Nvidia Cleared Its Own $91.0 Billion Guide With $96.2 Billion, Then Called for $108 Billion in the October Quarter

by Ryo Tanaka · August 27, 2026

Technology Reporter, US Market Current

Nvidia released results for its fiscal second quarter after the close on Wednesday, Aug. 26, reporting revenue of $96.2 billion for the three months ended July 26, 2026. That is up 106% from a year earlier and 18% from the April quarter, according to the company's earnings press release.

The figure sits above the range Nvidia itself set three months ago. In its first-quarter release dated May 20, the company told investors to expect second-quarter revenue of $91.0 billion, plus or minus 2%. Dividing the $96.2 billion reported into that $91.0 billion midpoint puts the actual result roughly 5.7% above it. That percentage is this publication's arithmetic on two company figures; Nvidia did not publish a beat-versus-guidance number.

Data Center was almost the entire business. The segment produced $89.0 billion in revenue, up 117% year over year and 18% sequentially, the release said. Nvidia reported one other named segment, Edge Computing, at $7.2 billion, up 27% year over year and 13% from the prior quarter.

Margins held at 75%, and the guide points lower

Gross margin came in at 75.0% on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. Against the year-ago quarter that is an increase of 2.6 percentage points on the GAAP measure and 2.5 points on the non-GAAP measure, per the company's own comparison table. Sequentially, GAAP gross margin rose a tenth of a point and the non-GAAP figure was flat.

Operating expenses were $8.408 billion on a GAAP basis and $8.232 billion excluding items the company strips out of its adjusted results.

The forward guidance is where the margin picture changes. For the October quarter, Nvidia said it expects revenue of $108.0 billion, plus or minus 2%, with GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins of 74.0%, plus or minus 50 basis points. That is a full point below the level just reported. The company also guided GAAP operating expenses to roughly $9.2 billion and non-GAAP operating expenses to about $9.0 billion. The tax-rate line in the outlook is not a quarterly figure: Nvidia said that for the full fiscal year 2027 it expects GAAP and non-GAAP tax rates of between 16.0% and 18.0%. Setting the $108.0 billion guide against the $96.2 billion just booked implies sequential growth of about 12%, again our arithmetic on two company figures rather than a growth rate the company stated.

The GAAP number came in above the adjusted one

Nvidia reported GAAP diluted earnings per share of $2.46, up 128% year over year and 3% sequentially, and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $2.22, up 120% year over year and 19% sequentially. GAAP net income was $59.688 billion against non-GAAP net income of $53.954 billion.

The unusual ordering, with the reported figure exceeding the adjusted one, has a single dominant cause. In the reconciliation table covering the three months ended July 26, Nvidia shows a total pre-tax non-GAAP adjustment of negative $7.251 billion, and the item driving it is a subtraction of $7.771 billion labelled "Gains from equity securities, net." Those gains are counted in GAAP net income and stripped out of the adjusted figure, which is why the GAAP number sits above it rather than below. Smaller acquisition-related and other costs push the other way, and an income tax adjustment of $1.517 billion is added back. Together those adjustments take $59.688 billion of GAAP net income down to $53.954 billion on a non-GAAP basis. Readers comparing the quarter to consensus should check which of the two measures a given estimate was built against.

What the China line in the outlook actually says

For the second straight quarter, Nvidia attached the same qualifier to its guidance. The release states: "NVIDIA is not assuming any Data Center compute revenue from China in its outlook." The identical sentence appeared in the May release covering the April quarter. The scope of that sentence is narrower than it is sometimes rendered: it is an assumption about one revenue line, Data Center compute, inside a forward outlook. It is not a statement that Nvidia earned nothing in China during the July quarter, and it is not a statement about the company's other product lines there. Nothing in Wednesday's release indicated a change in that assumption for the October period.

On capital returns, the company said it sent $26.0 billion back to shareholders during the quarter through buybacks and dividends and had $99.0 billion of repurchase authorization remaining.

Chief executive Jensen Huang framed the quarter around utilization rather than capacity, saying in the release that artificial intelligence had reached an inflection point, that its output was productive and profitable, and that "compute is revenue."

Nvidia's report is the last of the large US technology results for the August stretch, and it landed the day before the Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to publish its preliminary annual benchmark revision to establishment survey payrolls, at 10 a.m. ET Friday, according to the July Employment Situation release. US equities were still trading when this article was filed, and no closing levels for Thursday's session were available.