Nvidia looks set to dominate another Big Tech earnings season

We're in for another wild tech earnings season, and you can bet AI will be taking center stage. And if there's one company everyone is keeping an eye on, it's Nvidia (NVDA).

Shares of the chip giant have risen more than 16% in the last month, and the stock is currently on track to overtake Apple as the largest publicly traded company by market capitalization.

The jump comes after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said demand for the company's upcoming Blackwell chip was “insane” in an Oct. 3 interview with CNBC. Since then, Nvidia shares have risen about 18%, reaching a high of $130. But reports that the Biden administration will set a cap on the number of AI chips that can be shipped to certain countries put the rally on hold on Tuesday before gaining some ground on Wednesday.

Nvidia's incredible stock performance and meteoric rise in data center sales over the last year have put the company in a difficult position for its upcoming earnings release, which has not yet been officially scheduled.

In the third quarter of fiscal 2024, the company's total revenue increased 206% to $18.1 billion, while data center revenue rose a whopping 279% to $14.5 billion. Even if Nvidia does not expect a decline in sales, growth is likely to slow compared to the same period last year, which could unsettle investors.

Don't you believe me? Just look at what happened after the company reported its second-quarter results in August. While the company outperformed on sales and earnings per share, and data center revenue rose 154% year-over-year to $26.3 billion, Nvidia shares still fell more than 6% immediately after the announcement. It took more than a month for the company's stock price to recover.

Even AI trading hasn't brought all ships to life. Shares of Broadcom (AVGO) have risen 59% year to date, outperforming the broader S&P 500 (GSPC), which has gained 21%. Qualcomm (QCOM) rose 19% and AMD (AMD) only increased its stock price by 6%. Intel (INTC), meanwhile, fell a staggering 55%.

Broadcom benefits from its involvement in AI infrastructure, connecting servers and the like, while Qualcomm is seen as a potential beneficiary of on-device AI growth via AI smartphones and AI PCs. AMD competes against Nvidia and acts as an alternative in terms of both price and availability.

Then there's Intel, which is struggling with its massive turnaround effort, which includes expanding its third-party chip manufacturing capabilities and trying to catch up with Nvidia and AMD in the AI ​​processor space.

But Nvidia is still the undisputed star of the show this earnings season. To get a sense, investors will look for signs of continued AI spending from hyperscalers like Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Meta (META), and Amazon (AMZN), which account for a large portion of AI sales determine how well Nvidia chips sell.

The story continues

They'll also look at how other chip companies performed this quarter ahead of Nvidia's announcement, which tends to be much later in the earnings cycle than its competitors.

Wall Street will also be looking for information about Nvidia's Blackwell launch and whether the company is facing supply shortages, as it did with its Hopper chips. Either way, it's going to be a wild few weeks. Buckle up.

Email Daniel Howley at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.

Click here to get the latest earnings reports and analysis, earnings information and expectations, and company earnings news

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance.