What do Nvidia and the Fed have in common? They are both data-dependent. Nvidia's GPUs are the latest stage of the Digital Revolution, which started during the mid-1960s with IBM's mainframes. The Digital Revolution is all about processing ever more data, faster and faster, and at ever lower cost. In this context, GPUs are just the latest development in the Digital Revolution. The next big, new thing is likely to be quantum computers.
As data processing productivity increases, so does the amount of data that needs to be processed. The supply of data will continually expand to infinity and beyond, to quote Buzz Lightyear. We view AI as a high-powered App that is exponentially increasing the demand for computing power for ever more data.
Nvidia reported Q3 earnings after the close today, topping Wall Street expectations for sales and profits, and provided stronger-than-expected guidance for Q4 sales. Nvidia's most important business is data center sales. The company said it had $51.2 billion in data center sales, easily beating analyst expectations of $49.1 billion, a 66% year-over-year rise. Nvidia's forward revenues rose to a record $268 billion during the week of November 18, a fivefold increase since late 2023 (chart).
Nvidia sports a 56.7% forward profit margin (chart). For more, see our Nvidia Brief in our new Corporate Reports In Brief (CRIB) section of Our Charts.
