Nvidia will report its first quarterly results without Jensen Huang on Tuesday, and the person presenting them is also the one who set the targets.
Colette Kress, the chipmaker’s chief financial officer since 2013, became interim chief executive on Thursday after Huang resigned as president, CEO and director “effective immediately”, Nvidia said. She keeps the CFO job.
Results for the third quarter of fiscal 2027, which ended on 25 October, are due at about 1:20pm PT (9:20pm GMT) on 17 November, with the call at 2pm PT (10pm GMT), according to Nvidia’s investor relations site.
The quarter closed before the scandal broke. The numbers will describe the business; the outlook and the call will show how Nvidia is coping without its founder. Our timeline of Huang’s exit sets out how it unfolded.
What Nvidia has guided for Q3
In August, Nvidia guided third-quarter revenue of $108.0 billion, plus or minus 2%, a range of $105.8 billion to $110.2 billion. It assumed no data centre compute revenue from China.
Hitting the midpoint would mean an 89% rise on the $57.0 billion booked a year earlier and a 12% gain on the record $96.2 billion of the second quarter, Invezz calculations show.
Analysts expect slightly more. LSEG consensus is about $109.2 billion in revenue and adjusted earnings of $2.48 a share, according to IG. Zacks puts the figures at $108.99 billion and $2.49, Yahoo Finance reported.
Adjusted earnings per share were $1.30 a year ago and $2.22 in the second quarter.
Gross margin is the softer line. Nvidia guided 74.0%, plus or minus half a point, down from 75.0% in the second quarter, with non-GAAP operating expenses of about $9.0 billion, its CFO commentary shows.
On the August call, Kress blamed “extreme pricing conditions in memory”. She said margins should bottom in the fourth quarter at 71% to 72% before settling at 72% to 73% in fiscal 2028, according to a call transcript.
What to watch on Nov 17?
Four things are likely to matter more than a narrow beat or miss.
The first is the fourth-quarter outlook. In August, Kress said hyperscale growth should “re-accelerate in Q4” as supply of the new Vera Rubin platform grows, and that Rubin would make up about 20% of data centre revenue in the third quarter.
She also gave a preliminary forecast of about 70% revenue growth in fiscal 2028. Whether that number survives the leadership change will be closely watched.
The second is supply. Nvidia said in August that supply would remain a bottleneck “at least through the end of fiscal year 2028”.
The third is customers’ budgets. Evercore ISI said the four largest cloud companies raised their 2026 capital spending forecasts by just 1% this earnings season, the smallest increase in at least 12 quarters.
The fourth is China. Nvidia’s revenue from Chinese data centres is near zero, and lawmakers from both parties are pushing for tougher chip-export curbs after the Huang reports. Baird analyst Tristan Gerra has listed possible H200 write-down charges among the risks.
The challenges facing Colette Kress
Kress’s first test is credibility. She will defend guidance she set as CFO while also speaking as chief executive, and investors will look for signs that a caretaker team is guiding more cautiously.
Michael Feldman of ClearBridge Investments told the Guardian that a new chief executive would likely “want to establish credibility by setting a more conservative bar”.
The second is relationships. Bernstein’s Stacy Rasgon, who cut his rating to Market Perform and his target to $200 from $400, questioned whether any successor could “truly fill Jensen’s shoes”, given how tightly Huang managed relationships with customers, suppliers and staff.
Kress has already been on calls to reassure customers and suppliers, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The same report said she had pushed back on some of Huang’s financing deals with customers. Our profile of Kress has more on her record.
The third is people. Baird’s Gerra flagged the risk of further senior departures, possible litigation and uncertainty over the next chief executive’s approach to customer financing.
The fourth is governance and Washington. Harvey C. Jones, 73, is now the board’s first-ever chair, and the board’s independent review into whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort has not published findings.
House committee chairs have asked Huang for a closed-door interview on 1 December. A Jamestown Foundation analyst told Reuters that Kress herself could face congressional questions about oversight of chip sales.
The New York Times has also alleged a relationship between Huang and Kimberly Powell, a vice-president who reported to him. That claim has not been confirmed by Nvidia, Huang or Powell, as our report on Powell sets out.
Then there is the search. The board will consider internal and external candidates and has given no timetable. Evercore’s Mark Lipacis warned of possible “leadership limbo” and said Nvidia lacks “a visible #2 operational or strategic leader”.
What the share price is pricing in
Nvidia closed at $166.19 on Thursday, down 4.3%, after falling as much as 14% during the session, Yahoo Finance data show. That leaves the stock more than 30% below its 6 October closing high of $239.24, an Invezz calculation.
Brokers have cut targets, but most still sit above the share price. At least nine firms trimmed theirs on Thursday, lowering the average to about $217 from roughly $343, Benzinga said. Evercore downgraded the stock to In Line and cut its target to $186 from $465.
Rasgon said the shares “screen extremely cheap” but that he was “having a hard time advocating stepping in here”. KeyBanc’s John Vinh called Kress’s appointment constructive, citing her “deep institutional knowledge”.
Tuesday’s numbers may well be strong. The harder test for Kress is whether her outlook, and her answers on the call, convince investors that Nvidia can keep delivering without Huang.
AI disclosure: AI tools assisted with research and drafting of this piece. An Invezz editor reviewed the facts, sources and wording before publication. Any opinions or analysis are Invezz’s, not those of an automated system.
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