Nvidia Corporation provided the first chapter of that story on Wednesday after the market closed with fiscal first-quarter earnings. The company painted an impressive picture based on its graphics processor sales. It’s not just leading the field with cutting-edge AI chips — it’s literally on fire. It does this despite the considerable geopolitical headwinds, in particular, exporting controls and other trade restrictions, facing it.
For the April quarter Wall Street analysts are expecting a mind-boggling 66% growth for Nvidia. This optimism is due to the continued and unrelenting demand for Nvidia’s AI chips. The company’s revenue for the quarter, at $1.43 billion, has more than tripled from the same quarter last year. This exceptional expansion further underscores its vital leadership role in the semiconductor industry.
Nvidia’s latest generation of AI GPUs, natively branded as Blackwell, have been instrumental in powering this surge. Even during this success, Nvidia made the unfortunate announcement that it would be taking a $5.5 billion writedown on inventory perhaps foreshadowing stormy days ahead.
Significantly, on April 9, the Trump administration sent a letter to Nvidia indicating that the company would require an export license for its H20 chip. This chip extends Nvidia’s Hopper AI models famed for its use in the Chinese market. It runs into the U.S.’s own prior restrictions. The resulting export control measures have led to fears of a dramatic decline in Nvidia’s Chinese sales. This particular market is key to the overall success of the company.
Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang has been one of the loudest critics of these U.S. chip restrictions, going on record to call them a failure. During a news conference in Taipei on May 21, 2025, he articulated his frustrations regarding how geopolitical issues are affecting the company’s operations and sales.
“The key here is the optimism around GB200 improving, and strong demand, and if the company can make the case for that, the stock should react well, in our view even if numbers don’t change much.” – Joseph Moore
Despite these headwinds, Nvidia is still bullish on its long-term growth. Its AI technology has an unprecedented demand. This leap indicates that investors continue to have major grounds for optimistic faith in the company’s direction. Today, geopolitical tensions and increasingly complex export regulations underly and heavily influence Nvidia’s business model. These factors may pose a significant challenge to the company’s high-growth strategy going forward.