Despite initial delays with its Blackwell AI chip, Nvidia Corporation
What Happened: During Nvidia's fourth-quarter earnings call, JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur asked Huang about the demand and rollout strategy for Blackwell Ultra, given that the company is still ramping up its Blackwell chips.
In response, Huang acknowledged that the first Blackwell chips faced a "hiccup" that "probably cost us a couple of months," but said that Nvidia has fully recovered. "The team did an amazing job recovering," he said.
The CEO confirmed that Blackwell Ultra will arrive in the second half of 2025 and will feature "new networking, new memories, and, of course, new processors."
He assured investors that Nvidia's supply chain and partners are fully prepared for the transition and noted that unlike the transition from Hopper to Blackwell, which required significant hardware changes, Blackwell Ultra will "slot right in" without major architectural overhauls.
Beyond Blackwell Ultra, Huang revealed that Nvidia is already working closely with partners on the "click after that," called Verarubin, which he plans to unveil at the upcoming GTC conference.
Why It Matters: Last year, the Blackwell chips faced significant challenges, including overheating issues when integrated into server racks, impacting major clients like Meta Platforms Inc.
These overheating problems were reported to have affected the performance of data centers, causing concern among Nvidia's partners and customers.
Nvidia reported $39.3 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, marking a 12% increase from the previous quarter and 78% growth year-over-year. This surpassed Wall Street's estimate of $38.05 billion.
At the earnings call, Huang said, "Demand for Blackwell is amazing as reasoning AI adds another scaling law."
Price Action: At the time of writing, Nvidia's stock declined 1.49% in after-hours trading to $129.32, after gaining 3.67% earlier on Wednesday and closing at $131.28, per Benzinga Pro.
