Chip-making giant Nvidia has posted mixed results in its first quarter earnings, beating Wall Street expectations on revenue but missing predictions on its income amid US restrictions on its exports to China.
In earnings released May 28 for its first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year ended April 27, Nvidia reported revenues of $44.1 billion, up 12% from its previous quarter and 69% from a year ago and beating Zacks analyst estimates of $42.91 billion by nearly 2.7%.
However, the chip maker posted an earnings per share of 81 cents, missing analyst estimates of 85 cents per share. Nvidia recorded a net income of $18.8 billion, up 26% compared to a year ago.
In an earnings call, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said that the “global demand for Nvidia’s AI infrastructure is incredibly strong” as countries start recognizing “AI as essential infrastructure — just like electricity and the internet.”
“AI inference token generation has surged tenfold in just one year, and as AI agents become mainstream, the demand for AI computing will accelerate,” he said.
US export rules to deliver $8 billion hit
Nvidia said the lower-than-expected income resulted from a $4.5 billion charge due to the US government’s restrictions on exporting its high-powered H20 artificial intelligence chips to China.
In its outlook for its Q2 results, the company said it expects revenues around $45 billion, which “reflects a loss in H20 revenue of approximately $8.0 billion due to the recent export control limitations.”
Nvidia will reportedly launch a new lower-cost AI chip specifically for China, with mass production expected to start in June.
Nvidia’s data center revenue accounted for most of the firm’s total revenues, hitting $39.1 billion, up 10% from the previous quarter.
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Shares in Nvidia Corp (NVDA) closed trading on May 28 down 0.51% at $134.81 but rallied 4.89% after the bell on its results to $141.40, according to Google Finance.
Huang has previously said his firm is focused on being at the forefront of agentic AI as the race around the tech heats up.
Other US firms have also begun ramping up AI expansion. Microsoft said in September that it was establishing two AI centers in Abu Dhabi.
At the same time, Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies have been diversifying their income streams to include AI, converting some of their crypto mining operations to help run compute-intensive large language models.
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