🚀 Nvidia shares rose on better-than-expected earnings

Market Overview
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Year To Date Performances:

1. Nvidia shares jumped after the company delivered stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings and issued an even more bullish revenue forecast, underscoring the strength of the AI boom that has made it the world’s most valuable public company. The chipmaker posted $57 billion in revenue and $1.30 per share in adjusted earnings, both above estimates, and said it expects roughly $65 billion in sales next quarter, driven by insatiable demand for its data-center GPUs, especially its Blackwell Ultra line. Nvidia reported $51.2 billion in data-center revenue alone — a 66% year-over-year surge — fueled by major cloud providers loading up on compute chips as they boost AI spending beyond $380 billion this year. CEO Jensen Huang dismissed bubble concerns, saying “cloud GPUs are sold out” and noting Nvidia has $500 billion in chip orders for 2025–26, even as China sales remain constrained by export rules and rising local competition. The company also saw growth across gaming, pro-visualization, and robotics, and returned $12.7 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.

2. Block’s stock surged 9% after the company issued a bullish three-year outlook projecting mid-teens annual gross profit growth through 2028, reaching nearly $16 billion, alongside about 30% yearly gains in adjusted operating income and EPS. The upbeat forecast, delivered at Block’s first investor day since 2022, comes after a year of investor skepticism and six straight quarters of revenue misses, but executives said the company is entering a new “execution” phase driven by Cash App expansion, AI tools for sellers, and a unified technical roadmap. CFO Amrita Ahuja highlighted that Block has nearly doubled gross profit and more than tripled EBITDA since its last investor day, and introduced a new cash-flow metric tied to lending products expected to reach over $4 billion by 2028. Block also expanded its share repurchase plan by $5 billion, signalling confidence amid a stock that had fallen more than 30% this year. CEO Jack Dorsey made a rare public appearance at the event, reinforcing the company’s push to reassert its long-term vision.

3. Palo Alto Networks beat Wall Street’s first-quarter expectations with slight earnings and revenue outperformance. Still, its shares slipped after hours as the company announced a $3.35 billion deal to acquire cloud-observability platform Chronosphere—its second major purchase this year, alongside the pending $25 billion CyberArk acquisition. Revenue rose 16% to $2.47 billion, though net income edged down, and CEO Nikesh Arora said the dual acquisitions are designed to keep pace with the rapid shift in AI infrastructure and security needs. The company issued largely in-line guidance for the next quarter and full year, while noting higher-than-expected capital expenditures and a backlog that climbed to $15.5 billion. Palo Alto said AI is both accelerating cyber threats and powering new defensive tools, underscoring the urgency behind its expanding platform strategy.

   Headlines

   1. xAI will be Nvidia’s first customer at its Saudi Arabia data center.

   2. MLB has signed a new rights deal with ESPN, NBC and Netflix.