NVIDIA just dropped the most staggering earnings report in tech history. Revenue hit $68.1 billion in a single quarter — up 73% year-over-year — as the AI infrastructure boom shows no signs of slowing down. But despite crushing expectations, the stock actually fell 4.2%. Here's what you need to know.
📊 The Revenue Machine
NVIDIA posted $68.1 billion in Q4 revenue, up 20% sequentially and 73% year-over-year. For the full fiscal year 2026, revenue hit $215.9 billion — up 65% from FY2025. To put that in perspective, NVIDIA generated more revenue in one quarter than AMD does in an entire year.
The numbers that matter:
• Net income: $43.0 billion (+94% Y/Y)
• Free cash flow: $34.9 billion (+125% Y/Y)
• Gross margin: 75.0% (up 200 bps Y/Y)
• Cash on hand: $62.6 billion
🏗️ Data Center: The $62 Billion Engine
Data Center revenue hit $62.3 billion in Q4, up 75% Y/Y and 22% sequentially. It now represents 91% of total revenue. Hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP) account for slightly over 50%, but the fastest growth is coming from AI model makers, enterprises, and sovereign nations.
The real story within Data Center is networking. Revenue hit $11 billion — up a staggering 263% Y/Y — driven by NVLink compute fabric for GB200 and GB300 systems, plus Spectrum-X Ethernet. NVIDIA is now, in Jensen’s words, “the largest networking company in the world.”
🤝 The Partnership Power Play
Jensen used the earnings call to flex NVIDIA’s expanding partnership ecosystem:
• Anthropic: $10B investment announced. Will train Claude on Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin. Jensen called Claude Cowork “revolutionary” for enterprise AI.
• OpenAI: GPT-5.3-Codex trained on Grace Blackwell NVLink 72. Partnership agreement “close.”
• Meta: Deploying millions of Blackwell and Rubin GPUs with Spectrum-X Ethernet.
• Groq: Non-exclusive licensing deal for low-latency inference technology.
On the product side, Vera Rubin samples have shipped to customers with production beginning in H2 2026. The platform will train MoE models with ¼ the GPUs and reduce inference costs by 10x vs Blackwell.
🔮 What’s Next: Q1 FY2027 Guidance
NVIDIA is guiding Q1 FY2027 revenue to $78.0 billion (± 2%), which would represent ~15% sequential growth. Notably, this excludes any Data Center compute revenue from China. Gross margins are expected to hold at 75%.
📉 So Why Did the Stock Fall 4.2%?
Despite crushing every metric, NVIDIA shares dropped 4.2% after earnings. Three reasons:
Sell the news. The stock had rallied significantly into earnings, and expectations were sky-high. Even a massive beat wasn’t enough to justify a further move.
China uncertainty. NVIDIA is not assuming any Data Center compute revenue from China in its outlook. The geopolitical overhang remains real.
Supply constraints. Gaming supply will be a headwind in Q1 and beyond, and even the insatiable data center demand is being constrained by power availability and chip supply.
🎯 The Bottom Line
NVIDIA’s Q4 was a masterclass in execution. $68.1 billion in revenue, $43 billion in net income, 75% gross margins, and a guidance number ($78B) that would have been unthinkable two years ago. The Blackwell ramp is working, the networking business is exploding, and the agentic AI inflection is creating what Jensen calls an “extreme urgency to scale up compute.”
The stock dip? A gift for long-term investors, or the first sign that even NVIDIA can’t outrun its own expectations forever. Either way, this is the most important company in tech right now, and these numbers prove it.
Until next time,
Wisdom of the Whales