Nvidia forecasts first-quarter revenue above estimates

(Reuters) – Nvidia forecast first-quarter revenue above market estimates on Wednesday, expecting robust demand for its leading AI chips to persist as businesses spend heavily to expand generative artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Its shares rose about 1% in choppy extended trading, after closing up 3.7% in regular trading. Nvidia is the biggest beneficiary of a rally in AI-linked stocks, with its shares up more than 400% over the last two years.

The company expects revenue of $43 billion, plus or minus 2% for the first quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $41.78 billion according to data compiled by LSEG.

Demand has grown unabated for Nvidia’s advanced chips that can speedily process the large amounts of data used by generative AI applications, as companies race each other to emerge as leaders of the new technology. Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can learn from data and improve over time.

Nvidia’s optimistic forecast also helps allay doubts around a slowdown in spending on its hardware that emerged last month, following Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s claims that it had developed AI models rivaling Western counterparts at a fraction of their cost.

This could add fuel to the sputtering AI rally after the Magnificent Seven stocks’ tumultuous retreat from their late-2024 peaks as Wall Street’s optimism waned under the shadow of DeepSeek’s innovations.

Nvidia’s revenue for the fourth quarter grew 78% to $39.3 billion, beating estimates of $38.04 billion.

(Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)