How the AI Boom Granted NVIDIA an 85% Q1 Revenue Uptick

NVIDIA's Q1 results bolstered by the AI boom blew past industry expectations with reported record net income of US$58.32bn for the three months ending in April 2026.

The results announced on 20 May, represents earnings of US$2.39 per share, up from US$18.78bn or US$0.76 per share in the same period in 2025.

The rise in revenue is a stellar 85%, raking in US$81.62bn – up from US$44.01bn year on year.

The company holds a market capitalisation of US$5.4tn, making it the world's most valuable company by this measure.

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, says: "The buildout of AI factories – the largest infrastructure expansion in human history – is accelerating at extraordinary speed.

"Agentic AI has arrived, doing productive work, generating real value and scaling rapidly across companies and industries."

Data centre revenue climbs

NVIDIA reported 92% year on year growth in its data centre division, producing record revenue of US$75.2bn. The division accounts for the largest portion of the company's income.

The company provides chips, software and infrastructure to global giants including Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet.

Several US technology companies are planning to invest approximately US$750bn in AI infrastructure in 2026.

Jensen says he expects NVIDIA would grow faster than the capital expenditure of hyper-scaled data centres.

The company does faces some competition from Amazon and Google in chip production but maintains its position as the most profitable semiconductor company globally.

CPU market dominance continues

Ben Barringer, Head of Technology Research at Quilter Cheviot, notes: "While NVIDIA focuses primarily on GPUs, it remains the biggest player in Central Processing Units (CPUs), dwarfing AMD and Intel with US$20bn of sales in CPU."

Chinese market remains uncertain

Jensen joined President Trump and other US CEOs on a trip to China on 13 May.

The visit aimed to discuss economic and trade strategies between the two nations.

The Trump administration had allowed NVIDIA to ship H200 AI chips to China back in December 2025. The deal was such that US would collect a 25% fee on each sale.

Jensen said in a Bloomberg interview on 18 May that: "The Chinese government has to decide: how much of their local market do they want to protect?

"My sense is that over time the market will open."

NVIDIA stated it was not currently expecting data centre compute revenue from China.

Colette Kress, CFO of NVIDIA clarified during an earnings call on 20 May that the company has not generated revenue from chip sales to China.

President Trump has approved sales of the chips in China but says that Xi Jinping has blocked them.

NVIDIA's new AI system, Vera Rubin, could roll out in the second half of 2026.

According to NVIDIA, the AI platform will serve as a "generational leap" that's going to create "the greatest infrastructure buildout in history".

Jensen adds on the earnings call: "My sense is we will be supply-constrained throughout the entire life of Vera Rubin."