Nvidia's record $96 billion quarter, explained

Nvidia, the company that makes most of the chips powering today's AI boom, has just posted its biggest quarter yet. The numbers show that demand for AI computing power is still climbing sharply, even as costs for the hardware that runs it are rising too.

Nvidia reported results for the quarter ending 26 July 2026 on 26 August. Revenue hit $96.2 billion, up 18% from the previous quarter and 106% from the same period a year earlier, when it made $46.7 billion. That beat what analysts expected by about 4.5%.

Most of that money, $89.0 billion, came from data-centre sales — the chips bought by cloud companies and AI labs to train and run large AI models. That figure was up 117% from a year ago.

The company's profit margins stayed high too: a 75.0% gross margin, meaning it keeps 75 cents of every dollar in sales after production costs. Net income was $59.7 billion, and earnings per share came in at $2.22 on an adjusted basis, ahead of the $2.09 analysts had forecast. It was Nvidia's fifth straight quarter of beating expectations.

Nvidia returned about $26.0 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, and still has roughly $99.0 billion left under its buyback plan. It will pay a dividend of $0.25 per share on 1 October. Its debt, though, has grown noticeably, from $8.5 billion in January to $33.4 billion now.

Looking ahead, Nvidia expects $108.0 billion in revenue next quarter, plus or minus 2%. That forecast assumes zero data-centre chip sales to China, according to Nvidia's results announcement.

If you use AI tools, this is a sign the companies behind them are still buying computing power as fast as Nvidia can supply it — which is part of why running advanced AI remains expensive. Days before these results, customers were warned that server prices will rise by more than 15% because of memory costs, a cost that can eventually feed into what AI services charge.

Nvidia is also backing up to $105 billion in financing for OpenAI's new data centre in Ohio, a sign of how deeply the chip maker is now tied into the AI companies that depend on it.

Nvidia's own forecast for the next quarter — $108 billion — will be the next marker to watch, along with whether the China sales restriction built into that guidance changes. Rising server costs, flagged just before these results, may also start showing up in what AI companies charge their customers.