By Chavi Mehta and Stephen Nellis
(Reuters) -Nvidia Corp on Wednesday forecast second-quarter revenue more than 50% above Wall Street estimates, with the company saying it is boosting supply to meet surging demand for its artificial-intelligence chips, which are used to power ChatGPT and many similar services.
Shares of Nvidia, the world's most valuable listed semiconductor company, rocketed as much as 28% after the bell to trade at $391.50, their highest level ever. That increased its stock market value by about $200 billion to over $950 billion, extending the Silicon Valley company's lead as the world's most valuable chipmaker and Wall Street's fifth-most valuable company.
The artificial-intelligence boom has helped Nvidia become the fifth-most valuable U.S. company by market value.
Nvidia has strained to meet demand for its AI chips, with Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, who is reportedly building out an artificial-intelligence startup, earlier this week telling an interviewer that the graphics processing units (GPUs) are "considerably harder to get than drugs."
But Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang on Wednesday said in a statement that the company is "significantly increasing our supply to meet surging demand" for its data center chips.
Analysts believe Nvidia reallocated some supply-chain capacity away from the slumping PC gaming market to its data center AI chips. Its PC gaming chips sell for as much as $1,500 while its AI chips fetch more than ten times that at about $20,000 each.
Nvidia forecast current-quarter revenue of $11 billion, plus or minus 2%. Analysts polled by Refinitiv are expecting revenue of $7.15 billion.
"Given the generative AI gold rush taking place, this should fuel demand for Nvidia's chips for the remainder of the year," said Edward Jones analyst Logan Purk.
Nvidia did not provide a full-year forecast on Wednesday, but Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said the company had procured "substantially higher supply" for the second half of the year.
Adjusted revenue for the quarter ended April 30 was $7.19 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv were expecting revenue of $6.52 billion. The company's data center chip sales hit $4.28 billion, beating analyst estimates of $3.89 billion, according to segment data from FactSet.
Gaming chip revenue beat Wall Street expectations at $2.24 billion versus estimates of $1.97 billion, according to FactSet data.
Net income rose to $2.04 billion, or 82 cents per share, from $1.62 billion, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned $1.09 per share in the first quarter, beating estimates of 92 cents.
(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru, Stephen Nellis in San Francisco and Jane Lanhee Lee and Noel Randewich in Oakland, CaliforniaEditing by Sayantani Ghosh and Matthew Lewis)
