Nvidia’s upcoming financial report, set to be released on Wednesday, will draw attention to the performance of its artificial intelligence chip, Blackwell. Analysts are particularly focused on future demand, especially following claims by a Chinese startup that it can train AI models with significantly fewer resources.
Wall Street analysts predict that Nvidia will report adjusted earnings of 85 cents per share for the fourth quarter, with revenue reaching $38.08 billion. The company’s net income is expected to be $19.58 billion.
Nvidia’s performance is significant for the broader U.S. stock market, as the company has become the second-largest on Wall Street. As a result, its stock movements influence the S&P 500 and other indexes, second only to Apple. Based in Santa Clara, California, Nvidia is now valued at over $3 trillion.
Nvidia, along with other companies capitalizing on the AI boom, has played a key role in driving the S&P 500 to new record highs, including the most recent surge last week. The surge in their profits has helped support the market, even amid concerns about persistent inflation and potential economic challenges stemming from tariffs and other policies under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Nvidia was responsible for over 20% of the total return of the S&P 500 index last year, far outpacing the other 499 companies in the index. If Nvidia struggles to maintain its growth, especially with critics arguing that its stock price has surged too quickly, it could negatively impact Americans holding S&P 500 index funds in their 401(k) and other investment portfolios.
The company’s upcoming fourth-quarter earnings report will be its first since Chinese firm DeepSeek claimed to have developed a large language model that could rival ChatGPT and other U.S.-based competitors. DeepSeek also highlighted its ability to use Nvidia chips more cost-effectively for training the model on vast datasets.
The excitement surrounding DeepSeek caused Nvidia’s market value to temporarily drop by $595 billion. However, Nvidia responded by praising DeepSeek’s achievements, calling it “an excellent AI advancement” that utilized “widely-available models and compute that is fully export control compliant.”
Nvidia has long been a leader in the AI space, largely due to CEO Jensen Huang’s early investment in the chip technology that powers the industry. This isn’t the first time the company has made bold moves—its creation of the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999 played a crucial role in the rise of the PC gaming industry and revolutionized computer graphics.
Nvidia is set to release its quarterly earnings after market close on Wednesday.