MarketsMay 20, 2026
Nvidia Beats Expectations, but Wall Street Is Losing Its Awe
Semiconductor Outlook
Rhea Lobo
Turns out even the king of AI chips can’t dodge a buzzkill. Nvidia crushed its fiscal Q1, posting $81.62B in revenue and adjusted EPS of $1.87, both ahead of Wall Street expectations. But while its forecast for next quarter topped consensus, it came in below the market’s loftier bullish hopes, sending shares down about 3% after hours.
- Net income more than doubled to $42.96B from $18.8B a year ago, as Nvidia also added another $80B to its buyback program.
- Data center revenue surged to $73.1B and now makes up about 90% of Nvidia’s business, powered by the AI spending boom.
The heat builds: Competition is finally nipping at Nvidia’s heels. AMD is rolling out its Helios rack-scale system, Broadcom and Alphabet are pushing custom silicon, and Cerebras just pulled off a major IPO. Jensen Huang called AI “the largest infrastructure expansion in human history,” but with Nvidia trailing many chip peers this year, Wall Street is getting harder to wow.
