Nvidia Corp. is heading toward such a great year that a crypto-focused business potentially on a more-than-$1 billion annual run rate is seen as just extra icing on the celebratory cake.
Nvidia NVDA,+0.33% blew past Wall Street estimates Wednesday with record quarterly revenue of $5.66 billion, 84% higher than the previous year. Its two core businesses both experienced huge growth — gaming sales surged 106% to $2.76 billion and data-center revenue rose 79% to $2.05 billion.
With gamers battling to buy whatever gear they can get their hands on in the middle of a semiconductor shortage, Nvidia expects the growth to continue. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress forecast revenue of $6.3 billion for the second quarter at the midpoint, growth of approximately 63% that would lead to yet another record sales quarter.
The biggest growth could be in crypto, however. Nvidia introduced crypto-mining-specific graphics cards in an attempt to avoid the cycle of boom-to-bust the last time its products were adopted en masse by miners, and sold $155 million worth last quarter, three times as much as Kress projected in the last earnings report.
