Nvidia ($NVDA), famous chip maker and proliferator of cryptocurrency, has an earnings call on Thursday. The main reason to tune in: The release of GeForce Now earlier this month, the competitor to Google Stadia and Microsoft's xCloud.
It's a paid subscription service that lets users stream games over the cloud at the highest possible framerate and graphical fidelity. And instead of offering a store to purchase the games to build a catalog, GeForce Now simply lets you play the PC games you already own from your existing libraries. It's $5 a month and could be the next big thing in gaming if Nvidia gets its way. Its AI and server technology could finally be used for something other than Bitcoin farms.
“We extended our reach beyond the cloud, to the edge, where GPU-accelerated 5G, AI and IoT will revolutionize the world’s largest industries. We see strong data center growth ahead, driven by the rise of conversational AI and inference.” - Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia
Nvidia already has the Shield and TV Pro on the market, plus it's been launching lots of new laptops and GPUs, and shares have been up over the last few months. But the GeForce Now is the wind that will hopefully swoop Nvidia up into the stratosphere.
The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter, we should mention, is $1.66 per share, and you can read more about that here. They expect $3 billion in revenue, which is up from last year this time, and a year-over-year change of +107%. That all sounds very impressive, but what does the alternative data tell us?
Well, the alternative data tells us exactly what we thought it would; the stock is up because the company is doing well, which is a no-brainer. Some corporations employ too many people and spend too much, but Nvidia is looking to bite off more than they can chew because honestly, they might be able to digest about anything, including the launch of GeForce Now.
From May 2019 until now, hiring has gone up a dramatic 966%. That's not an exaggeration either, they really are growing by leaps and bounds. In the last five years, Nvidia's headcount more than doubled in size, which is astonishing to consider what they can produce now that non-gamers are interested in their tech. Even when the cryptocurrency bubble pops, cloud servers will be in such high demand that Nvidia should be set going into the future, if their earnings call today is a trend of things to come.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.