Nvidia Tops $44 B in Q1 Sales but China Curbs Trim Profit Growth to 33%

Nvidia has done it again: first-quarter revenue hit $44.1 billion, a 69 percent leap that outpaced Wall Street’s lofty target and set yet another sales record for the chip-maker powering today’s AI frenzy. Net income clocked in at $19.9 billion, or $0.83 per diluted share, beating forecasts but growing “only” 33 percent year-over-year—miles below the 70-plus percent explosions investors now treat as routine. The culprit? A one-time $4.5 billion charge tied to Washington’s ban on shipping H20 accelerators to China, a country worth $50 billion in potential annual sales for Nvidia.

Even with that speed bump, gross margin landed at 61 percent (its softest showing since 2022), and executives insist the metric will rebound toward 75 percent by December as fresh data-center deals ramp. CFO commentary hinted at an $8 billion revenue dent next quarter from remaining export limits, yet after-hours traders barely blinked—shares popped 3 percent to about $138, keeping Nvidia’s market cap just shy of Microsoft’s at $3.3 trillion. CEO Jensen Huang told analysts the company will “work with every customer we legally can” while racing out newer, regulation-proof AI GPUs.

Context matters: Nvidia still controls roughly three-quarters of the global AI accelerator market, and its stock has soared 700 percent since ChatGPT’s 2022 debut. Cloud giants, carmakers, and start-ups alike are clamoring for its silicon, and Huang says backlog remains “multi-years deep.” So yes, geopolitical headwinds shaved the quarter’s sheen, but in the broader AI land-rush Nvidia remains the hardware king—just one juggling super-charged demand, fussy regulators, and a valuation now larger than Walmart, JPMorgan, Berkshire, and Coca-Cola combined.