Chipmaker Nvidia delivered results that easily surpassed expectations, calming investor fears about overheated artificial intelligence (AI) spending that has recently put pressure on markets.
Revenue Surges as AI Demand Continues to Explode
For the three months to October, Nvidia reported a 62% jump in revenue to $57bn, fuelled largely by soaring demand for its AI data-centre chips. Sales from that division alone rose 66% to more than $51bn.
Looking ahead, Nvidia forecast fourth-quarter revenue of around $65bn, well above analysts’ estimates — a boost that sent the company’s shares up roughly 4% in after-hours trading.
Despite widespread concerns about a possible AI bubble, chief executive Jensen Huang pushed back forcefully:
“There’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble. From our vantage point, we see something very different,” said Mr Huang.
He added that demand for the company’s new AI Blackwell systems was “off the charts”, while noting that “cloud GPUs are sold out”.
“We excel at every phase of AI.”
Nvidia’s Influence and Growing Market Anxiety
As the world’s most valuable company, Nvidia is widely considered a barometer for the broader AI boom. That meant these results drew even more attention than usual, particularly as markets have grown uneasy about potentially inflated AI valuations.
Those worries contributed to four straight days of losses in the S&P 500 leading up to Nvidia’s announcement. The benchmark index is down nearly 3% in November.
Some analysts have compared the current surge in AI stocks to the dot-com era of the late 1990s, when massive optimism drove valuations to extremes — only for the bubble to burst in early 2000, wiping out many companies and harming pension savings.
Heading into Nvidia’s report, expectations were extremely high.
Adam Turnquist of LPL Financial said the question was not whether Nvidia would beat estimates, “but by how much”.
Matt Britzman of Hargreaves Lansdown added:
“While AI valuations are dominating the news feeds, Nvidia is going about its business in style.”
He noted that certain areas of the AI sector “needed to take a breather, but Nvidia is not in that camp.”
$500bn in Orders — and Even More May Be Coming
Earlier this year, Jensen Huang projected $500bn in AI chip orders through next year. Investors were eager for updates on when those revenues might materialize — and how Nvidia plans to meet demand.
Nvidia CFO Colette Kress offered clarity:
She said the firm would “probably” be taking more orders beyond the already-announced $500bn.
However, she also voiced concerns about US regulatory limits restricting the company’s ability to export chips to China:
The US, she said, “must win the support of every developer”, including those in China.
Kress stressed that Nvidia remains “committed to continued engagement” with both US and Chinese governments.
New Saudi AI Mega-Project Announced
On the same day, Jensen Huang appeared alongside Elon Musk at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington. They announced a massive new data-centre project in Saudi Arabia, where Musk’s AI company xAI will be the first customer.
The complex will reportedly be outfitted with hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that the US Commerce Department has approved the sale of up to 70,000 advanced AI chips to state-backed companies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE — reversing an earlier decision. The agreement followed discussions between President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Tech Titans Continue Massive AI Spending
Across Silicon Valley, companies are escalating their AI investments. Recent earnings reports from Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft highlighted huge spending on data centres, infrastructure, and chips.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told the BBC that while the growth of AI investment was an “extraordinary moment”, he also warned that there was “some irrationality” in the current AI boom.
Economist Simon French echoed the sentiment, noting similarities with the dot-com bubble:
“The issue is not so much these big cash generative companies like Nvidia, but it’s the wider part of the tech ecosystem, quite a lot of which isn’t currently profitable,” he said.
Circular Investments Raise Questions About Market Stability
Nvidia sits at the center of a web of partnerships involving OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and other AI giants. The interconnected nature of these deals has raised eyebrows, especially as companies increasingly invest in each other.
One example is Nvidia’s $100bn investment in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
Tech investor Eileen Burbidge commented:
**”A lot of what is fuelling some of the scepticism or concern about a bubble is that there is seen to be a lot of circular deals going on, whereby Nvidia is committing to invest in a company which in turn is committing to invest in Nvidia or is committing to buy Nvidia chips.
So it goes round and round… with about 10 to 20 companies that all seem to have these deals going back and forth.”**
A Strong Quarter — but Questions Remain
Nvidia’s results once again reinforced its dominant position in the AI revolution. But while the company appears to be thriving, broader concerns about inflated valuations, circular investments, and long-term profitability in the AI ecosystem persist.
For now, Nvidia continues to see record-breaking demand — and Wall Street seems reassured, at least temporarily.
