After waiting with bated breath, Wall Street absorbs Nvidia's latest earnings

Rarely has a single company's earnings report been so closely watched by Wall Street as a make-or-break moment for the broader market.

Rarely has a single company's earnings report been so closely watched by Wall Street as a make-or-break moment for the broader market.

Nvidia, the chipmaker whose central role in the global artificial intelligence arms race has turned it into one of the world's most valuable companies, reported its much-anticipated quarterly results Wednesday. It posted $39.3 billion in revenue, up a hefty 78% for the quarter that ended in January and ahead of analysts' expectations.

But for many investors and analysts, the wildly profitable company's financials reveal more than just the state of Nvidia's own operations. And many are likely to take notice of the chipmaker's forward-looking statements Wednesday, which signaled slowing profit-margin growth.

The chip giant's importance is due to two major factors: its sizable valuation (meaning that its stock price can weigh heavily on the market as a whole, including the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average) and its role in the AI sector (which now factors heavily into broader U.S. economic growth).

Ahead of the earnings, Dan Ives, a managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities, said it would be a "massive day" for global markets looking to "gauge the demand trajectory of the AI Revolution." Among X's more finance- and tech-focused crowd, the earnings had caused enough anticipation to spark some tongue-in-cheek jokes.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/nvidia-earnings-relief-ai-rcna193903

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