlier. Nvidia's data center business was by far the company's revenue driver accounting for over 90% of the quarter's income.

GAAP earnings per diluted share reached $0.89, up 14 percent quarter over quarter, 82 percent year over year, and above the $0.84 that Wall Street was prepared for. Full-year earnings totaled $130.5 billion, an impressive 114 percent increase compared to last year.

Nvidia's data center business was by far the company's best performing division, accounting for $35.6 billion in Q4, representing a healthy 16 percent increase quarter over quarter and up 93 percent from the same period last year.

Graph by App Economy Insights

Gaming, which was Nvidia's bread and butter not all that long ago, brought in $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter, down 11 percent year over year. In total, the data center segment accounted for 91 percent of Nvidia's quarterly revenue.

CEO Jensen Huang said demand for its Blackwell architecture has been "amazing," adding that it achieved billions of dollars in sales in its first quarter. Chief financial officer Colette Kress noted that Blackwell sales were led by large cloud service providers, which accounted for roughly half of their data center revenue.

During a meeting with investors in October, the company said Blackwell GPU products had a 12-month backlog – not exactly a bad problem to have.

Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2025, Nvidia expects to generate roughly $43.0 billion, plus or minus two percent. Again, that's better than the $41.78 billion forecast from analysts, but we'll have to wait to see if Nvidia's figure materializes.

Despite the impressive performance and solid outlook, shares in Nvidia are down 3.99 percent in morning-after trading to $126.04. Year to date, the stock is down around 8.6 percent but is up more than 60 percent over the last year and an incredible 1,772 percent over the last five years.

Permalink to story:

Nvidia posts record-breaking Q4 as Blackwell GPUs drive massive growth

 

[Beerfloat]

I'm sure we can all wholeheartedly agree that the incredible enduring success of one of the most innovative American and Californian companies is something worth celebrating.

 

[The Talking Tech]

And yet NVIDIA can't keep the market gains positive thanks to the ridiculous Trump's tariffs imposed on other countries.

Under a different presidential administration this would have put the market and the country at all time high.

 

[godrilla]

And yet not even NVIDIA can't keep the market up thanks to the ridiculous tariffs imposed on other countries.

Under a different presidential administration this would have put the market and the country at all time high.

Would 10% tarrifs affect the stock more than 10%? Also isen't their 10% only apply to US customers so the delta impact is probably less than 10% in the grand scheme of things on a macro economic level.

 

[Kotters]

I'm sure we can all wholeheartedly agree that the incredible enduring success of one of the most innovative American and Californian companies is something worth celebrating.

No.

 

[NumberNine]

Price gouging often leads to increased profits, unfortunately. Nividia says things are always so difficult for them and business in the current world is just such a challenging thing... unfortunately no choice but to raise prices...

Oh wow, look at those record profits!
Nvidia didn't crack the code, they simply started charging $1,000 for midrange GPUs.

 

[redgarl]

Would 10% tarrifs affect the stock more than 10%? Also isen't their 10% only apply to US customers so the delta impact is probably less than 10% in the grand scheme of things on a macro economic level.

Semiconductor is 100% tarrifs. SO your waffer cost 100% more.

 

[godrilla]

Semiconductor is 100% tarrifs. SO your waffer cost 100% more.

US to increase tariffs on Chinese semiconductors by 100% in 2025 — officials say it protects the $53 billion spent on the CHIPS Act

"Raising the tariff rate on semiconductors is an important initial step to promote the sustainability of these investments." - White House

www.tomshardware.com

according to this article it only affects Chinese semiconductor chips for the highest tarrifs over time.

 

[poohbear]

The exact same way Nvidia treated gamers, it's now treating its enterprise customers. The only difference is, the enterprise companies can and will go to someone else if prices get too high...AMD, Broadcom, Marvel. Nvidia has done an amazing job getting to the top, but staying on top is a whole different story.

 

[Eldrach]

We’re still in the infancy of the AI boom - every massive conglomerate in the world wants to be «first».
Yet, AI isn’t raking in any cash as of yet - new AI models are emerging which require much less processing power. We’ll see Nvidia and AMD making billions the next couple of years before we start to see a saturation in the market and a steep decline.
AI isn’t going anywhere - but wide adaption will take a long time