Nvidia Beats Expectations and Sparks Major Rally Across AI and Crypto Stocks

Nvidia once again outperformed Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, reporting stronger-than-anticipated earnings and revenue while projecting an even more robust outlook for the fourth quarter. 

The results showed the GPU maker’s continued dominance in the fast-expanding AI infrastructure market and helped stabilize broader equity sentiment after a choppy trading session.

For Q3, Nvidia delivered $57.01 billion in revenue, surpassing the consensus estimate of $55.2 billion. Earnings per share came in at $1.30, beating expectations of $1.26 and rising sharply from the $0.81 reported in the same period last year. 

The company’s data center division — now the core engine of AI growth worldwide — generated $51.2 billion, exceeding analysts’ forecasts of $49.3 billion.

Fourth-Quarter Outlook Surprises to the Upside

Nvidia expects fourth-quarter revenue of $65 billion, plus or minus 2%, far above Wall Street’s projected $62 billion. CEO Jensen Huang attributed the strong outlook to unprecedented demand for the company’s AI computing platforms.

“Blackwell sales are off the charts, and cloud GPUs are sold out,” Huang said, noting that the company has “entered the virtuous cycle of AI” with adoption accelerating across industries, geographies, and business categories.

CFO Colette Kress added that Nvidia’s new Blackwell Ultra lineup is now the firm’s leading architecture across its customer base, while continued demand remains for the earlier Blackwell products. She also noted that revenue generated from the China-specific H20 chip — a product shaped by U.S. export restrictions — was “insignificant.”

Tech Stocks Rally, Market Sentiment Stabilizes

Nvidia’s shares jumped more than 5% following the earnings release, helping lift other AI-exposed names such as AMD, Micron, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Nvidia stock is now up more than 37% year-to-date, while AMD has surged 82% over the same period.

Nvidia share price (Source: Google Finance)

The upbeat report briefly countered Wednesday’s market downturn, with Nvidia’s print helping pull equities away from the day’s “sell” sentiment. The chipmaker’s performance is particularly notable after its market cap briefly surpassed $5 trillion last month.

Major investors have nevertheless been harvesting profits. Peter Thiel’s hedge fund recently dumped its nearly $100 million Nvidia position, while SoftBank unloaded its entire $5.8 billion stake to finance its own growing AI ambitions.

AI Momentum Ripples Into Bitcoin and Mining Stocks

The reaction spread beyond traditional tech stocks, with digital asset markets also benefiting from renewed AI enthusiasm. 

After dipping below $89,000 early in the day, bitcoin rebounded to around $92,000 shortly after Nvidia’s results were published.

BTC price (Source: CoinMarketCap)

The most dramatic moves appeared in Bitcoin mining stocks, many of which increasingly straddle both crypto and AI markets due to large-scale data center operations. 

Cipher Mining led the surge with more than 13% gains in after-hours trading. IREN followed with a 10% spike, while Bitfarms, TeraWulf, and CleanSpark also traded higher. Marathon Digital (MARA), the industry’s largest miner by market cap, gained approximately 4%.

Those miners are rapidly diversifying into AI hosting and high-performance computing. Earlier this month, IREN secured a $9.7 billion AI cloud deal with Microsoft, while Cipher Mining signed a $5.5 billion hosting partnership with Amazon Web Services.

Analysts Weigh In as GPU Demand Stays Red-Hot

Despite the positive momentum, questions linger about sustainability. 

VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, noted that miners face mounting financial pressure as they pivot toward AI infrastructure. “IREN is issuing debt to buy GPUs,” he said, explaining that loan costs are tied to GPU demand and supply dynamics. “Falling BTC plus widening spreads is a double whammy given the capex needs.”

Meanwhile, Nvidia addressed one lingering criticism raised by investor Michael Burry, who last week accused AI-driven companies of understating data center depreciation to inflate earnings. Kress countered by highlighting the long operational life of Nvidia’s accelerators, supported by ongoing CUDA software updates. 

She also pointed to the company’s six-year-old A100 GPUs, many of which remain in active deployment due to continued software optimization.

AI Expansion Shows No Signs of Slowing

With Nvidia forecasting another blowout quarter and demand for AI chips skyrocketing across industries, the company’s latest results reaffirm its central role in the global AI race. 

For crypto-linked equities — especially Bitcoin miners increasingly tied to AI infrastructure — the earnings report delivered a timely jolt of market optimism.