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Nvidia Corp.’s stock rallied Monday but closed short of a record high after the chip maker’s annual conference kicked off with a rosy revenue outlook and product announcements.
Nvidia’s
NVDA,
stock surged to an intraday high of $614.10, but ended up closing 5.6% higher on the session at $608.36, short of its all-time closing high of $613.21 set on Feb. 16.
Nvidia shares gained after Chief Executive Jensen Huang announced at its annual GTC developers conference Monday morning that the chip maker was launching its first data-center central processing unit, or CPU — as opposed to its core graphics processing unit, or GPU, product — based on Arm Holdings PLC technology, upping its competition against rivals Intel Corp.
INTC,
and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
AMD,
Don’t miss: Nvidia steps up competition with Intel and AMD with first data-center CPU, based on Arm
Gains accelerated later in the day, after the company revealed that fiscal first quarter revenue is tracking above its $5.3 billion forecast. In late February, Nvidia had forecast revenue between $5.19 billion and $5.41 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect $5.32 billion. Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said that revenue was “tracking above the $5.30 billion outlook provided during our fiscal year-end earnings call,” but did not provide a specific new target.
“Within Data Center we have good visibility, and we expect another strong year. Industries are increasingly using AI to improve their products and services,” Kress said in a statement. “We expect this will lead to increased consumption of our platform through cloud service providers, resulting in more purchases as we go through the year. “
Nvidia also said it expects first quarter revenue of $150 million for its cryptocurrency mining chips, up from a previously expected $50 million.
Most of the chip sector was trading lower Monday, as the PHLX Semiconductor Index
SOX,
down 1.1% as the S&P 500 index
SPX,
declined less than 0.1%. Over the past 12 months, Nvidia stock is up 131%, while the SOX index is up 103% and the S&P 500 is up 48%.
