Chip giant announces $80bn stock buyback scheme and dividend hike in boon to shareholders.
Save Share facebook x whatsapp-stroke copylink Nvidia's Groq 3 chips are displayed at the company's GTC conference in San Jose, California, the United States, on March 17, 2026 [Max A Cherney/Reuters] By John Power Published On 21 May 2026 21 May 2026 Nvidia has announced record quarterly profit and revenue amid explosive demand for its advanced AI chips.
The US tech behemoth said on Wednesday that profit soared to $58.3bn for the February-April period, up 37 percent from the previous quarter and more than 200 percent year-on-year.
Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Elon Musk’s SpaceX unveils filing for blockbuster IPO list 2 of 4 US police officers sue Trump over $1.8bn ‘anti-weaponisation’ fund list 3 of 4 Trump says no escalation expected with Cuba after Castro indictment list 4 of 4 US lifts sanctions on Francesca Albanese, UN expert on Palestinian rights end of list Revenue jumped to $81.6bn, up 20 percent from the prior quarter and 85 percent compared with the same period in 2025.
Nvidia forecast revenue for the current quarter to hit $91bn, more than most analysts’ estimates.
Nvidia’s data-centre business was the main driver of growth, with quarterly revenue surging 92 percent year-on-year to $75.2bn.
The Santa Clara, California-based chip giant’s hardware unit racked up revenue of $6.4bn, up 29 percent from the previous year.
In a sweetener for shareholders, the world’s most valuable company said it would buy back an additional $80bn in shares and raise its quarterly cash dividend from $0.01 a share to $0.25 per share.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hailed the “extraordinary” results as proof of the growing utility of AI.
“Demand has gone parabolic,” Huang said in a conference call with investors and analysts.
“The reason is simple. Agentic AI has arrived,” Huang said, referring to the advent of semi-autonomous AI models.
“AI can now do productive and valuable work.” Despite once again blasting past analysts’ expectations, Nvidia’s latest results received a muted market response.
Shares in Nvidia fell nearly 1.3 percent in after-hours trading, an indication of the sky-high expectations attached to a company whose blistering growth since 2022 has lifted its market capitalisation to more than $5 trillion.
Nvidia’s spectacular rise and the sky-high valuations of other tech giants, such as Microsoft and Amazon, have stirred discussion about whether AI is overhyped and creating a massive market bubble.
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang speaks during the 29th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, the United States, on May 4, 2026 [File: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP] “Expectations are very high, and when a company like Nvidia has been doing as well as it has for so long, it takes a lot for people to get excited,” Jay Goldberg, a senior analyst for semiconductors and electronics at Seaport Research, told Al Jazeera.
“That’s just kind of the nature of Wall Street.” “All these stocks have run a lot this year, but a lot of it is driven by press releases,” Goldberg said, adding that tech firms have yet to demonstrate a “broad-based consumer case” for AI.
William Rhind, the CEO and founder of New York-based investment firm GraniteShares, said the muted reaction showed that expectations had “caught up to fundamentals.” “Nvidia is no longer beating a high bar – it is the bar,” Rhind told Al Jazeera.
Rhind said the bullish case for Nvidia nonetheless remains strong, pointing to the dividend hike and share buyback scheme as signs of a company with “more cash than it can possibly redeploy into the business”.
“When the marginal use of capital starts shifting toward buybacks and dividends, you’re watching a hypergrowth story begin to mature in real time,” he said.
“That’s not bearish – it’s a different kind of bullish.” John Belton, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, said Nvidia’s latest earnings should not “dramatically shift the story one way or the other”.
“Overall, another solid earnings,” Belton told Al Jazeera.
“More of the same bullish commentary and strong numbers that we’ve been hearing for several quarters, albeit without any new earth-shattering developments,” Belton said.
