by Chavi Mehta, Max A. Cherney and Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) – Nvidia on Wednesday released a current-quarter revenue forecast that beat Wall Street expectations and announced an additional $25 billion share buyback program, benefiting from a jump in demand for its chips widely used for products related to artificial intelligence (AI).

The stock of the Santa-Clara, Calif.-based group rose more than 6% in post-close trading, amplifying gains since the start of the year.

Nvidia has seen its value triple on Wall Street this year, becoming the first semiconductor maker to cross the $1 trillion threshold, as investors see the group as the biggest beneficiary of AI-related activities.

Analysts say demand for Nvidia’s highly prized chips is at least 50% outpacing supply, an imbalance they expect will persist over the coming quarters.

“Companies across the world are transitioning to accelerated computing and generative AI,” Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said in a statement.

From AI startups to major cloud computing service providers like Microsoft, they all want Nvidia chips.

Demand in China is also in overdrive as Chinese companies seek to source semiconductor stocks ahead of any additional US export restrictions.

Nvidia said on Wednesday it expects third-quarter revenue of around $16 billion, with a margin of error of 2%. Analysts polled by Refinitiv on average expected $12.61 billion.

In the second quarter, the group’s adjusted turnover stood at 13.51 billion dollars, beating the consensus which stood at 11.22 billion dollars.

Data center activity rose 141% to $10.32 billion, against a consensus of $7.69 billion according to Refinitiv data.

(Reporting Chavi Mehta in Bangalore, Stephen Nellis and Max A. Cherney in San Francisco, Noel Randewich in Oakland; Jean Terzian)

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