In the first quarter of 2026, Nvidia reported financial results that exceeded expectations, with revenue of US$81.6 billion, up 85% compared to the same period of the previous year, above consensus.
For the current quarter, the company led by Jensen Huang projects $91 billion in sales – well above the average Wall Street expectations, which pointed to the $86 billion range – reinforcing the perception that the investment cycle in artificial intelligence is still far from its peak.
The numbers show that the demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to rise. And this rush has generated so much cash for Nvidia that it has decided to return it to shareholders.
The chipmaker announced a new $80 billion share buyback program and raised its quarterly dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 per share, bringing its total payout for the year to $24 billion.
Nvidia's decision is rare for tech giants in a phase of accelerated growth. During this period, companies have to reinvest virtually all their cash in research, infrastructure, and acquisitions.
This calculation does not include any potential revenue from AI chips destined for China. Last week, Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, accompanied President Donald Trump on his visit to the country, raising expectations that Beijing would change its current position on importing the company's processors.
“The construction of AI factories – the largest infrastructure expansion in human history – is accelerating at an extraordinary speed,” Huang said in a statement, highlighting the common thread behind this roadmap.
In one of the indicators reflecting this progress, the company's revenue in the data center segment was, once again, a highlight of the balance sheet, reaching US$75.2 billion, representing a 92% increase over the first quarter of 2025.
Nvidia has been the company that, to date, has benefited the most from the ever-increasing volume of investments directed towards AI infrastructure. And the expectation is that this equation will continue to be reinforced by big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, which foresee investments of US$725 billion in this area by 2026.
Despite this boost and indications that this favorable scenario would continue, Nvidia had been under pressure to return more resources to its shareholders, given that, in this context, the company had accumulated a huge cash reserve.
In the quarter, the company continued to allocate large sums to acquisitions. As a result, net cash flow from investing activities reached US$26.4 billion, compared to US$5.2 billion in the same period of 2025.
In other figures for the period, Nvidia reported a net profit of US$58.3 billion, a 211% year-over-year increase. Diluted earnings per share were US$2.39, above the market average of US$2.30.
On Nasdaq, the company's shares – which have accumulated an appreciation of almost 20% by 2026 – closed today's trading session up 1.30%, valuing the company at US$5.41 trillion. In after-hours trading, however, the shares were down more than 1.2%.
