Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) has reported fourth-quarter 2024 financial results that topped Wall Street forecasts across the board, including an 80% year-over-year increase in its profit.
The Silicon Valley-based company announced earnings per share (EPS) of $0.89 U.S., which beat the $0.84 U.S. consensus estimate of analysts.
Revenue in the period totaled $39.33 billion U.S., which was ahead of the $38.05 billion U.S. expected on Wall Street.
Strong global demand for the company’s artificial intelligence (A.I.) microchips and processors led its sales to increase 78% from a year earlier.
For all of last year, Nvidia’s revenue rose 114% to $130.50 billion U.S.
The company, whose chips are used in A.I. data centres, said that it achieved $11 billion U.S. in revenue from its newest and most powerful Blackwell chips during the fourth quarter of last year.
Blackwell sales, as well as sales of previous generation A.I. chips, are reported in Nvidia’s data centre business, which comprises 91% of the company’s total revenue.
Data centre revenue has increased about tenfold in the past two years.
Nvidia said that it had $35.60 billion U.S. in data centre revenue in Q4 2024, up 93% on an annual basis. That was ahead of expectations that called for sales of $33.65 billion U.S.
If there was a black mark on the company’s otherwise strong results, it was in the gaming segment, which includes graphics processors used in video games.
The gaming unit reported $2.50 billion U.S. in sales for Q4 2024, which fell short of expectations for $3.04 billion U.S. Nvidia’s graphics processor sales declined 11% on an annual basis.
Also, Nvidia reported a 73% gross margin for Q4 2024, which was down three percentage points from a year earlier.
Looking ahead, Nvidia said that it expected $43 billion U.S. of revenue in the current first quarter of 2025, plus or minus 2%. That was ahead of the $41.78 billion U.S. expected on Wall Street.
In the company’s earnings statement, Nvidia chief executive officer (CEO) Jensen Huang said that demand for Blackwell microchips continues to be “amazing.”
Nvidia stock has risen 67% over the last 12 months to trade at $131.28 U.S. per share.
