MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence has officially graduated from the innovation lab to the boardroom agenda and Nvidia wants businesses to know there is no turning back. Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress has declared that AI is no longer a “nice-to-have” technology but an essential business tool, as companies across industries increasingly embrace artificial intelligence to boost productivity and drive growth.
Speaking during Nvidia’s 20 May earnings call, Kress said AI adoption is rapidly expanding beyond the technology sector and is now influencing virtually every industry and job function.
“AI is no longer a nice-to-have. AI is now a necessity for enhancing productivity across all industries and roles,” she said, highlighting how demand is accelerating across the broader AI ecosystem, from chips and infrastructure to energy, models and software applications.
The remarks come at a time when Nvidia sits firmly at the centre of the global AI gold rush. The chipmaker, whose processors power AI systems used by technology giants, start-ups and governments, has witnessed a staggering rise in market value climbing from less than $400 billion in 2022 to more than $5 trillion across 2025 and 2026.
The financial results offer a glimpse into why investors continue to back the company’s AI bet. For the quarter ended 26 April, Nvidia reported record revenue of $81.6 billion, up 20 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 85 per cent year-on-year. Free cash flow surged to $49 billion, compared with $35 billion in the previous quarter, while GAAP gross margin stood at 74.9 per cent.
Much of that growth continues to come from large cloud and AI operators. Hyperscale customers generated $38 billion in revenue during the quarter, accounting for roughly half of Nvidia’s Data Center business, which itself expanded 12 per cent sequentially.
Looking ahead, Nvidia sees even bigger opportunities on the horizon. The company estimates that global spending on AI infrastructure could reach between $3 trillion and $4 trillion by the end of the decade, fuelled by investments from cloud providers, enterprises, AI firms and governments racing to build advanced AI systems and data centres.
Analysts appear equally optimistic. In a note released on 20 May, Wedbush Securities said Nvidia remains the dominant force in the semiconductor industry as enterprises and sovereign entities continue to compete for access to its AI hardware.
Kress, who joined Nvidia in 2013, has witnessed much of the company’s transformation first-hand. Before arriving at Nvidia, she held senior finance roles at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments, building a career across some of the technology industry’s most influential companies.
For Nvidia, the message is becoming increasingly simple: AI is no longer a future trend waiting to happen. It is already rewriting how businesses operate, and companies that treat it as optional may soon find themselves running yesterday’s playbook in tomorrow’s economy.
