Shares of Nvidia, the renowned chipmaker, experienced a tumultuous session on Wall Street today following the announcement of remarkable first-quarter sales and profit figures.
The company has successfully harnessed the surge in artificial intelligence, largely propelled by its commanding data center segment, which constitutes a significant portion of its earnings.
Nvidia’s total sales soared by 85% compared to the previous year, reaching nearly $82 billion. Of this amount, a staggering $75 billion was generated from data center revenue. Concurrently, profits climbed by 36%, amounting to $58 billion.
“The construction of AI factories, marking the most extensive infrastructure expansion in history, is progressing at a remarkable pace,” stated Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia.
The immense investment in this technological infrastructure has positioned Nvidia as the largest publicly traded company worldwide, boasting a market valuation exceeding $5 trillion. It has become a cornerstone stock in the ongoing AI revolution.
John Belton, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, noted that investor reactions to Nvidia’s earnings have been particularly volatile. This is attributed to long-term concerns surrounding AI, rather than immediate quarterly performance results.
‘Nvidia has been consistently blowing away numbers, especially the last couple of earnings reports,’ Belton told the Daily Mail.
That’s certainly true today, with the stock losing 3 percent immediately after the report – then regaining that and going higher.Â
Nvidia founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, speaks during the 29th annual Milken Institute Global Conference on May 4, 2026
Shares of Nvidia have gained about 18 percent in 2026, less than the explosive gains of recent years but better than the overall stock market.Â
Financial analysts were pleased by Nvidia’s announcement with earnings that it would return more of its cash to shareholders.Â
The chipmaker’s authorized $80 billion in share repurchases, and also raised the company’s quarterly cash dividend to 25 cents per share from 1 cent previously.
Companies make moves to return cash to investors like this in order to make the stock more attractive in the market and push up share values when mere revenue and profit growth is not enough.
Founded in 1993, Nvidia spent decades as a niche maker of chips for home computers before the AI boom transformed it into the most important force in global markets.
Today, it’s a flagship member of the so-called ‘magnificent 7’ group of tech stocks and a leading bellwether for the stock market as a whole.
These seven stocks – Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla – currently account for more than 35 percent of the total value of the S&P 500, with that outsized weighting worrying many Wall Street analysts.
The company continues to ride the AI boom, anchored by its dominant data center business which accounts for the bulk of its revenueÂ
‘I think a question that will play out over the next couple of years is if all the AI industry spending is generating returns for investors,’ said Belton.
Just three weeks ago, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon all reported earnings and revenue figures that broadly beat Wall Street’s expectations, but one analyst note that great isn’t good enough in this market.
‘When it comes to these mega-cap companies, we continue to see the theme that good is not good enough,’ Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, told the Daily Mail.
Nvidia’s results will give investors a reading on AI chip demand and spark market reactions across the tech sector.
‘Given the uncertainty in the markets right now and the big pushback on building out data centers … AI powered chip stocks might be in jeopardy,’ J. Gold Associates analyst Jack E. Gold told MarketWatch.
