Nvidia reported third-quarter results that beat expectations for sales and earnings, while providing better-than-expected guidance for the current quarter. The results show that Nvidia continues to grow rapidly, while demand for its powerful artificial intelligence chips remains high, according to CNBC.

Nvidia’s Q3 revenue totaled $35.08 billion. dollars, exceeding estimates for 33.16 billion. dollars, while posting adjusted earnings of 81 cents per share, versus a forecast of 75 cents per share.

Nvidia said it expects about $37.5 billion. dollars +/-2% in sales in the fourth quarter, against 37.08 billion dollars that analysts polled by LSEG had expected.

The fourth-quarter forecast implies annual growth of about 70% from a year earlier, down from 265% annual growth in the same period a year earlier.

Nvidia’s revenue continues to skyrocket, posting a 94% year-over-year increase during the quarter ended Oct. 27. But that’s still a sequential slowdown from the previous three quarters, when sales rose 122%, 262% and 265% respectively.

Nvidia has been a major beneficiary of the ongoing AI boom. Its shares have nearly tripled so far in 2024, making it the most valuable listed company.

That’s because of Nvidia’s data center business, which accounts for sales of AI processors and related components and makes up the vast majority of Nvidia’s revenue. Nvidia recorded 30.8 billion. dollars in the data center sector, up 112% from a year ago, while analysts polled by StreetAccount had expected revenue of $28.82 billion. dollars.

Not all of Nvidia’s sales come from chip data centers, as about 3.1 billion dollars of that is due to sales of networking components, the company said.

Net profit during the quarter increased to 19.3 billion. dollars or 78 cents per share, compared to 9.24 billion dollars or 67 cents per share in the corresponding period last year. Nvidia’s gross margin rose to 73.5 percent, slightly higher than analysts’ estimates, and the company said the increase was due to it selling more data center chips.

Many of Nvidia’s customers, including Microsoft, Oracle and OpenAI, have begun to receive the company’s next-generation artificial intelligence chip called Blackwell. Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said in a call with analysts that 13,000 samples of the chip have been shipped to customers. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement that Blackwell is in “full production.”