NVIDIA today reported record revenue for the third quarter ended October 29, 2017, of $2.64 billion, up 32 percent from $2.00 billion a year earlier, and up 18 percent from $2.23 billion in the previous quarter, with growth across all its platforms.

GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were a record $1.33, up 60 percent from $0.83 a year ago and up 45 percent from $0.92 in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.33, also a record, up 41 percent from $0.94 a year earlier and up 32 percent from $1.01 in the previous quarter.

"We had a great quarter across all of our growth drivers," said Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. "Industries across the world are accelerating their adoption of AI."Our Volta GPU has been embraced by every major internet and cloud service provider and computer maker. Our new TensorRT inference acceleration platform opens us to growth in hyperscale datacenters. GeForce and Nintendo Switch are tapped into the strongest growth dynamics of gaming. And our new DRIVE PX Pegasus for robotaxis has been adopted by companies around the world. We are well positioned for continued growth," he said.

Capital Return
During the first nine months of fiscal 2018, NVIDIA returned to shareholders $909 million in share repurchases and $250 million in cash dividends. As a result, the company returned an aggregate of $1.16 billion to shareholders in the first nine months of the fiscal year. The company intends to return $1.25 billion to shareholders in fiscal 2018.

For fiscal 2019, NVIDIA intends to return $1.25 billion to shareholders through ongoing quarterly cash dividends and share repurchases. The company announced a 7 percent increase in its quarterly cash dividend to $0.15 per share from $0.14 per share, to be paid with its next quarterly cash dividend on December 15, 2017, to all shareholders of record on November 24, 2017.

NVIDIA's outlook for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 is as follows:

• Revenue is expected to be $2.65 billion, plus or minus two percent.
• GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are expected to be 59.7 percent and 60.0 percent, respectively, plus or minus 50 basis points.
• GAAP and non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $722 million and $600 million, respectively.
• GAAP and non-GAAP other income and expense are both expected to be nominal.
• GAAP and non-GAAP tax rates are both expected to be 17.5 percent, plus or minus one percent, excluding any discrete items. GAAP discrete items include excess tax benefits or deficiencies related to stock-based compensation, which the company expects to generate variability on a quarter by quarter basis.

Third Quarter Fiscal 2018 Highlights
During the third quarter, NVIDIA achieved progress in these areas:

Datacenter

• Set records for attendance at its GPU Technology Conferences for developers in Beijing, Munich, Tel Aviv, Taipei and Washington.
• Announced that Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent will adopt NVIDIA Volta GPUs for accelerating AI across enterprise and consumer applications, joining Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft.
• Added NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPU accelerators to Oracle Cloud.
• Launched the NVIDIA GPU Cloud container registry with fully optimized software stacks to accelerate deep learning for developers worldwide.
• Announced that Huawei, Inspur and Lenovo will use NVIDIA Volta HGX architecture to build AI systems for datacenters.
• Shared news that Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and Supermicro unveiled servers based on NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPU accelerators.
• Launched the NVIDIA TensorRT 3 AI inference acceleration platform, opening up new growth in hyperscale datacenters.

Gaming

• Released the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GPU, designed to handle the graphical demands of DirectX 12, HDR and immersive VR.
• Announced collaborations to bring NVIDIA GameWorks technology to top fall games, including PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, FINAL FANTASY XV and Shadow of War.

Professional Visualization

• Released the NVIDIA VRWorks 360 Video SDK, enabling production houses to live stream high-quality, 360-degree, stereo video.
• Opened early access to NVIDIA Holodeck, providing a virtual collaboration space using highly realistic, physically simulated VR.
• Launched the Quadro Virtual Data Center Workstation, with virtualization software that turns GPU-accelerated servers into powerful workstations.

Automotive

• Announced NVIDIA DRIVE PX Pegasus, the world's first auto-grade AI computer designed to enable a new class of driverless robotaxis without steering wheels, pedals or mirrors.

Autonomous Machines/AI Edge Computing

• Added Alibaba and Huawei as partners for the NVIDIA Metropolis AI Smart Cities platform.
• Announced it is collaborating with China's JD.com's X lab to use NVIDIA Jetson to create autonomous machines that bring AI to logistics and delivery.

Commentary on the quarter by Colette Kress, NVIDIA's executive vice president and chief financial officer, is available at http://investor.nvidia.com/.