The AI chipmaker reports earnings as Wall Street scrutinizes its unprecedented sales backlog and future outlook
Nvidia is preparing to release its fiscal third-quarter earnings report, and the stakes have rarely been higher for the artificial intelligence chipmaker. The company scheduled its earnings announcement for Wednesday after market close, setting up what could be one of the most consequential financial reports in the tech sector this year.
Wall Street analysts are projecting earnings of $1.25 per share on revenue of $54.92 billion for the quarter. Looking ahead to the current quarter, expectations call for $1.43 in earnings per share with revenue reaching $61.66 billion. These numbers reflect the enormous scale Nvidia has achieved as it rides the wave of AI adoption across the technology industry.
The backdrop behind the anticipation
Nvidia finds itself at the absolute center of the artificial intelligence revolution sweeping through the tech world. Every major cloud computing company and AI research laboratory counts on Nvidia‘s chips to power their operations. The leading AI labs developing next-generation language models all rely on Nvidia technology, while a select group of companies known as hyperscalers have pledged hundreds of billions of dollars to build new data centers around the company’s products.
CEO Jensen Huang dropped a remarkable figure last month that has investors buzzing with anticipation. He revealed that Nvidia had accumulated $500 billion in chip orders spanning calendar years 2025 and 2026. This staggering backlog includes demand for the forthcoming Rubin chip, which is scheduled to begin shipping in significant volumes next year. Analysts tracking the company want to hear much more detail about what Nvidia sees coming from the AI infrastructure world as 2026 approaches.
The five largest AI model developers in the United States all depend on Nvidia’s chips, creating a situation where the company’s fortunes are directly tied to the continued expansion of artificial intelligence capabilities. Analysts surveyed by LSEG are forecasting that Nvidia’s sales will climb 39% during the company’s fiscal 2027, which begins in early 2026.
Strategic moves drawing attention
Investors will be listening carefully for any discussion about Nvidia’s recent string of equity deals with both customers and suppliers. The company has maintained an aggressive pace of strategic investments, including a notable agreement to invest in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Nvidia also struck deals with Nokia and made an investment into Intel, a company that once competed directly against it in certain chip markets.
The deal-making continued into this week, with Nvidia agreeing to invest $10 billion into Anthropic, another prominent artificial intelligence company. These investments signal Nvidia’s determination to maintain its position at the forefront of AI development while building deeper relationships across the industry.
The China question looms large
One topic that management will almost certainly face questions about involves China and the complex dynamics of export regulations. There is ongoing speculation about whether Nvidia might secure licenses from the U.S. government allowing it to export a version of its current-generation Blackwell AI chip to Chinese customers.
Industry analysts have suggested that if Nvidia receives permission to sell current-generation chips in China, the company’s annual sales could receive a boost of as much as $50 billion. This potential represents a significant opportunity, but one that depends entirely on regulatory decisions beyond Nvidia’s direct control. The geopolitical considerations around advanced chip technology continue to create uncertainty for companies operating in this space.
What investors need to hear
Beyond the headline numbers, investors are hungry for insight into Nvidia’s visibility and confidence about sustaining its remarkable growth trajectory. The company has repeatedly exceeded expectations in recent quarters, but maintaining that performance becomes increasingly challenging as the baseline gets larger.
Any guidance that CEO Jensen Huang provides about the sales pipeline will be dissected for clues about whether demand for AI chips remains as robust as it has been. Questions about potential competition, supply chain capacity and customer spending patterns will all factor into how the market interprets whatever Nvidia reports.
The company’s stock performance following the earnings release will likely depend as much on forward-looking statements as it does on the actual results for the quarter that just ended. With Nvidia having become one of the most valuable companies in the world based on its AI chip dominance, expectations remain extraordinarily high for both execution and vision from leadership.
Source: Kif Leswing, CNBC