Nvidia said revenue rose 61 percent to $5 billion in the quarter ended on January 31 from $3.11 billion a year earlier due to strong demand for its graphics chips used in gaming PCs and artificial intelligence chips for data centers.
While Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia was long known for its gaming graphic chips, its push into artificial intelligence (AI) chips that handle tasks such as speech and image recognition in data centers has helped it become the most valuable semiconductor maker by market capitalization.
Nvidia has eclipsed rivals Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
Nvidia chief financial officer Colette Kress said that the global chip supply crunch had constrained supplies.
“Throughout our supply chain, stronger demand globally has limited the availability of capacity and components, particularly in gaming,” Kress said.
The company expects first-quarter revenue of $5.30 billion, plus or minus 2 percent, above analysts’ average estimate of $4.51 billion.
Nvidia revenue details
Revenue for the fourth quarter was a record $5.00 billion, up 61 percent from a year earlier and up 6 percent sequentially. Full-year revenue was a record $16.68 billion, up 53 percent.
Its Gaming and Data Center market platforms have benefited from stronger demand as people continue to work, learn, and play from home.
In Automotive, COVID is no longer having a significant impact on demand. Throughout its supply chain, stronger demand globally has limited the availability of capacity and components, particularly in Gaming.
Gaming revenue for the fourth quarter rose 67 percent from a year ago and up 10 percent sequentially to $2,495 million. Full-year revenue was up 41 percent. The increases reflect higher sales across desktop and laptop GPUs for gaming, and game-console SOCs. GPUs for gaming benefited from the ramp of our GeForce RTXTM 30 Series based on the NVIDIA Ampere architecture. The sequential increase from desktop and laptop GPUs for gaming was partially offset by a decrease in gameconsole SOCs.
Professional Visualization revenue for the fourth quarter fell 7 percent from a year earlier and up 30 percent sequentially to $307 million. Full-year revenue was down 13 percent. The year-on-year decreases were due to lower sales of GPUs for desktop workstations as enterprise demand was impacted by COVID. The sequential growth reflects an increase in sales of GPUs for both desktop and mobile workstations.
Data Center revenue for the fourth quarter increased 97 percent from a year ago and comparable to last quarter to $ 1,903 million. Full-year revenue was up 124 percent. The year-on-year revenue growth was driven by the Mellanox acquisition and the ramp of the NVIDIA Ampere GPU architecture.
In fiscal 2021, Mellanox revenue contributed 10 percent of total company revenue. Sequentially, double-digit growth in Data Center compute products was offset by the anticipated decline in Mellanox revenue.
Automotive revenue for the fourth quarter dropped 11 percent from a year earlier and up 16 percent sequentially to $145 million. Full-year revenue was down 23 percent. The year-on-year decreases reflect lower revenue from the expected ramp down of legacy infotainment modules and autonomous driving development agreements, partially offset by increases in AI cockpit and autonomous vehicle solutions. The sequential increase reflects higher sales of AI cockpit solutions, autonomous vehicle solutions, and recovery in legacy infotainment modules.
OEM and Other revenue for the fourth quarter was up 1 percent from a year ago and down 21 percent sequentially to $153 million. Full-year revenue was up 25 percent. The sequential decline was primarily due to lower volume of entry-level laptop GPUs. The increase for the full year was primarily due to higher volume of entry-level laptop GPUs.
