Ai at the center as Nvidia tops Q4 but stock slips
NVIDIA’s strong fourth quarter results and optimistic first-quarter guidance landed amid renewed ai enthusiasm — and a market reaction that sent the stock down more than 4% on Thursday, showing investors wrestling with near-term beats and longer-term expectations.
Record revenue and detailed margins
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today reported record revenue for the fourth quarter ended January 25, 2026, of $68. 1 billion, up 20% from the previous quarter and up 73% from a year ago. For fiscal 2026, revenue was $215. 9 billion, up 65% from a year ago. For the quarter, GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins were 75. 0% and 75. 2%, respectively; for fiscal 2026 GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins were 71. 1% and 71. 3%, respectively.
Product mix: data center, compute and networking figures
NVIDIA said Data Center revenue drove most growth, with Data Center bringing in $62. 3 billion for the period. The company breaks down Data Center into compute, graphics chips and CPUs, and networking; compute revenue grew 58% year over year, while networking surged 263% to $11 billion. Outside Data Center, gaming revenue was $3. 7 billion compared with external estimates of $4 billion.
Quarterly earnings, shareholder returns and compensation changes
For the quarter, GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1. 76 and $1. 62, respectively. For fiscal 2026, GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $4. 90 and $4. 77, respectively. During fiscal 2026 NVIDIA returned $41. 1 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and cash dividends, and as of the end of the fourth quarter the company had $58. 5 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization. NVIDIA will pay its next quarterly cash dividend of $0. 01 per share on April 1, 2026, to all shareholders of record on March 11, 2026.
Guidance, outlook and tax expectations
The company offered first-quarter guidance between $76. 44 billion and $79. 56 billion, above Wall Street estimates of $72. 8 billion. NVIDIA’s outlook for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 is provided in the release; the specific figures are unclear in the provided context. For the full year fiscal 2027, GAAP and non-GAAP tax rates are expected to be between 17. 0% and 19. 0%, excluding any discrete items and material changes to NVIDIA’s tax environment.
ai trade drivers: hyperscalers, partnerships and new chips
CFO Colette Kress said hyperscaler revenue increased and remained NVIDIA’s largest customer category at slightly over 50% of Data Center revenue, and that growth was led by the rest of NVIDIA’s Data Center customers as revenue diversified. Much of the current build-out is expected to come from hyperscalers such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, which the context states plan to spend a collective $650 billion on AI capital expenditures in 2026.
Product announcements, partnerships and recent launches
The results come a few weeks before NVIDIA is set to host its GTC 2026 event in San Jose, Calif., where it is expected to make major product announcements. The quarter follows the launch of NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin AI superchip at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas in January. NVIDIA also expanded its agreement with Meta to include a multiyear deal for NVIDIA’s Blackwell and Rubin AI processors and the first major standalone deployment of its Grace CPU servers.
Market reaction, analyst context and management quotes
NVIDIA shares fell more than 4% on Thursday even as the company beat consensus. The stock had been up just over 5% since the start of the year as of Wednesday afternoon; by comparison, Advanced Micro Devices was down roughly 1%, Broadcom was off 3%, and Intel was up almost 27% year to date. Deepwater Asset Management managing partner Gene Munster wrote in a blog post that the market disconnect boils down to whether investors view the AI buildout as early or late, and he framed the debate around growth in 2027 and 2028. Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said, “Computing demand is growing exponentially — the agentic AI inflection point has arrived. Grace Blackwell with NVLink is the king of inference today — delivering an order-of-magnitude lower cost per token — and Vera Rubin will extend that leadership even further, ” and added that enterprise adoption of agents is rapidly increasing.
Conference call and investor materials
NVIDIA will conduct a conference call with analysts and investors to discuss fourth-quarter and fiscal 2026 financial results and current financial prospects today at 2 p. m. Pacific time (5 p. m. Eastern time). A live, listen-only webcast will be accessible on NVIDIA’s investor relations website, and the webcast will be recorded and available for replay until NVIDIA’s conference call to discuss its financial results for its first quarter of fiscal 2027. CFO commentary by Colette Kress is available online; the context indicates that additional commentary is posted by the company.
Questions left unclear in the provided context include the specific line items of NVIDIA’s detailed first-quarter outlook as presented in the release; those details are unclear in the provided context. The company’s next scheduled public events noted in the context are the GTC 2026 event in San Jose and the investor conference call at 2 p. m. Pacific time (5 p. m. Eastern time) today.
