Nvidia's revenue soars 265% year over year due to generative AI boom

Artificial intelligence powerhouse Nvidia announced its highly-anticipated fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday which showed a massive jump in quarterly revenue from a year ago, reassuring investors that its AI edge is alive and well.

Nvidia's revenue in the fourth quarter, which ended on Jan. 28, was up 265% from a year ago and 22% from the prior quarter and totaled $22.1 billion – beating analysts' estimates of $20.6 billion. For fiscal year 2024, Nvidia's revenue rose 126% to $60.9 billion.

"Accelerated computing and generative AI have hit the tipping point. Demand is surging worldwide across companies, industries and nations," said Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang. Huang pointed to Nvidia's clout in data centers that power generative AI tools and in designing advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) as an ongoing source of strength. 

"Our Data Center platform is powered by increasingly diverse drivers – demand for data processing, training and inference from large cloud-service providers and GPU-specialized ones, as well as from enterprise software and consumer internet companies," Huang said. "Vertical industries – led by auto, financial services and health care – are now at a multibillion-dollar level."

Nvidia's quarterly net income increased 33% from the prior quarter and 769% year-over-year. For fiscal year 2024, its net income was up 581% from the prior year with diluted earnings per share up 586%.

Huang hinted that the company will have more news to share on its RTX graphics processing units (GPUs) in the near future.

"Nvidia RTX, introduced less than six years ago, is now a massive PC platform for generative AI, enjoyed by 100 million gamers and creators. The year ahead will bring major new product cycles with exceptional innovations to help propel our industry forward," Huang explained. "Come join us at next month's GTC, where we and our rich ecosystem will reveal the exciting future ahead."

Nvidia's stock has been on a turbulent ride in the build-up to this earnings report as investors wondered whether its latest results would be enough to maintain the massive growth the company has enjoyed over the last year.

Its stock dropped by over 4.3% during Tuesday's trading session and the dip continued in after-hours trading with a further decline of more than 1.9% to $680.90 a share – a level Nvidia last traded at in early February and about 7.9% below its all-time closing high of $739 a share on Feb. 14 just a week ago.

Nvidia stock fell about 2.85% to $674.72 a share during Wednesday's trading session – bringing its gains in the last year to over 225%.

After the release of its latest earnings report, Nvidia shares surged by over 7.8% to roughly $727.63 a share during after-hours trading, bringing the stock closer to the all-time highs it reached earlier this month.