Nvidia posts record quarter

Nvidia yesterday reported record revenues for the first quarter of its 2007 financial year. Sales totalled $681.8m, up 17 per cent on the year-ago quarter's $583.8m and 7.6 per cent up on the previous quarter's $633.6m.

However, GAAP net income was down sequentially, falling 7.5 per cent from $98.1m (26.5 cents a share) to $90.7m (23 cents a share). Still, Nvidia's profit was well up on Q1 FY2006's $64.4m (18 cents a share). Last month, Nvidia ran a two-for-one share split. The quarter's income includes a $23m stock-based compensation expense.

The quarter's GAAP gross margin was 42.4 per cent. The company cited Mercury Research numbers putting its share of the high-end gaming-oriented graphics chip market at 83 per cent in Q1 of calendar 2006, up from 79 per cent in the previous quarter.

Nvidia also said Mercury's numbers give it 42 per cent of the AMD-oriented chipset market in Q1, but the company's overall chipset market share - targeting Intel as well as AMD platforms - was nine per cent, below ATI's 12 per cent share. ATI had 28 per cent of the AMD chipset market during the calendar quarter.

"We experienced growth in each of our businesses - GPU, MCP, handheld GPU, and consumer electronics - resulting in record revenue for the first quarter," Nvidia president and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said. ®