Nvidia posted record revenue and net profit for its fiscal first quarter ended in April, helped by rising data center computing demand as AI agents spread.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia posted revenue of $81.6 billion in the quarter, up 85 percent from a year earlier. That was 3.4 percent above the $78.9 billion average analyst estimate compiled by FactSet. Net profit was $58.3 billion, more than triple the year-earlier level, and 36.5 percent above the $42.9 billion analyst estimate.

The data center segment led the growth. Nvidia also posted record networking hardware revenue of $14.8 billion, tripling from a year earlier, alongside strong sales of computing hardware including GPUs.

Nvidia launched 2 servers in March that speed up AI model and agent execution. One is an inference-only system that uses Groq chips from the startup Groq, which Nvidia effectively acquired in December last year for $20 billion. The other is a server made up only of Nvidia Vera CPUs, a solution aimed at surging CPU demand driven by the spread of AI agents that perform tasks on behalf of users.

Gross margin was 75 percent, in line with company guidance and analyst expectations. Nvidia forecast revenue of $91.0 billion for the current quarter and a gross margin of 75 percent. The stock was little changed in after-hours trading. Nvidia shares are up about 20 percent so far this year, giving it a market capitalisation of about $5.5 trillion.

Investors are also watching Nvidia's plan to sell H200 chips to China. The Trump administration approved Nvidia's sale of H200 chips to China last year, but Chinese authorities have not yet granted permission.