Nvidia is once again putting the market’s AI obsession under the microscope. The company reported fiscal second-quarter 2026 earnings after the bell on Wednesday, posting revenue of $46.7 billion and earnings per share of $1.05 (non-GAAP) — topping Wall Street’s consensus forecast of about $46 billion in revenue and $1.01 EPS.
Suggested Reading
That top line was up 56% from a year earlier and 6% from the prior quarter, underscoring the still-insatiable demand for Nvidia’s AI accelerators. Its data center division — the beating heart of the AI boom — delivered $41.1 billion in revenue, also up 56% year-over-year and 5% sequentially. Within that, Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture surged 17% sequentially as shipments ramped. Gaming, its legacy business, added $4.3 billion, up 49% year-over-year.
Related Content
Other divisions also delivered double-digit growth. Professional Visualization revenue rose 32% from a year ago to $601 million, while Automotive climbed 69% to $586 million, reflecting Nvidia’s push into robotics and autonomous driving platforms. Though those areas are still small compared with its data center business, those lines are increasingly positioned as future growth pillars.
Shares were little changed in after-hours trading, reflecting a market that had already priced in a swing of about 8–10%. With a market capitalization hovering above $4.4 trillion, Nvidia has become the single most important stock in the S&P 500 — accounting for roughly 8% of the entire index.
Profitability also surged. Net income nearly hit $26.4 billion (GAAP) for the quarter, up 59% year-over-year. Gross margins climbed to 72.7% on a non-GAAP basis, excluding one-time adjustments linked to its H20 chip inventory. Free cash flow reached $13.5 billion, giving Nvidia ample room to fund both research and shareholder returns.
And shareholder returns are now a headline in their own right. The company returned $24.3 billion to investors in the first half of the year through buybacks and dividends, and its board just added another $60 billion to its repurchase authorization — without expiration. That buyback firepower is among the largest ever announced by a U.S. corporation.
The geopolitical wild card increasingly lives in Washington, not Santa Clara. U.S. export restrictions continue to block Nvidia’s most advanced chips from reaching China. The company has created workarounds such as the H20, but those shipments have been whipsawed by shifting licensing rules. In the second quarter, no H20 sales were made to China, though Nvidia booked about $650 million in H20 sales to a non-Chinese customer and recorded a one-time $180 million release of previously reserved H20 inventory. Meanwhile, Beijing regulators have discouraged adoption over security concerns, highlighting how policy rather than technology can dictate demand.
Looking ahead, guidance will be just as closely watched as the backward-looking numbers. Nvidia told investors it expects revenue of about $54 billion (up 2%) in the third quarter, with non-GAAP gross margins in the 73–74% range. That outlook assumes no H20 shipments to China, suggesting any policy shifts could create upside.
CEO Jensen Huang was characteristically bullish: “Blackwell is the AI platform the world has been waiting for,” he said in a press release, adding that demand is “extraordinary” and production is “ramping at full speed.” CFO Colette Kress said the company expects to exit the fiscal year with margins in the mid-70s, pointing to sustainable profitability even amid volatile geopolitics.
Beyond the quarter, Nvidia’s results are a proxy for the broader AI economy. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta are projected to spend more than $325 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, much of it on AI infrastructure. Each cloud capex update now serves as a shadow earnings guide for Nvidia.
Still, the longer Nvidia dominates, the more rivals circle the moat. AMD is pushing its MI300 accelerators, while hyperscalers are designing their own silicon. Even modest defections could shave billions off Nvidia’s trajectory. And because Taiwan’s TSMC manufactures most of its chips, any disruption in the supply chain — from fabs to high-bandwidth memory — could rattle results.
For now, though, the story remains familiar: Nvidia delivers another blowout quarter, and the market keeps rewarding it. But with a sky-high valuation riding on quarterly beats — and policy risks that can rewrite its order book overnight — the stakes for Huang’s empire have never been higher.