Have there ever been quarterly earnings releases as anticipated or influential as those of Nvidia?

For the past week, the US market has essentially flatlined as investors waited anxiously for the release of Nvidia’s third-quarter sales and earnings. This has become a quarterly phenomenon in 2024.

Jensen Huang has built Nvidia into the world’s most valuable company.Credit: Bloomberg

When the results came, after the close of normal trading, there was a tinge of disappointment despite the numbers coming in a little over consensus estimates, albeit below some of the more wildly optimistic expectations. Its shares initially fell sharply before recovering to trade only modestly down in extended trading.

The world’s most valuable company and dominant supplier of AI chips reported sales of $US35.1 billion ($54 billion), 17 per cent higher than the previous quarter’s and 94 per cent more than those of a year earlier. Earnings were up 16 per cent, to $US19.3 billion, more than double those of the same quarter last year.

Nividia’s rise from relative obscurity as the developer of chips for computer graphics and gaming has been dramatic.

It was the launch two years ago of the chatbot, ChatGPT, and an abrupt recognition of Nvidia’s centrality to the building and training of the large language models required for AI that set its share price, and financials, alight.

Its market capitalisation has risen 200 per cent this year alone, and it is now valued at almost $US3.6 trillion ($5.5 trillion), overtaking Apple ($US3.46 trillion) as the world’s most valuable company. Its results and share price movements move markets, and not just those in the........

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