Bitcoin miners tied to AI rise as Nvidia posts big earnings beat and strong outlook
Nvidia’s stronger-than-expected results and bullish AI outlook lifted crypto mining stocks tied to data center and high-performance computing demand, even as the chipmaker’s shares fell due to growth concerns.
What to know:
- Nvidia reported first-quarter revenue of $81.62 billion, up 85 percent from a year earlier and above Wall Street expectations, as AI infrastructure demand continued to surge.
- Data Center now accounts for more than 90 percent of Nvidia’s revenue, prompting the company to reorganize its reporting into two segments: Data Center and Edge Computing.
- Nvidia forecast roughly $91 billion in revenue for the current quarter, announced an $80 billion stock buyback and a sharply higher dividend, and said its outlook excludes any Data Center compute revenue from China.
Meanwhile, the company also moved to return more cash to shareholders. Nvidia’s board authorized an additional $80 billion in stock buybacks and raised the quarterly dividend to 25 cents per share from 1 cent previously.
However, despite the beats, positive outlook and shareholder returns, the stock was down about 1.5% at the time of publication. Investors were likely looking beyond the quarter and into the potential challenges in growth opportunities for Nvidia as competition for AI chips continued to grow.
Bitcoin miners with exposure to AI and high-performance computing infrastructure traded modestly higher following Nvidia’s earnings report. Shares of Core Scientific (CORZ) and Cipher Mining (CIFR) each rose slightly in after-hours trading as investors continued to view some miners as potential beneficiaries of growing demand for data centers, power capacity and AI computing infrastructure. IREN (IREN), which rose initially, is down about a percent.
