Thursday, February 23, 2023

NVIDIA Reports, Talks About Artificial Intelligence, Stock Jumps (NVDA)

The stock is up $28.60 (+13.78%) at $236.14, pushing the company's market cap back toward $600 billion i.e. it's a big move. 

One thing to keep in mind, NVDA has been in AI for years and the hype occasioned by ChatGPT is actually old news. Some links* below

First up, from Reuters, February 23, 1:00 pm UTC:

Nvidia results show its growing lead in AI chip race

As the artificial intelligence boom takes off, Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) is expected to emerge as the biggest - though not the only - winner among chipmakers after years of focusing on the technology has made it a go-to supplier for tech firms.

AI has emerged as a bright spot for investments in the tech industry, whose slowing growth has led to widespread layoffs and a cutback on experimental bets.

The surge in interest helped Nvidia report better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday and forecast sales above beat Wall Street expectations, in stark contrast to a projected loss and dividend cut from rival Intel Corp (INTC.O).

Nvidia shares rose nearly 8% in trading before the bell on Thursday. They have jumped more than 40% since the turn of the year, nearly three times the gain in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (.SOX).

It now has a market value of more than $500 billion, about five times that of Intel, and is the seventh-largest publicly traded U.S. firm. The key to the company's success is that it controls about 80% of the market for graphic processing units (GPUs), which are specialized chips that provide the kind of computing power required for services such as Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI's wildly popular ChatGPT chatbot.

SPECIALIZED CHIPS

Graphics processing units are designed to handle the specific kind of math involved in AI computing very efficiently, while generic central processing units (CPUs) from Intel can handle a broader range of computing tasks with less efficiency.

AI is taking over the tech industry and, according to research firm Gartner, the share of specialized chips such as GPUs that are used in data centers is expected to rise to more than 15% by 2026 from less than 3% in 2020....

....MUCH MORE

From the company: 

NVIDIA Announces Financial Results for Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2023

Wednesday, February 22, 2023
  • Quarterly revenue of $6.05 billion, down 21% from a year ago
  • Fiscal-year revenue of $27.0 billion, flat from a year ago
  • Quarterly and annual return to shareholders of $1.15 billion and $10.44 billion, respectively

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today reported revenue for the fourth quarter ended January 29, 2023, of $6.05 billion, down 21% from a year ago and up 2% from the previous quarter.

GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $0.57, down 52% from a year ago and up 111% from the previous quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.88, down 33% from a year ago and up 52% from the previous quarter.

For fiscal 2023, revenue was $26.97 billion, flat from a year ago. GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.74, down 55% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $3.34, down 25% from a year ago.

"AI is at an inflection point, setting up for broad adoption reaching into every industry,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “From startups to major enterprises, we are seeing accelerated interest in the versatility and capabilities of generative AI....

....MUCH MORE

And via Motley Fool, February 22:
Nvidia (NVDA) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
*A couple of our posts from 2020:
"AI chips in 2020: Nvidia and the challengers"

Investor's Business Daily on Artificial Intelligence Stocks
There is a definitional problem with the term "AI stocks [or companies]" in that AI is a tool. Much as the (over) hyped nanotechnology revolution didn't produce "nanotech stocks" but instead became incorporated into processes and procedures that give companies employing same an incremental edge rather than epochal shifts.*

However, if there is an AI "company" Nvidia would deserve the moniker as much as anyone.

And 2019:
Watch Out NVIDIA: "Amazon, Huawei efforts show move to AI-centric chips continues"

This move toward specialized chips is something the cognoscenti have been talking about for a few years, see after the jump if interested.
Tiernan Ray, formerly the head scribe at Barron's Tech Trader Daily goes deep.

And 2018:

This is a pretty big deal.
High Performance Computing has been a separate and distinct class of machines since the University of Manchester's Atlas computer went online in 1962.
And now NVIDIA is blurring the line in a few different ways.

And a hundred more. I mean the blog is a damn primer on AI and NVDA:

I mean, back in 2013-14 it was all about training the AI (and it still is, hence NVDA chips):

"Why Is Machine Learning (CS 229) The Most Popular Course At Stanford?"
Deep Learning is VC Worthy

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