Nvidia Crushes Q4 Estimates and Issues Strong Q1 Guidance as Vera Rubin Momentum Builds
nvidia reported a blockbuster fiscal fourth quarter, beating expectations on both the top and bottom lines and offering a first-quarter outlook that topped market forecasts — a development that signals accelerating momentum across the company’s data center franchise and broader AI product set.
Nvidia Q4 headline numbers and year-over-year gains
The company posted quarterly revenue of $68. 1 billion and earnings per share of $1. 62. That revenue figure represented record quarterly sales and was up 73% from the same quarter a year earlier, when the company recorded revenue of $39. 3 billion and EPS of $0. 89. Sequentially, fourth-quarter revenue rose 20% from the prior quarter.
Nvidia data center surge and product mix
Data center business drove the vast majority of growth, generating $62. 3 billion for the period. Within that business, compute revenue grew 58% year over year while networking revenue surged 263% to $11 billion. The company noted hyperscaler customers remained the largest single customer category for Data Center revenue, representing slightly over half of the total, even as growth broadened across other customer segments.
Nvidia guidance and near-term outlook
The company provided first-quarter guidance between $76. 44 billion and $79. 56 billion, above market estimates of $72. 8 billion. That outlook explicitly excludes any potential revenue from China. The company also offered a stated outlook for the first quarter of fiscal 2027; details of that outlook are unclear in the provided context.
Margins, fiscal-year results and shareholder returns
For the quarter, GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins were 75. 0% and 75. 2%, respectively. For fiscal 2026 overall, revenue was $215. 9 billion, up 65% year over year, with GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins of 71. 1% and 71. 3%. GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $1. 76 and $1. 62, respectively; for fiscal 2026, GAAP and non-GAAP EPS were $4. 90 and $4. 77.
During fiscal 2026, the company returned $41. 1 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and cash dividends and had $58. 5 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization. The next quarterly cash dividend was set at $0. 01 per share, payable April 1, 2026, to shareholders of record on March 11, 2026.
Market reaction, competitors and investor debate
Shares rose as much as 3% in after-hours trading before giving up those gains. As of Wednesday afternoon the stock was up just over 5% since the start of the year; peer performance cited alongside included one competitor down roughly 1%, another off about 3%, and a different rival up almost 27% year-to-date.
Market observers have debated whether the AI investment cycle is in an early or later phase — a core question for longer-term growth expectations into 2027 and 2028. One market commentator framed this as an "inning" debate, arguing that if the cycle is in a later inning, growth could moderate; if it is still early, the company’s growth outlook remains robust.
Product roadmap signals: Vera Rubin, Blackwell, Grace and laptop CPU chatter
The quarter follows the launch of the company’s Vera Rubin AI superchip at a consumer tech show in January and comes just weeks before the company’s GTC 2026 event in San Jose, where major product announcements are expected. The company also expanded a multiyear agreement with a major social media firm to supply both Blackwell and Rubin AI processors and to deliver the first major standalone deployment of the company’s Grace CPU servers.
Recent coverage suggested the company could launch its own CPU for laptops in the coming months, a move that would be positioned to boost gaming revenue, where the company reported $3. 7 billion for the quarter versus estimates of $4 billion.
Corporate disclosures and next steps for investors
it will begin including stock-based compensation expense in non-GAAP financial measures starting in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, noting stock-based compensation is a foundational component of its talent strategy. Management scheduled a conference call to discuss results and prospects at 2 p. m. Pacific time (5 p. m. Eastern time), and the company noted it uses non-GAAP measures with reconciliations that adjust GAAP amounts to exclude items such as stock-based compensation, acquisition-related and other costs, and other gains/losses; the reconciliation language in the provided context was incomplete and is unclear in the provided context.
Overall, the quarter underscores nvidia’s current commercial momentum in AI compute and networking while putting investor focus squarely on the company’s upcoming product announcements, the trajectory of AI capex among hyperscalers, and how those trends translate into 2027–2028 growth expectations.
