The Information AM

Save 25% on an annual subscription to read the most important news about technology and business first. For even more, Save $250 on The Information Pro for unlimited access to our proprietary org charts, databases and surveys.

1.	Nvidia Projects Strong Revenue Growth, Says U.S. Wants 15% Cut of China Sales By Amir Efrati Source: The Information

Nvidia on Wednesday posted solid revenue growth from the sale of artificial intelligence chips and networking equipment, including its flagship Blackwell chips, despite recent restrictions on its sale of its chips to China. Revenue rose 56% to $46.7 billion in the quarter that ended in July compared to the same period a year ago, beating the company’s prior revenue projection for the quarter by 6 percentage points.

Nvidia projected 53.8% revenue growth in the current quarter, which ends in October. Given Nvidia’s history of beating projections, the figure suggests the company’s revenue growth could accelerate in the current quarter from the July quarter. About half of the company’s sales come from large cloud providers such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle.

Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said just those companies will collectively spend $600 billion on data centers and chips this year alone, and Nvidia expected $3 trillion to $4 trillion in such AI infrastructure spending globally by the end of the decade, a range that CEO Jensen Huang said was “fairly sensible.”

Nvidia said it didn’t sell any AI chips to China in the July quarter and didn’t include such sales in its revenue projection for the current quarter. But Kress said that if it gets a green light from U.S. authorities for such sales, the company could generate another $2 billion to $5 billion in revenue in the current quarter. She said the Trump administration indicated it wanted to take a 15% cut of Nvidia’s chip sales to China, a geopolitical rival. Huang said China would have been a $50 billion “revenue opportunity” for Nvidia this year if U.S. restrictions hadn’t gotten in the way.

The stock fell 3% in after-hours trading after rising more than 30% so far in 2025, roughly in line with peers such as Broadcom and AMD. Despite being the world’s most valuable company, with a market capitalization of nearly $4.5 trillion, Nvidia shares are trading at roughly 36 times its projected forward earnings, far lower than its price-to-earnings ratio from a couple of years ago. In other words, the stock is a lot less expensive than it used to be.

Nvidia reported a sizable jump in the sale of networking equipment that connects servers powered by its chips. Notably, unlike in prior quarters, the company’s “CFO commentary” about its business did not reference the company’s DGX Cloud services, in which it rents out its own chips to enterprises. That suggests Nvidia’s cloud business is not a major focus. The company generated $13.5 billion in cash in the July quarter, roughly the same as its free cash flow in the same period a year ago.

2.	ByteDance Plans Share Buyback at $330 Billion Valuation By Juro Osawa Source: Reuters

ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is preparing to launch a new share buyback program for employees later this year that will value the company at more than $330 billion, Reuters reported.

In the new program, the company plans to offer current employees $200.41 per share, 5.5% higher than the price of $189.90 it offered in its previous buyback program earlier this year, which valued the firm at $315 billion, according to Reuters.

ByteDance’s valuation is less than a fifth of Meta Platforms, even though the Chinese company’s revenue is on par with Meta’s, due in part to the threat of a ban that TikTok has faced in the U.S. While a deal to sell TikTok’s U.S. business hasn’t yet materialized, President Donald Trump has repeatedly delayed enforcement of the federal law that forces a ban or sale of the app.

ByteDance’s revenue in the second quarter rose 25% from a year earlier to $48 billion, similar to Meta’s second-quarter revenue of $47.52 billion, Reuters reported. ByteDance’s growth has been decelerating due to a slowdown in its China operations, which account for the majority of its overall revenue. The company’s 2024 annual revenue grew 29% to $155 billion, a slowdown compared to its 40% revenue growth in 2023, The Information reported in April.

3.	Snowflake Shares Jump as AI Helps Boost Sales in Q2 By Kevin McLaughlin Source: The Information

Snowflake shares rose more than 13% after its second-quarter earnings, as CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said that customers are increasingly using AI models from Anthropic and OpenAI to analyze the data they store in its cloud database.

For the three months to July 31, Snowflake had nearly $1.1 billion in product revenue (the main metric it provides on earnings), up 32% from the same period last year and 6% from last quarter. The revenue figure surpassed Snowflake’s earlier projection by 7 percentage points. Snowflake also raised its annual sales forecast $70 million to nearly $4.4 billion.

While Ramaswamy didn’t specify how much revenue Snowflake is generating from AI products, he said that around 25% of customer projects during the quarter included AI. At the midpoint of its fiscal year at the end of July, Snowflake was just over halfway to its goal of generating $100 million in annual recurring revenue from AI products this fiscal year, as we reported last week.

While Snowflake sells its product through all major cloud providers, its revenue from Azure is growing the fastest, CFO Michael Scarpelli said on the call. Snowflake announced an agreement with Microsoft in February to provide customers access to OpenAI models through Azure.

For its current quarter, Snowflake expects product revenue of between $1.125 and $1.13 billion, which would represent growth of 25% to 26% from the same period last year.

4.	Vast Data Aims to Go Public Second Half of 2026 or Later By Valida Pau Source: The Information

Vast Data, a data storage startup backed by Nvidia, has considered holding an initial public offering in the second half of 2026 or later, Vast Data co-founder and CEO Renen Hallak has told employees and bankers, The Information reported Wednesday.

Vast Data develops software for storing data in a way that helps customers develop AI applications. Its customers include Elon Musk-run businesses xAI and Tesla, CoreWeave and Disney’s Pixar. Its bookings, or expected revenue from contracts its customers signed, grew around 300% to nearly $800 million in the 12 months that ended Jan. 31.

The startup, last valued at $9.1 billion in a 2023 funding round, has been in talks with Alphabet’s venture arm and Nvidia to raise new money at a valuation of around $30 billion, Reuters reported. Its investors include Fidelity Management, Tiger Global Management and Bond Capital.

Popular articles