Nvidia grew trailing-12-month revenue 71% to $253 billion and more than doubled net income to about $160 billion, yet the stock changes hands at roughly 21 times forward earnings, a multiple the market usually reserves for mature businesses with ordinary prospects, not the largest company in the stock market at $5.1 trillion while revenue climbs at that pace.

Growth accelerated not decelerated

The quarter ended April 26, Nvidia’s fiscal first quarter of 2027, showed revenue up 85% year over year to $81.6 billion. A year earlier that same quarter grew 56%. Guidance for the fiscal second quarter calls for about $91 billion, nearly double the $46.7 billion recorded a year ago. Guidance is a forecast, not a result, but it is management’s most concrete signal about demand and it points up. Data center revenue, the engine behind AI computing, rose 92% to $75.2 billion in the fiscal first quarter.

Profitability kept pace

Gross margin came in near 75%. Non-GAAP earnings per share rose 140% year over year to $1.87. The company raised its quarterly dividend from a penny per share to $0.25 and authorized an $80 billion buyback. The dividend is small but it signals the volume of cash the business now generates. Jensen Huang described the buildout of AI factories as the largest infrastructure expansion in human history accelerating at extraordinary speed.

Priced as if the surge is already over

Shares trade around $210, below the $236.54 reached within the past year, even as results strengthened. At 21 times forward earnings the market expects about $10 per share over the next year, up more than 50% from the trailing $6.53. The skepticism is aimed at everything after that. Applied to Nvidia, the same multiple treats the years beyond the next one as ordinary, as if growth flattens quickly once the current wave of AI spending passes.

Cyclical risks remain

Semiconductors have always been cyclical and some of Nvidia’s biggest customers are designing chips of their own. If AI spending pauses, a stock valued on next year’s earnings could still get hit hard. The numbers so far keep agreeing with management’s tone. Whether the market’s bet that the extraordinary part ends soon proves right is the question the next few quarters will answer.