Nvidia shares pass $1,000 for first time on AI-driven sales surge

Nvidia shares topped $1,000 for the first time in extended trading on Wednesday after the chipmaker reported fiscal first-quarter results that topped analyst estimates.

Nvidia's quarterly earnings report has become a way for investors to gauge the strength of the AI boom that has transfixed markets in recent months. Its strong results on Wednesday suggest that demand for the AI chips Nvidia makes remains robust, and CEO Jensen Huang said the company would see revenue from its next-generation AI chip, called Blackwell, later this year.

The stock rose 7% in extended trading. Nvidia also said it was splitting its stock 10 to 1. Based on the after-market move, the shares are poised to reach a fresh high on Thursday.

Nvidia said it expected sales of $28 billion in the current quarter. Wall Street was anticipating earnings per share of $5.95 on sales of $26.61 billion, according to LSEG. 

The chipmaker reported net income for the quarter ended April 28 of $14.88 billion, or $5.98 per share, compared with $2.04 billion, or 82 cents, in the year-earlier period. 

In the past year, Nvidia sales have skyrocketed as companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and OpenAI buy billions of dollars of Nvidia's graphics processing units, which are advanced and pricey chips required for developing and deploying artificial intelligence applications. 

The company's largest and most important business is its data center sales, which includes its AI chips as well as many of the additional parts needed to run big AI servers. 

Nvidia said its data center category rose 427% from the year-ago quarter to $22.6 billion in revenue. Nvidia finance chief Colette Kress said in a statement that it was due to shipments of the company's Hopper graphics