Nvidia says AI chip sales strong despite DeepSeek fears

Nvidia, a leading company in the chip manufacturing industry, has reported that its business remains robust despite concerns about a potential bubble in the artificial intelligence (AI) market, particularly following the rise of a Chinese AI company called DeepSeek. In the last quarter, which ended on January 27, Nvidia achieved impressive sales of over $39 billion, marking a significant increase of 74% compared to the same period last year. This surge in demand is largely due to major technology firms seeking Nvidia's advanced chips, which are essential for processing the vast amounts of data required to train AI models. However, DeepSeek claims to have developed its chatbot using less advanced and more affordable chips, which has raised questions about Nvidia's market position. The announcement from DeepSeek led to a notable decline in Nvidia's stock price earlier this month, causing concern among investors across the market. Fortunately, confidence was restored when prominent companies, including Meta, the parent company of Facebook, indicated that they would continue their current investment strategies in AI. Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, expressed that he is not overly concerned about a sudden shift in demand for their chips. He emphasized that the future of software development will rely on machine learning, which requires chips with different architectures compared to the traditional hand-coding methods. Huang stated, 'We know fundamentally software has changed,' and he also noted that it is still early in the journey of AI adoption. Nvidia currently holds a dominant position in the market for advanced chips, making it a key player in the ongoing AI investment boom, particularly among companies like Microsoft. Over the past two years, Nvidia's stock has skyrocketed by more than 400%, resulting in a market valuation exceeding $3 trillion. The company is focused on rapidly increasing the production of its latest chips, known as Blackwell, which have contributed significantly to its revenue growth. Collette Kress, Nvidia's finance chief, mentioned that the company's AI data center business is performing exceptionally well in the United States, but they are also witnessing growing demand in other regions, including France and the European Union. However, demand in China remains lower due to U. S. trade restrictions that prevent Nvidia from exporting certain chips, and the company anticipates that shipments to China will remain stable at current levels.