Nvidia rides AI wave to record $14 billion profit, announces yearly chip releases

Nvidia, the leading manufacturer of graphics processing units (GPUs), announced a staggering $14 billion profit for its recent quarter, largely fueled by the surging demand for its AI-powering chips. In a move signalling its intent to dominate the burgeoning AI landscape, CEO Jensen Huang revealed the company would transition to releasing new chip architectures annually, a significant acceleration from its previous two-year cycle.

Speaking during the Q1 2025 earnings call, Huang declared, "We're on a one-year rhythm," confirming industry speculation that the successor to the current Blackwell architecture, codenamed "Rubin," is on track for a 2025 release. This would translate to the arrival of the highly anticipated R100 AI GPU within the year.

This accelerated release cadence extends beyond just AI-focused chips, encompassing Nvidia's entire product portfolio. "We're going to take them all forward at a very fast clip," Huang affirmed. "New CPUs, new GPUs, new networking NICs, new switches... a mountain of chips are coming."

This aggressive strategy comes as Nvidia enjoys unprecedented demand for its H100 AI GPUs, driven by the rapid adoption of generative AI technologies across industries. Customers are clamouring to secure these powerful chips, with some placing orders for over 100,000 units. Notably, Meta, Facebook's parent company, aims to have over 350,000 H100 GPUs operational by year's end.

Huang emphasised the strategic imperative for companies to stay ahead in the AI race, stating, "Do you want to be the company delivering groundbreaking AI, or the company, you know, delivering 0.3 percent better?"

Nvidia's CFO added that the automotive sector is on track to become its "largest enterprise vertical within data centre this year," highlighting Tesla's purchase of 35,000 H100 GPUs for its self-driving program.