Nvidia's 70% growth forecast puts it on track to become tech's No. 2 company by revenue

Nvidia shocked the AI world on Wednesday when, in the middle of its second-quarter earnings report for fiscal 2027, said that it forecast 70% growth in the company's fiscal 2028. That was significantly higher than Wall Street analysts were expecting for the period ending Feb. 1 in 2028. Based on the consensus projection for revenue of $396 billion for fiscal 2027, which ends in January, sales next year would hit $673 billion. That would put Nvidia ahead of Apple and Alphabet, according to Wall Street projections, and behind only Amazon — still primarily a retailer — among U.S. tech companies.

Nvidia had already reported results that sailed past estimates by the time CFO Colette Kress came into the earnings call with a stunning forecast for next year. Kress told investors that revenue growth in fiscal 2028 will reach 70%, trouncing the 44% average analyst estimate, according to LSEG. Based on the consensus projection for revenue of $396 billion for fiscal 2027, which ends in January, sales next year would hit $673 billion. That would put Nvidia ahead of Apple and Alphabet, according to Wall Street projections, and behind only Amazon — still primarily a retailer — among U.S. tech companies.

It's the latest remarkable milestone for a company that, before the artificial intelligence boom, was a fairly niche chipmaker. Now it's the most valuable company in the world, and continues to report historic growth rates. Revenue doubled in the latest quarter from a year earlier. The guidance could have been even higher if not for supply constraints, as the company grapples with shortages in parts like memory, which faces a global crunch due to AI buildouts.

Nvidia hasn't provided forecasts that far into the future in the past, although during the past few years Huang has provided some data points for expected AI chip sales over two years. He told analysts on the call that the company provided the forecast because he has visibility into next year's needs for computing power, and Nvidia's chips are driving so much investment that he wanted to be consistent with his partners who provide land and power.

"Everybody's putting a lot of resources in play, and so we wanted to make sure that everybody has the same set of information," Huang said.

Nvidia said on Wednesday that demand for its technology is shifting from massive multibillion-dollar AI buildouts to a widers swath of companies as AI becomes capable of doing useful work. Investors have fretted that Nvidia's growth has been driven by a handful of large technology companies called hyperscalers, which are building out data centers that end up largely serving a few frontier labs such as OpenAI. Huang said that some of the early stages of the buildout were driven by "one lab alone," but that the situation has changed and there is now a much broader customer base for the chipmaker.