Nvidia (NVDA)’s First-Ever Year-Ahead Forecast Puts It on a Path to Pass Apple and Alphabet

CNBC reported that NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA ) CFO Colette Kress told investors on August 26 that fiscal 2028 revenue growth will reach 70%, far above the 44% average analyst estimate tracked by LSEG, marking the company's first-ever year-ahead revenue forecast.

Applied to the roughly $396 billion consensus estimate for fiscal 2027, that guidance implies fiscal 2028 revenue near $673 billion to $700 billion. It would put Nvidia ahead of Apple and Alphabet and behind only Amazon among U.S. tech companies by revenue. The forecast followed fiscal second-quarter results that beat expectations across the board: revenue more than doubled to $96.22 billion, up 106% year over year, with data center revenue of $89 billion, up 117%, now making up 92% of total sales.

CEO Jensen Huang told investors AI has reached the point where it is doing productive, profitable work and that computing capacity itself is now translating directly into revenue. Shares jumped roughly 8.7% on the news, lifting the broader semiconductor sector. Management said the 70% figure shows supply constraints, primarily memory component shortages, rather than a ceiling on actual demand, and the outlook excludes China data center revenue.

The current quarter already delivered, not just promised. Revenue of $96.22 billion beat estimates by roughly $4 billion, and data center revenue's 117% year-over-year jump shows the AI buildout is generating historic growth today, not just in a projection.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA )'s customer base is broadening, which could reduce concentration risk. Huang said demand is now coming from hyperscale cloud providers alongside sovereign AI programs, neoclouds, AI startups, and enterprises. It means future growth depends less on any single large customer's spending decisions.

Management says real demand exceeds even this unprecedented guidance. Huang told analysts the unconstrained growth rate would be "a lot higher" than 70%, with memory supply the actual limiting factor, implying the ceiling on Nvidia's growth could rise further once supply catches up.

The market's reaction also points to overall confidence in the AI infrastructure cycle. Broadcom, SK Hynix and Intel all gained alongside Nvidia after the forecast. It shows investors see strong demand across the semiconductor supply chain rather than in Nvidia alone.

Wall Street itself pushed back on the forecast's reliability. Bernstein's Stacy Rasgon noted the 70% figure represents roughly a $200 billion uptick versus Nvidia's prior outlook, and because this is literally the company's first year-ahead guide ever, there is no track record yet to judge how dependable Nvidia's long-range forecasting actually is.