Nvidia’s Q2 earnings to test resurgent AI trade

It’s nearly here. The moment Wall Street waits for every quarter since the AI trade kicked off: Nvidia’s (NVDA) second quarter earnings.

Yes, while its Big Tech peers reported their results nearly a month ago, Nvidia is finally giving us the lowdown on its latest quarter.

The announcement also comes as chip stocks more broadly struggle to hang on to gains over the last month following July’s steep declines over fresh fears about whether companies will see returns on their vast AI investments.

Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) helped allay at least some of those fears thanks to strong growth numbers in their respective cloud businesses, though Google, along with Meta, spooked investors on increased spending.

For the quarter, Nvidia is expected to report second quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.09 on revenue of $92 billion, according to Bloomberg analyst consensus estimates. That would mark a 96% year-over-year jump in overall revenue, and a continued quarter-over-quarter acceleration.

Nvidia updated its reporting framework last quarter, breaking down Data Center revenue into sales between Hyperscalers and AI Clouds, Industrial, and Enterprise (ACIE).

The company’s PC, game console, workstation, robotics, and automotive revenue is now nested within the company’s Edge Computing segment.

Data Center revenue is anticipated to top $85.4 billion, up 107%. Hyperscaler revenue is expected to reach $43.5 billion, while ACIE sales are projected to reach $41.7 billion.

Nvidia continues to derive the majority of its revenue from hyperscalers such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. But each of those companies either builds its own chips to reduce its dependence on Nvidia or sells them to third-party customers, creating a potential headwind for the company in the future.

Nvidia also continues to ink deals with companies across the AI ecosystem.

Earlier this month, the AI leader announced it is working with BlackRock, Blackstone, KKR, Apollo, Brookfield, and Goldman Sachs to establish a $500 billion pool of capital in a move that would securitize Nvidia’s GPUs. (Disclosure: Yahoo is a portfolio company of funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management.)

The company also said it’s backing SB Energy and OpenAI’s efforts to build a massive 8-gigawatt data center in Ohio with up to $150 billion.