Nvidia posts record $215.9bn revenue, brushing off AI spending concerns

US chipmaker Nvidia reported record annual revenue of $215.9 billion (£159.1 billion), defying investor concerns about the scale of spending on artificial intelligence technology.

The company also surpassed analysts’ expectations, with revenue in the final quarter of its financial year surging 73 percent compared with the same period a year earlier.

Chief executive Jensen Huang said demand for computing power continues to rise rapidly as companies invest heavily in AI infrastructure. He described customers as racing to build the “factories” that will power the AI-driven industrial transformation.

Now the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, with a market capitalization of about $4.8 trillion, Nvidia has become a key supplier of advanced chips to leading AI developers such as OpenAI and Meta Platforms.

Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management said the expansion of AI infrastructure is likely to continue for years, noting that the pace of AI adoption is accelerating quickly.

Despite its strong results, Nvidia has faced scrutiny from investors concerned about its growing network of partnerships and investments. Some critics have questioned whether so-called circular financing arrangements — where Nvidia invests in companies that also purchase its chips — may inflate perceptions of genuine AI demand.

The company is also navigating geopolitical tensions between the United States and China. Its latest outlook did not provide specific revenue expectations for China. Although the Trump administration recently permitted limited sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips — its second-most advanced processors — to Chinese customers, US officials said none have yet been delivered.

Beyond supplying chips, Nvidia is broadening its product lineup to expand its role in AI-enabled hardware. At the CES technology show in Las Vegas last month, Huang introduced a new platform aimed at self-driving vehicles, alongside an open-source AI model called “Alpamayo” designed to enhance reasoning in autonomous systems. The company also announced plans to launch a robotaxi service next year with an undisclosed partner.

While Nvidia continues to dominate the market for training AI models, it faces increasing competition in inference — the stage where trained models process real-world data to generate outputs. In the fourth quarter, Nvidia strengthened its position in this segment by acquiring rival Groq in a $20 billion deal to expand its inference capabilities.