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Santa Clara, California – Nvidia reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $81.62 billion on May 20, an 85 percent increase from a year earlier and above Wall Street’s $78.9 billion consensus estimate. Earnings per share were $1.87, topping forecasts of $1.77 as surging demand for artificial intelligence chips in its data center division continued to drive the bulk of the company’s growth. Nvidia also disclosed a $16 billion gain in other income from non-marketable securities, including stakes in AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI, and authorized a new $80 billion share repurchase program, which analysts described as the largest buyback in the company’s history. CEO Jensen Huang said demand for Nvidia’s chips is rising across cloud providers, enterprise customers and sovereign AI programs, and the company issued strong second-quarter guidance that projects continued data center expansion. New York – Nvidia’s strong financial results did not prevent its shares from falling in after-hours and pre-market trading on May 21, leaving the stock on track for a fourth consecutive post-earnings decline and putting pressure on its roughly $3.5 trillion market capitalization. Options markets had implied a move of about 6.5 percent in either direction, translating to a potential swing of around $350 billion in market value, a sum larger than the entire market capitalization of most S&P 500 companies. Analysts said the post-earnings weakness, despite repeated quarterly beats, reflects investor focus on whether Nvidia can maintain its rapid revenue growth amid intensifying competition from AMD, Intel and custom chips developed by major cloud providers. Broader U.S. equity benchmarks ended mixed on May 21, while oil prices and long-term Treasury yields remained volatile as markets tracked developments in the Middle East and the Federal Reserve’s steady interest-rate stance.

Prepared by Christopher Adams and reviewed by editorial team.