Nvidia Stock Is Surging on Strong Earnings. Here’s What to Know.

Graphics-chip maker Nvidia reported record games and data-center revenue late Wednesday, which helped power the company past consensus estimates.

Nvidia (ticker: NVDA) stock jumped 2.2% in the extended session, after falling 2.2% to $190.40 in regular trading Wednesday.

Nvidia reported fiscal-second-quarter net income of $2.4 billion, which amounts to 94 cents a share, compared with a profit of $622 million, or 25 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for stock compensation, among other things, earnings were $1.04 a share. Revenue rose 68% to $6.5 billion.

Analysts had forecast adjusted earnings of $1.01 a share on revenue of $6.3 billion.

Nvidia slightly topped expectations for its data center and videogame businesses. The company reported second-quarter data-center revenue rose 35% to $2.4 billion, from a year ago, as videogame revenue grew 85% to $3.1 billion; analysts had expected revenue of $2.3 billion, and $3 billion respectively. The company’s closely watched quarterly cryptocurrency-mining-chip sales arrived well below the finance chief’s forecast.

Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said in written remarks that the data-center growth was a result of more companies adopting Ampere-based server chips, which the company began selling last year. Hyperscale customers contributed to sequential growth from the first quarter, Kress said.

Videogame-revenue growth was driven by higher sales of graphics processors, and its chips designed for Nintendo‘s mobile Switch console, Kress said. Though the company is unable to determine whether its graphics chips are used by gamers or cryptocurrency miners, Kress said 80% of the graphics chips shipped had their mining capabilities limited.

Nvidia reported cryptocurrency-chip revenue of $266 million, well below Kress’ $400 million forecast. The company includes crypto-mining chips in its OEM segment, which reported overall revenue of $409 million.

Investors have followed Nvidia’s cryptocurrency sales closely because a drop in prices several years ago led to roughly four quarters of declining revenue for the company. Declining sales may prove a relief to some investors who were concerned the company’s success in recent quarters resulted from soaring cryptocurrency prices.

The chip maker said it expected third-quarter revenue of roughly $6.8 billion, and didn’t issue an adjusted earnings-per-share forecast. Analysts had expected revenue of $6.5 billion.

Despite reports of trouble, Nvidia said it was “working through the regulatory process” for its $40 billion acquisition of Arm Holdings, and said it believed the deal would go through. Kress said discussions with regulators were taking longer than the company had predicted.