Nvidia Earnings Report: Record $215.9bn Fiscal Year and Blockbuster Q4, but Questions Persist
The latest nvidia earnings report shows a historic fiscal year and a blockbuster fourth quarter: fiscal 2026 revenue reached $215. 9 billion while fourth-quarter sales hit $68. 1 billion. These results matter because they crystallize the company’s central role in the AI infrastructure buildout even as investor skepticism, geopolitical constraints and new product initiatives create an uneven backdrop.
Nvidia Earnings Report: Quarter and Fiscal Results
The company posted fourth-quarter revenue of $68. 1 billion for the period ended January 25, 2026, an increase of 20% from the prior quarter and 73% from the same quarter a year earlier. For fiscal 2026, revenue totaled $215. 9 billion, up 65% from a year ago; the fiscal-year figure was also presented in sterling at £159. 1 billion. Gross margins for the quarter were 75. 0% (GAAP) and 75. 2% (non-GAAP). For fiscal 2026, GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins were 71. 1% and 71. 3%, respectively. GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1. 76 and $1. 62 for the quarter, and $4. 90 and $4. 77 for fiscal 2026.
Profitability, Payouts and Guidance Elements
The company returned $41. 1 billion to shareholders during fiscal 2026 through share repurchases and cash dividends, and as of the end of the fourth quarter had $58. 5 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization. A next quarterly cash dividend of $0. 01 per share is scheduled for April 1, 2026, with a record date of March 11, 2026. Management signaled an accounting change beginning in the first quarter of fiscal 2027: stock-based compensation expense will be included in non-GAAP financial measures, with the company characterizing stock-based compensation as a foundational element of its talent strategy. For the full year fiscal 2027, GAAP and non-GAAP tax rates are expected to be between 17. 0% and 19. 0%, excluding discrete items or material tax-environment changes.
Capital Markets, Call Timing and Reconciliations
A conference call to discuss fourth-quarter and fiscal 2026 results was scheduled at 2 p. m. Pacific time (5 p. m. Eastern time) and was to be offered as a listen-only webcast on the company’s investor relations site; the webcast was to be recorded and made available for replay until the company’s next earnings-call replay window related to its first quarter of fiscal 2027. The company provided non-GAAP reconciliations and noted adjustments to exclude items such as stock-based compensation and acquisition-related costs, but details of the full reconciliation text were truncated and are unclear in the provided context.
AI Demand, Product Push and Strategic Messaging
Management emphasized rapidly growing compute demand tied to AI adoption. The CEO framed the moment as an inflection for agentic AI and highlighted new internal platforms and accelerators—naming Grace Blackwell with NVLink as an inference leader that lowers cost per token by an order of magnitude and citing Vera Rubin as extending that leadership. Executive commentary stressed that enterprise adoption of agents is accelerating and that customers are racing to invest in AI compute, described as the factories powering the AI industrial revolution. The company has also announced recent moves to generate demand through its own new technologies.
The results and management commentary underline how the nvidia earnings report links strong commercial momentum with an active product roadmap: the company supplies chips to leading AI model developers including OpenAI and Meta, and it is expanding into more end products that embed AI.
Automotive AI and New Models
At the CES technology trade show in Las Vegas last month, the CEO unveiled a new technology platform for self-driving cars and introduced an open-source AI model named "Alpamayo, " presented as bringing reasoning capabilities to autonomous vehicles.
Geopolitics, China Exposure and Investor Scrutiny
The company is operating amid a geopolitical tug-of-war between the US and China. An outlook released on Wednesday did not include expectations for chip revenue in China. Last month the US administration began allowing the sale of the company’s H200 chips—described as its second-most advanced type—to Chinese customers under certain conditions; this week a US Commerce Department official told lawmakers that none of those chips have yet been sold to Chinese customers.
Investors remain cautious despite the results. Skepticism centers on the magnitude of AI spending and the company’s expanding network of commercial relationships. Critics have warned about potential "circular financing" deals in which investments by the company in other firms could cloud perceptions of how robust end-market AI demand really is. Separately, a market observer, Gene Munster, who is manager partner at Deepwater Asset Management, wrote on the social platform X that the AI buildout is likely to continue and that "AI is accelerating faster than people not using these tools can grasp. "
The combined picture is one of extraordinary revenue growth, strong margins and aggressive capital returns alongside unresolved questions about China exposure, the durability of AI demand absent complex partner arrangements, and how new product bets will translate into longer-term end-market penetration.
