As the tech world remained riveted by the OpenAI soap opera, the real artificial intelligence money machine was demonstrating the fine art of printing greenbacks. That would be Nvidia, which reported on Tuesday that its revenue soared 206% in the October quarter, to $18.1 billion from $5.9 billion a year earlier. That’s what happens when you essentially corner the market for the specialized AI chips that are a must-have commodity for tech firms right now. And this growth is continuing. Nvidia projected that revenue would soar to $20 billion in the January quarter, which would be an increase of 230% over the year-earlier number of $6.05 billion.
Just to give a sense of how much Nvidia’s business has mushroomed in the past couple of years, that projection implies Nvidia’s full fiscal year revenue will be around $59 billion, more than its combined revenue for the previous two fiscal years. Notably, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress told analysts the fourth-quarter projection would have been higher if the Biden administration hadn’t restricted chip sales to China! In other words, Nvidia is making bank right now, but it could be doing even better. That wrinkle likely explains why the stock—which is up 242% so far this year—inched down a little after hours. (For more on Nvidia’s results, see here.)
