Nvidia reports third-quarter earnings after the bell

Nvidia, the leading manufacturer of artificial intelligence chips, is poised to announce its fiscal third-quarter earnings this Wednesday, right after the market closes. Wall Street analysts, guided by LSEG consensus estimates, anticipate the company will report earnings of $1.43 per share on revenue of approximately $61.66 billion. As Nvidia typically provides revenue guidance for only one quarter ahead, all eyes will be on CEO Jensen Huang’s comments regarding the company’s sales backlog and future outlook. Given Nvidia's pivotal role in the ongoing AI surge, he is expected to have significant updates to share. The company serves a diverse clientele, including every major cloud provider and AI research lab, all of which rely on Nvidia chips to build next-generation AI models. In a notable development last month, Huang revealed that Nvidia has secured $500 billion in chip orders for 2025 and 2026, with the upcoming Rubin chip set to begin mass shipping next year. Analysts will be eager to hear Nvidia's perspective on the future of AI infrastructure, especially since all five leading AI model developers in the U.S. utilize Nvidia technology. For fiscal 2027, starting in early 2026, analysts expect a substantial 39% increase in Nvidia's sales. Investors will be keen to learn more about the company's recent equity partnerships, which include investments in OpenAI, collaborations with Nokia, and a stake in former competitor Intel. Nvidia has been active in the investment arena, recently committing $10 billion to AI firm Anthropic. Furthermore, Nvidia's management will likely address its operations in China and the potential for obtaining U.S. government licenses to export its latest generation Blackwell AI chips to the region. Analysts suggest that such an approval could potentially add up to $50 billion annually to Nvidia's sales, should it be allowed to sell its current-generation chips to Chinese enterprises.