Artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia on Wednesday announced another quarter of astounding quarterly growth as investors try to decipher whether technology\u2019s latest craze is overblown hyperbole or a springboard into a new era of prosperity and productivity.<\/p>\n
The results for the November-January period blew past the analyst projections that shape investors\u2019 perceptions, as has been the case since Nvidia\u2019s high-end chips emerged as AI\u2019s best building blocks three years ago.<\/p>\n
Nvidia\u2019s fiscal fourth-quarter surged 73% from the previous year to $68.1 billion while its profit nearly doubled to roughly $43 billion, or $1.76 per share.<\/p>\n
The Santa Clara, California, company also provided a forecast exceeding analyst projections while its CEO Jensen Huang reinforced the demand for the company\u2019s chips is still \u201cskyrocketing.\u201d That description feeds into Huang\u2019s thesis that the AI boom is still in the early stages of a buildout that will reshape society. If Nvidia hits its revenue target for the February-April period, it will translate into a 77% increase from last year \u2014 a sign that the company\u2019s already phenomenal growth rate is still accelerating.<\/p>\n
Nvidia\u2019s stock price rose by more than 2% in extended trading after the report came out.<\/p>\n
The chipmaker has regularly cleared the bar set by analysts in the past three years, often by a wide margin, but that hasn\u2019t always been enough to satisfy investors who have become increasingly skeptical about whether AI will live up to all the hype surrounding the technology. <\/p>\n