“Demand has gone parabolic,” he said. The reason, in his telling, was simple: agentic AI — systems that can reason, plan, and carry out tasks on their own rather than just answer a prompt — had finally arrived and started doing real work.<\/p>\n
It’s a loaded word. A parabolic curve doesn’t just rise; it bends more steeply as it climbs. And paired with what Nvidia actually reported, “parabolic” may end up being one of the more consequential descriptions of the AI cycle this year.<\/p>\n
The question it leaves hanging is the one investors keep circling back to: are we near the top of this build-out, or in the middle?<\/p>\n
Based on Huang’s description, as well as Nvidia’s continued business acceleration, there’s probably still plenty of room to run.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7c2715d3fa54e6c9d977cdb95373f21e.jpeg\")
Image source: Getty Images. A quarter that backs up the word <\/p>\n
The numbers gave Huang’s word some teeth.<\/p>\n
Revenue in Nvidia’s fiscal first quarter of 2027 (the period ended April 26, 2026) reached $81.6 billion, up 85% from a year earlier. That figure matters less in isolation than in motion: revenue growth had decelerated for much of the prior year, then turned and accelerated again. Growth came in at 73% in the prior quarter and 85% in the most recent one.<\/p>\n
The main driver, of course, remains Nvidia’s AI-driven data center business, where revenue climbed 92% year over year to $75.2 billion — itself an acceleration from 75% growth in the prior quarter.<\/p>\n
Profit growth truly was parabolic. The chipmaker’s non-GAAP (adjusted)<\/a> earnings per share rose 140% year over year to $1.87, helped by both soaring revenue growth and year-over-year gross margin<\/a> expansion.<\/p>\n Then there was Nvidia’s capital return, which marked an aggressive step up. Nvidia raised its quarterly dividend from a token $0.01 per share to $0.25 — a 25-fold increase — and authorized another $80 billion in share repurchases on top of the roughly $39 billion it had left. Indeed, the company returned about $20 billion to shareholders during the quarter alone, against free cash flow that approached $49 billion.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n The bet behind the buyback <\/p>\n And this parabolic momentum looks like it’s going to continue.<\/p>\n Management reiterated its view that Blackwell and the coming Vera Rubin platform together represent about $1 trillion in revenue visibility from 2025 through calendar 2027. To meet it, Nvidia is committing enormous sums ahead of the orders: total supply commitments, including inventory and prepaid purchases, swelled to about $145 billion, and inventory alone rose to $25.8 billion from $21.4 billion in just three months.<\/p>\n Additionally, chief financial officer Colette Kress added a smaller but telling detail on the call: the rental price of an older H100 chip in the cloud has risen about 20% so far this year.<\/p>\n Given this backdrop, it may not be surprising to hear that Nvidia’s guidance calls for revenue in the current quarter to rise about 95% year over year — and this assumes no data center compute revenue from China at all.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Nvidia has front-loaded tens of billions in commitments on the conviction that this looks much more like the middle of the build-out, not a peak. If that read is right, today’s price — with shares near $217 as of this writing, off an all-time high set earlier in May, and trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of about 33 — may look reasonable in hindsight.<\/p>\n But there are risks. If hyperscalers digest their spending and pull back just as that supply lands, the curve could bend the other way. Additionally, some of Nvidia’s biggest customers have their own ambitious custom silicon programs, designed specifically to address AI needs. If these programs gain significant momentum, it could threaten Nvidia’s dominance.<\/p>\n Should you buy stock in Nvidia right now? <\/p>\n Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:<\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Nvidia wasn\u2019t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you\u2019d have $463,900!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you\u2019d have $1,294,401!*<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor\u2019s total average return is 978% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 211% for the S&P 500.\u00a0Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.<\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of May 30, 2026. <\/p>\n Daniel Sparks<\/a> and his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n