Nvidia’s upbeat forecast for future demand calms ‘AI bubble’ fears • FRANCE 24 English

Nvidia’s upbeat forecast for future demand calms ‘AI bubble’ fears • FRANCE 24 English

Well, speaking of records, we’re going to talk about the world’s most valuable company now with our business editor, Charles Pelan. Hi, Charles. Hi, Caris. Nvidia then has released uh its latest earnings reports. Mhm. The US chip maker famous for building AI accelerators, those chips used to develop artificial intelligence models like Chad GPT. Uh it posted results that were above estimates and an upbeat forecast as well. The company posting revenue of 57 billion in the latest quarter, up from 46 in the previous one and about 62% higher than a year prior. And that’ll keep growing as well. The forecast for next quarter is of a revenue of $65 billion. That’s that column in yellow. You can see there the company’s financial chief even saying the company will likely eclipse a target of $500 billion in revenue over the next few quarters. So what do these results tell us, Charles? Well, it tells us that demand for NVIDIA’s chips is still going strong, pushed by efforts to speed up computing work, notably in the search field, but also by physical applications of AI technology, for instance, robots and other devices. All this, even if recently fears have been on the rise, that the sector was spending too much money on AI infrastructure without enough of a guarantee of returns. And that’s what has led to tech stocks dropping over the past three or four days, compounded by the fact that some high-profile investors like Peter Theel had sold their entire Nvidia stakes. The company uh valued at $4.5 trillion. It’s more than France’s entire GDP is central to the AI boom and his financial health is seen as a barometer for the health uh of the wider sector. In his earnings call, Jensen Huang, the CEO, addressed those AI bubble concerns, saying there’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble. From our vantage point, we’re seeing something very different. All right, so clear blue skies on the horizon for Nvidia then. Well, not necessarily. As you might expect, the Santa Clara, California firm is facing a number of challenges that uh muddy the picture somewhat. First off, for the time being, it’s locked out of the world’s biggest market for semiconductors, China. this because of US restrictions on exports to that market because of Washington and Beijing’s geopolitical and tech rivalry. AI tech having a number of national security implications. But Jensen Huang has been lobbying the Trump administration hard to open up that market once again. And Bloomberg reporting this Thursday that the White House is asking Congress to reject a bill that would place curbs on Nvidia’s exports. Then there are concerns over some of the so-called mega deals penned by the company in recent months, notably with AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. Deals worth tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in which Nvidia says it will invest in its own customers, prompting accusations of circularity or creating artificial demand. And finally, while Nvidia is still dominant, competition is catching up. Those are other firms like AMD, Qualcomm or Broadcom, but also data center operators who’ve decided to build their own in-house chips. And part of Nvidia’s projected sales growth will be in the Middle East. Charles, on Wednesday, the US Commerce Department approved the sales of tens of thousands of top-of-the-line AI microprocessors to companies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The move coming amid a high-profile visit to Washington by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman signals growing support from the Trump administration for the AI projects of its allies and a major market for Nvidia as it remains locked out of China for now. Brian Quinn has the details. A big boost for AI ambitions in the Middle East. As Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman returned to Washington 7 years after the killing of journalist Jamal Hashogi, his political rehabilitation came with a technological windfall. The US commerce department approving the export of advanced AI chips to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Saudi Arabia have a huge demand of a huge need of computing power and we going to spend in the short term around $50 billion by consuming uh those uh semiconductors. The US has authorized two companies Saudis Humane and the UAE’s G42 to each purchase the equivalent of up to 35,000 of Nvidia’s top-of-the-line Blackwell AI processors. Combined purchases worth an estimated $2 billion. Humane says it intends to buy some 600,000 Nvidia chips overall. Many of those will be used for a joint data center venture with Elon Musk’s XAI. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO characteristically grandiose in his outlook as he addressed a Washington investment summit Wednesday. AI and humanoid robots will actually eliminate poverty. My prediction is that work will be optional. Middle Eastern oil monarchies like the Saudis are turning to AI ventures as they seek to diversify their economies. Nvidia, meanwhile, is trying to maintain its growth after being largely locked out of China amid a tech and trade war between Washington and Beijing. Previous Saudi chip deals have been put on hold over concerns that high-end US technology could end up in the hands of Chinese firms like Huawei due to the Saudis close economic and tech ties to China. All right, let’s end with a quick check of the markets. Well, those Nvidia results are leading to a pickup in trading activity across the major European forces. European tech sector seeing the biggest gains, notably chip equipment maker ASML for instance. And we’re seeing a similar story for Borses uh in Japan and South Korea this Thursday as well. Uh with Asian chip stocks like TSMC, SKH Highix and Samsung also trading much higher. You can see the Nikke up over two and a half% higher at the close this Thursday. All right, Charles Pellegrren, thank you very much for that business update.

The world’s most valuable company, US chipmaker Nvidia, posted better-than-expected results for the latest quarter, showing a 62 percent annual increase in revenue. The positive earnings report prompted a rise in global stock markets after days of losses. The company, which designs the chips that power artificial intelligence models, is seen as a bellwether for the wider tech sector and is looking to expand in new markets, notably in the Middle East.
##Nvidia ##AI ##SaudiArabia

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