Nvidia’s stronger-than-expected results and bullish AI outlook lifted crypto mining stocks tied to data center and high-performance computing demand, even as the chipmaker’s shares fell due to growth concerns.
May 20, 2026, 10:22 p.m. 3 min read
Nvidia (NVDA) posted another blockbuster quarter on Wednesday, as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure pushed revenue, profit and cash flow to record levels.
The chipmaker reported first-quarter revenue of $81.62 billion, up 85% from $44.06 billion a year earlier and above Wall Street estimates of $78.9 billion, according to FactSet data. Adjusted earnings came in at $1.87 per share, beating analyst expectations of $1.76 per share. The company also gave stronger-than-expected guidance for the current quarter, forecasting revenue of roughly $91 billion.
Meanwhile, the company also moved to return more cash to shareholders. Nvidia’s board authorized an additional $80 billion in stock buybacks and raised the quarterly dividend to 25 cents per share from 1 cent previously.
However, despite the beats, positive outlook and shareholder returns, the stock was down about 1.5% at the time of publication. Investors were likely looking beyond the quarter and into the potential challenges in growth opportunities for Nvidia as competition for AI chips continued to grow.
Bitcoin miners with exposure to AI and high-performance computing infrastructure traded modestly higher following Nvidia’s earnings report. Shares of Core Scientific (CORZ) and Cipher Mining (CIFR) each rose slightly in after-hours trading as investors continued to view some miners as potential beneficiaries of growing demand for data centers, power capacity and AI computing infrastructure. IREN (IREN), which rose initially, is down about a percent.
“The buildout of AI factories — the largest infrastructure expansion in human history — is accelerating at extraordinary speed,” CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement. “Agentic AI has arrived, doing productive work, generating real value and scaling rapidly across companies and industries,” he added.
Data center growth
Specifically for bitcoin miners moving towards the data center business, there was some positive news in the chipmaker’s earnings.
Nvidia’s Data Center business continued to drive growth as cloud providers, enterprises and governments expanded spending on AI infrastructure powered by the company’s chips.
Hyperscalers generated more than half of Nvidia’s $75 billion in Data Center revenue during the quarter, reaching roughly $38 billion and rising 12% from the previous quarter, CFO Colette Kress said on the company’s earnings call.
The remaining $37 billion came from a segment Nvidia now calls ACIE, which includes AI cloud providers, industrial customers and enterprise markets. Kress said AI cloud revenue more than tripled from a year earlier, as Nvidia helped rapidly expand AI computing capacity across more than 80 data centers with capacities of more than 10 megawatts.
Kress added that spending on AI infrastructure continues to accelerate, and demand for Nvidia’s computing systems remains strong. She also said Nvidia expects to generate $20 billion in CPU revenue this year.
Nvidia said its outlook does not assume any Data Center compute revenue from China, where U.S. export restrictions have limited sales of advanced AI chips.
Investors have closely watched Nvidia’s earnings for signs that spending on AI infrastructure remains strong despite growing questions about how quickly companies will turn those investments into profits.
So far, Nvidia’s results suggest demand continues to outpace expectations, which might be positive for data center providers.
AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.
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