Nvidia posts strong growth despite ongoing tariff challenges

AI chip maker Nvidia has posted strong growth despite being caught in the fallout of Donald Trump’s tariff war with China.

The company reported sales of 44.1 billion dollars (£32.7 billion) for the first quarter, higher than the 22.1 billion dollars (£16.4 billion) generated this time last year.

The US technology giant unveiled its financial results for the first three months of 2025 on Wednesday.

Nvidia predicted its revenue for the May–July period would be about 45 billion dollars (£35.5 billion).

The forecast includes an estimated eight billion dollars (£6.3 billion) loss in sales to China due to the export controls during its fiscal second quarter, after the restrictions cost it about 2.5 billion dollars (£2 billion) in revenue during the first quarter.

As the second most valuable listed company in the world, behind Microsoft, Nvidia is watched closely by global traders.

It was among the global technology firms to suffer sharp drops in their share price following the president’s “liberation day” tariff announcements last month.

However, they have rallied since and most of the losses suffered on Wall Street in the wake of the announcements have been regained.

Nvidia said it has been informed by the US government that it needs a licence to export its H20 AI chip to China, including Hong Kong, for the “indefinite future”.

Founder and CEO Jensen Huang said global demand for Nvidia AI infrastructure remains “incredibly strong”.

He recently blasted the country’s wider export controls as a “failure”, saying they had backfired against US companies by spurring on Chinese developers.

Meanwhile, the boss has tried to soothe investor concerns about Chinese AI firm DeepSeek emerging earlier this year as a lower-cost rival to the US giant.