nvidia stock is heading into a pivotal stretch as the company prepares to report its fiscal first-quarter results on May 20 in Eastern Time. The setup is powerful on paper, but the debate is now shifting from growth alone to whether the company can keep widening its lead. That tension is why nvidia stock is drawing intense attention heading into the report.
What the latest numbers show
Nvidia’s most recent quarterly update was exceptionally strong. In fiscal fourth quarter 2026, revenue rose 73% year over year to $68. 1 billion, while data center revenue climbed 75% year over year to $62. 3 billion. Earnings per share nearly doubled, and management guided for fiscal first-quarter revenue of $78 billion, plus or minus 2%.
Those figures underline just how dominant the business remains in AI infrastructure. Gross margin came in at 75% in fiscal Q4, up from 73% in the year-ago period, reinforcing the company’s pricing power at a time when its graphics processing units remain a central part of the AI build-out.
Nvidia stock and the pressure from rivals
Even with that momentum, the competitive backdrop is getting harder to ignore. Broadcom posted AI semiconductor revenue of $8. 4 billion in Q1, up 106% year over year, while Amazon said its Trainium, Graviton, and Nitro chips business now has a combined annual revenue run rate of more than $20 billion and is growing at a triple-digit year-over-year rate.
Alphabet also recently announced its eighth-generation tensor processing units. Each of those moves matters because they show that more large companies are building or expanding alternatives inside the AI stack, even if those offerings are aimed at different tasks than Nvidia’s chips.
Why the next report matters
The central question for investors is not whether Nvidia will post strong numbers. The question is whether the company can keep surprising the market while rivals take on a bigger role across AI compute and infrastructure. One view is that the next phase of growth could be even larger if customers continue leaning into full-system demand, but the evidence will have to come through the company’s own results and guidance.
Jensen Huang has already framed the opportunity in forceful terms, saying in the company’s earnings release that enterprise adoption of agents is “skyrocketing” and that customers are racing to invest in AI compute. That message supports the bull case, but it also raises the bar for what comes next.
What investors should watch next
For now, the market has a clear date to watch: May 20, ET. Nvidia stock enters that moment with extraordinary momentum, a strong margin profile, and a guidance figure that already points to another huge quarter. At the same time, the rising intensity of competition is making the next update more important than usual, and nvidia stock will likely move on whether the company can extend its lead without losing momentum.
