Nvidia profits surge 843pc in AI boom

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The Silicon Valley chipmaker at the heart of the new artificial intelligence (AI) boom has seen its profits surge 843pc as the world rushes to buy its technology.

Nvidia increased net profit to $6.2bn (£4.9bn) in the three months to July 30, up from $656m recorded during the same period last year.

The world’s largest chipmaker continues to benefit from the surging demand for processors able to fuel AI-powered bots, such as ChatGPT.

It comes as the United States considers further restrictions of Nvidia’s microchips to China, with the technology quickly becoming a hotly contested commodity as global superpowers battle to gain the competitive edge in the AI race.

Commenting on the latest results, chief executive and co-founder Jensen Huang said: “The race is on to adopt generative AI.”

The US tech giant also doubled year-on-year sales to $13.5bn during the second quarter of 2023, according to results released on Wednesday evening.

Shares in Nvidia surged by nearly 10pc during extended trading after the company lifted its sales forecast for the current quarter to $16bn.

The microchip manufacturer also approved another $25bn in share buybacks, having already repurchased $3.3bn from investors during the second quarter.

It comes after Nvidia became the first-ever semiconductor company to achieve a $1 trillion market valuation in May, joining the ranks of tech behemoths Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.

Since co-founding Nvidia in 1993, Mr Huang has led the group’s transition from building processors used to power 3D graphics in video games to dominating the market for AI hardware.

Nvidia said its envelope-sized H100 processor is the first-ever computer chip designed for the rapid data processing required for generative AI, the sophisticated technology behind ChatGPT.

High demand and limited supply have driven the price of Nvidia’s chips up into hundreds of millions of dollars, leaving tech giants and nation states scrambling to buy chips in bulk.

The White House is reportedly considering additional export bans of Nvidia’s microchip technology to China amid national security concerns.

However, Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer, on Wednesday warned that further restrictions would result in a “permanent loss of an opportunity for the US industry to compete and lead in one of the world’s largest markets”.

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