Nvidia Q2 2025 earnings call: AI and data centers continue to push growth

NVIDIA Corporation is a leading technology company known for its pioneering work in graphics processing units (GPUs) and artificial intelligence (AI). The company’s GPUs are widely used in AI research, machine learning, and high-performance computing, making it a crucial player in the AI revolution.

The company reported earnings for Q2 of fiscal 2025, with revenue reaching US$30 billion, a 122% increase compared to the same period last year. This growth was driven primarily by its data center business, which saw a 154% rise in sales due to high demand for AI and accelerated computing​. Here’s a summary of Nvidia’s recent Q2 2025 earnings call.

Data Center

Data Center revenue reached a record US$26.3 billion, marking a 16% sequential increase and a 154% year-over-year surge, fuelled by robust demand for NVIDIA Hopper, GPU computing, and networking platforms. Approximately 45% of Data Center revenue was contributed by cloud service providers, with over 50% coming from consumer Internet and enterprise companies.

NVIDIA continues to experience strong demand for its Hopper architecture, with customers preparing to adopt the next-generation Blackwell platform. The key drivers of Data Center growth include workloads like generative AI model training, AI-powered recommender systems, and complex data processing tasks using CUDA. As AI models become more advanced, the computational needs are expected to increase significantly, requiring up to 20 times more compute power. Over the past year, inference tasks have been a major contributor, driving more than 40% of NVIDIA’s Data Center revenue, with demand coming from cloud service providers, consumer internet companies, and enterprises across various industries.

The NVIDIA H200 platform, which offers a 40% increase in memory bandwidth over the H100, has started shipping to major customers and is contributing to the company’s revenue growth. The upcoming Blackwell platform, set to ramp up production in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, is expected to generate significant revenue, with demand already outstripping supply.

Gaming and AI PC

Gaming revenue for NVIDIA reached $2.88 billion, representing a 9% sequential increase and a 16% year-over-year growth. The company experienced growth across the console, notebook, and desktop segments, with strong and increasing demand while maintaining healthy channel inventory.

NVIDIA’s RTX-equipped PCs, known as AI PCs, are designed to deliver up to 1,300 AI operations per second and are now featured in over 200 AI laptops from top manufacturers. With an installed base of 100 million devices and 600 AI-powered applications and games, RTX is well-positioned to enhance consumer experiences through generative AI. Additionally, the GeForce NOW cloud gaming library has grown to over 2,000 titles, making it the largest of its kind.

Professional Visualization

Pro visualization revenue reached $454 million, marking a 6% sequential increase and a 20% year-over-year growth. This growth is being driven by increasing demand for AI and graphic use cases, including model fine-tuning and workloads related to NVIDIA’s Omniverse platform.

Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, is utilizing NVIDIA Omniverse to create digital twins of the plants producing NVIDIA Blackwell systems. Additionally, large enterprises like Mercedes-Benz signed multiyear contracts to use NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud for building industrial digital twins.

Automotive and Robotics

Automotive and robotics revenue reached $346 million, reflecting a 5% sequential increase and a 37% year-over-year growth. The year-over-year growth was primarily driven by the ramp-up of new customers in self-driving platforms and the rising demand for AI cockpit solutions. Companies like Boston Dynamics, BYD Electronics, Figure, Intrinsyc, Siemens, and Teradyne Robotics are utilizing the NVIDIA Isaac robotics platform for a range of applications, including autonomous robot arms, humanoids, and mobile robots.

Key analyst questions

• An analyst raised concerns about the sustainability of NVIDIA’s capital expenditures (capex) in light of the return on investment for its customers, particularly in the context of ongoing market debates. In response, CEO Jensen Huang highlighted the company’s focus on two simultaneous platform transitions: the shift from general-purpose computing to accelerated computing and the rise of generative AI. Accelerated computing is essential as CPU scaling has slowed, yet computing demand continues to grow, necessitating more efficient and powerful computing solutions. This shift reduces costs and energy consumption while enabling large-scale applications like scientific simulations and database processing. Generative AI, powered by accelerated computing, represents a new approach to software development, where AI models learn from data rather than relying on human-engineered algorithms. This has led to the rapid expansion of generative AI applications across various industries, further driving demand for NVIDIA’s technology.
• Another analyst asked about the continued strong demand for NVIDIA’s Hopper GPUs despite the anticipation for the upcoming Blackwell architecture, seeking insights into how the transition between the two would unfold. Huang explained that the demand for Hopper remains robust due to the high need for GPU capacity, particularly among cloud service providers who use these GPUs for data processing and AI workloads. This demand is driven by the urgent need for accelerated computing to replace traditional CPU-based systems, which are no longer keeping pace with the growing computational demands. Additionally, the race to achieve breakthroughs in AI technology drives strong demand for Hopper as companies strive to reach new levels of AI performance before their competitors. Although Blackwell is expected to start shipping in significant quantities by the end of the year, the current market dynamics and the need for immediate operational capabilities ensure that demand for Hopper remains strong in the interim.
• An analyst noted a sequential decline in the United States while several Asian regions saw significant sequential growth, particularly China. CFO Colette Kress explained that the geographical revenue disclosure in the 10-Q primarily reflects where the company invoices its products, not necessarily where they are ultimately deployed. The increase in revenue from China includes contributions from gaming, data centers, and automotive sectors. Although specific guidance for Q4 was not provided, Kress indicated that the demand for Hopper is expected to continue growing into the second half, and the visibility suggests that there will be growth opportunities in Q4 as well.

The fifth perspective

NVIDIA continues to assert its dominance in the technology sector, driven by strong demand across its key business segments. As NVIDIA’s technologies become increasingly integral to a wide range of industries, the company is well-positioned to sustain its momentum and capitalize on emerging opportunities, particularly in AI-driven applications and infrastructure. Looking ahead, NVIDIA anticipates continued growth, especially in the second half of the fiscal year, with strong demand across global markets, including notable gains in Asia.