Nvidia (NVDA) FY2026 Q1 Earnings Call: Strong Growth Amid China Challenges, AI Demand Surge

Earnings Call05-29


【Earnings Highlights and Outlook】
- Q1 Revenue: $44 billion, up 69% year-over-year, exceeding outlook
- Q2 Revenue Guidance: $45 billion ±2%
- Data Center Revenue: $39 billion, up 73% year-over-year
- Gaming Revenue: Record $3.8 billion, up 48% sequentially and 42% year-over-year
- H200 Impact: $4.6 billion in revenue recognized, $4.5 billion charge for inventory write-down due to new export controls

【Q&A Highlights】

Q1: How much of the inference demand are you able to serve, and do we need full NVL72 rack-scale solutions for reasoning inference?
A: Jensen Huang:
1. Grace Blackwell and NVLink-72 are ideal for reasoning AI due to:
- Reasoning AI requires 100-1000x more tokens than one-shot chatbots
- Grace Blackwell offers 40x higher speed and throughput compared to Hopper
2. Full production of Grace Blackwell is underway, enabling exciting advancements in AI inference

Q2: What's the impact of China export controls on revenue, and what's the outlook for AI spending?
A: Colette Kress:
1. Q1 impact: Unable to ship $2.5 billion in H200 revenue
2. Q2 outlook: China data center revenue expected to decrease meaningfully
3. Future impact: Potential loss of ~$50 billion market opportunity in China

Jensen Huang:
1. AI adoption is in early stages across industries and countries
2. AI infrastructure buildout includes:
- Cloud deployments (U.S. as early starter)
- Enterprise AI (on-premises solutions)
- Telco infrastructure (6G built on AI)
- AI factories for various industries (automotive, robotics)

Q3: Are there more large GPU cluster investments to be announced, and how are these impacting lead times?
A: Jensen Huang:
1. More orders now than at GTC, but supply chain is also increasing
2. About 100 AI factories currently being built, with more unannounced projects
3. AI is becoming essential infrastructure for every country and industry
4. Expect many more announcements in the future

Q4: Can you clarify the Q2 guidance considering the China impact and provide more conviction on sequential growth?
A: Colette Kress:
- Q2 guidance reflects strong growth in Blackwell across customers, offsetting the $8 billion impact from China export controls

Jensen Huang:
Four positive surprises driving growth:
1. Step-function demand increase for reasoning AI
2. Rescinding of AI diffusion rule, opening opportunities in global markets
3. Enterprise AI agents' effectiveness and readiness
4. Industrial AI growth, driven by reshoring and new manufacturing plants

Q5: What's the outlook for shipping modified products to China?
A: Jensen Huang:
1. New export control limits make it impossible to reduce Hopper further for productive use in China
2. Limited options are being considered, but no immediate solutions available
3. Exploring possibilities to continue serving the Chinese market within the new limits

Disclaimer: This earnings call summary is generated by AI and is for informational purposes only. Due to technical limitations, inaccuracies may exist. It does not constitute investment advice or commitments.
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