Nvidia's Quarterly Profit Hits $43 Billion — Three Years Ago It Was $4.4 Billion

Nvidia just reported quarterly profit of $43 billion. Annual profit: $120 billion. Three years ago, annual profit was $4.4 billion. That is a 27x increase in three years. Let those numbers sink in.

The Numbers Are Obscene

In the three months ending January 2026, Nvidia's AI data center chip sales rose 71% to $61.7 billion. Total quarterly revenue hit $68.1 billion, surpassing Wall Street's expectations of $66.2 billion. For the first time, Nvidia's quarterly profit topped the recent profits of Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet.

Only a handful of companies — Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple — have ever made $100 billion profit in a year. None have grown as quickly. Nvidia controls about 90% of the market for cutting-edge AI semiconductors.

The Blackwell Bonanza

Nvidia's latest Blackwell chip accounted for two-thirds of its data center revenue. The company says each new chip generation reduces the cost of delivering AI data, making it a fraction as expensive per token as its predecessor. The next chip, Rubin, arrives later this year.

CEO Jensen Huang declared: "AI is only going to get better from here. This is the future of computing." Meanwhile, Facebook says AI on Nvidia chips has delivered a 3.5% increase in advertising clicks.

Can Anyone Catch Them?

AMD has struck deals to sell $100+ billion in chips to Meta and OpenAI. Google is working with Broadcom and MediaTek on custom AI chips. Nvidia spent $20 billion to license technology from AI chip startup Groq.

"The cost of staying king is catching up with them," said David Wagner of Aptus Capital Advisors. The question is whether Nvidia can make enough chips fast enough to prevent customers from turning to alternatives.

The China Factor

Nvidia is also trying to secure clearance from the U.S. government to sell its second-most-powerful chip, the H200, to China. President Trump approved the sale in December but licenses have only recently been provided.

The Bottom Line

Nvidia has become the tollbooth operator of the AI revolution. Every company racing to build AI — Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon — has to pay Nvidia first. A 27x profit increase in three years isn't growth. It's a monopoly printing money while everyone else pretends this is normal.

Source: The New York Times