(New York) American semiconductor champion Nvidia published results on Wednesday that were better than expected for its second quarter, but which reflect a deceleration in its growth.
After more than tripling its revenues in recent quarters, the Santa Clara group has only doubled them this time (+122% over a year), according to a press release, even if it remains at a pace that is out of all proportion to the rest of the sector.
Wall Street took a cool view of the publication and the stock lost 4.79% in electronic trading after the close of trading.
“Nvidia continues to defy the laws of gravity,” said Matt Britzman of Hargreaves Lansdown, “but the stock’s reaction shows that it’s not enough for the market to be satisfied.”
“It’s no longer about exceeding expectations, but about shattering them, and today’s performance seems to have disappointed investors a little.”
Revenue came in at $30 billion for the period from late April to late July, significantly higher than the $28.8 billion expected by analysts, according to a consensus estimate compiled by FactSet.
Nvidia also expects third-quarter revenue of $32.5 billion, also higher than market projections of $31.7 billion.
For more than two years, the technology giant has been smashing Wall Street expectations quarter after quarter.
It is boosted by demand for its now famous graphics cards (GPUs), chips with increased computing capacities, essential for the development of so-called generative artificial intelligence (AI).
A much-anticipated new chip
“Demand for Hopper remains strong and expectations for Blackwell are incredible,” Nvidia CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang said in the statement.
The Hopper is a family of microprocessors that includes the H100, the company’s flagship product, by far the most sought-after in the industry and worth tens of thousands of dollars each.
In mid-March, Nvidia presented the Blackwell family of GPUs, the successor to the H100. “The world’s most powerful chip,” according to the company, should be marketed by the end of the year.
The group’s boss said that the first samples of the Blackwell were being shipped to the company’s major customers.
“A quick release of Blackwell will be critical to maintaining its dominance in the increasingly competitive AI chip market,” warned Jacob Bourne of Emarketer.
The specialist website The Information revealed at the beginning of August that Nvidia had decided to postpone the marketing of the Blackwell by three months, considering that it had design flaws.
“The (executive) comments regarding Blackwell should allay some of the concerns that these delays could have a significant impact on next quarter’s results,” Britzman said.
“Data centers are going full throttle to modernize their IT infrastructure with accelerated computing capabilities and artificial intelligence,” Huang said.
In its second quarter, Nvidia posted a net profit of 16.6 billion dollars (+168%).
Reported per share and excluding exceptional items, the market reference indicator, it comes to 68 cents, above the 61 cents announced by analysts.
Jacob Bourne stressed that the group’s margins were “in line with those of previous quarters, despite economic uncertainty and concerns about a possible AI bubble.”
“Nvidia’s lead in the data center market gives them some short-term room to maintain their market share around 85 to 89 percent at worst,” said Lucas Keh of Third Bridge.