The technology giant Nvidia just reported a great fourth quarter. The company operates on a January fiscal year. It comfortably beat analyst expectations, primarily because of the explosion in artificial intelligence infrastructure spending. Importantly, the largest U.S. data center companies just announced dramatic increases in artificial intelligence capital spending. Spending by the so-called hyperscalers will rise well over 50% to almost $700 billion in 2026.
Nvidia’s revenue reached $68.1 billion, a growth rate of 73% year over year. That exceeded the consensus estimate of around $66 billion. Data center revenue was up 75%, a huge beat. Earnings per share were also higher than expected. The market was looking for earnings of around $1.53. The reported number was $1.62. Nvidia’s gross margin was also outstanding at 75%. That indicates the company continues to have pricing power and appears to be largely unaffected by the shortage of high-bandwidth memory semiconductors.