By Daniel Sparks
Publication Date: 2026-05-23 02:07:00
Nvidia (NVDA 1.86%) reported its fiscal first-quarter results on Wednesday, and the headline numbers were the kind most companies can only dream about. The AI chipmaker beat consensus estimates on the top and bottom lines as well as on its outlook for the coming quarter. Management also unveiled an additional $80 billion share repurchase authorization and raised the quarterly dividend 25-fold to $0.25 per share.
And yet, shares fell almost 2% on Thursday.
Surprisingly, this is now the fourth quarter in a row that Nvidia stock has slipped after a beat-and-raise quarter. The disconnect may have less to do with the report itself and more to do with just how much strength is already baked into the share price. Going into the release, Nvidia had climbed about 20% off its February low, with shares hitting an all-time closing high of $235.74 on May 14 — less than a week before the report.
Image source: Getty Images.
Growth that’s still accelerating
Nvidia’s first-quarter revenue surged to a record $81.6 billion — up 85% year over year and up 20% sequentially. While this is impressive, the trajectory of Nvidia’s revenue growth rates over recent quarters arguably tells the story even better: quarterly revenue has climbed from $46.7 billion to $57.0 billion to $68.1 billion to $81.6 billion over the past four quarters, with each sequential dollar increase bigger than the last.
Data center revenue remained the main driver of the business’s growth. The segment hit $75.2 billion,…