Nvidia reported a blowout first quarter on Wednesday, pulling in $44.06 billion in revenue—72% more than it made in the same period last year—according to data reported by LSEG.

The number landed well above expectations and immediately pushed Nvidia’s stock up around 6% in after-hours trading. The company also beat on earnings, posting 96 cents per share, adjusted, compared to the 93 cents analysts expected.

Despite new restrictions from Washington that blocked shipments of its H20 AI chips to China, Nvidia still delivered one of its strongest quarters ever. The company had been set to make nearly $8 billion more in revenue if not for the policy change.

During the quarter, the US government informed the company that the H20 chip, which had previously been cleared, would now require an export license. That decision forced Nvidia to take a $4.5 billion hit from excess inventory and wiped out $2.5 billion in potential sales.

China ban slams revenue, Jensen Huang says AI market is closed to US
Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang told investors during the earnings call that the new export controls effectively blocked US companies from competing in China’s massive AI chip market. “The H20 export ban ended our Hopper data center business in China,” Jensen said.

He added that the $50 billion AI chip opportunity in China is now “effectively closed to US industry.” The company’s gross margin came in at 61%, but would have been 71.3% if not for the China-related losses.

Still, Nvidia’s net income for the quarter climbed 26% to $18.8 billion, or 76 cents per share, compared to $14.9 billion or 60 cents per share a year ago. Revenue jumped from $26 billion a year earlier, driven largely by the company’s data center unit. That division, which includes the hardware powering AI tools like ChatGPT, rose 73% to $39.1 billion, accounting for 88% of total revenue.

Nvidia said that almost half of the data center business came from large cloud providers. Sales of networking products, which connect thousands of GPUs for AI training, hit $5 billion. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress told investors that Microsoft has “deployed tens of thousands of Blackwell GPUs and is expected to ramp to hundreds of thousands” of the company’s GB200 chips, mainly due to its work with OpenAI.

Gaming, auto, and visualization units post solid gains
The gaming division, once the company’s main business, pulled in $3.8 billion, a 42% increase from the previous year. Nvidia still builds the processor for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, but many of these chips now double for AI purposes too.

The automotive and robotics unit brought in $567 million, up 72%, boosted by more demand for chips and software used in self-driving technology.

The professional visualization segment, including hardware like the DGX Spark and DGX Station, posted $509 million in revenue, up 19% from last year. These machines are used for AI and 3D design workloads.

The company also returned cash to shareholders in a big way. It spent $14.1 billion on share repurchases and issued $244 million in dividends during the quarter. Despite facing regulatory setbacks and a China chokehold, Nvidia is less than 5% off its record high from January and is currently sitting at its highest level in four months.

Outside of the company’s report, financial markets got another jolt late Wednesday when the US Court of International Trade ruled against President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs. The court said Trump had overreached and ordered the tariffs to be vacated.

S&P 500 futures rose 1.6%, Nasdaq 100 futures added 2%, and the Dow Jones futures climbed 511 points, or 1.2%. This came after a sluggish session where the S&P 500 fell 0.6%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.5%, and the Dow lost 245 points. But by the end of the week, things looked different.

Major indexes are now on pace to end both the week and the month higher. The S&P 500 is up 1.5%, the Dow rose 1.2%, and the Nasdaq gained 2%. The tech sector alone has surged over 10% in May, driven by the AI wave and announcements from companies like Alphabet.

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BlackRock increases Bitcoin ETF holdings by 25% to 2.12 million shares.
Institutional interest in crypto reflected in ETF asset growth.
Market sees potential for $120 billion inflow by 2025.

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, raised its Bitcoin ETF holdings by 25% to 2.12 million shares by March 31, indicating rising institutional interest.

This increase demonstrates significant institutional engagement with cryptocurrency, showcasing Bitcoin’s growing role in diversified investment portfolios.

BlackRock Joins Crypto Investment Surge with 25% ETF Increase
BlackRock's strategic decision to boost its Bitcoin ETF holdings by 25% accentuates its long-term commitment to cryptocurrency investments. As of March 31, the company's holdings reached 2.12 million shares, equivalent in value to approximately $99.4 million based on the current market price. The ETF's expansion showcases BlackRock's proactive efforts in leveraging Bitcoin as a key asset in diversified portfolios. For more detailed product information, see the iShares Bitcoin Trust.

The enhancement of Bitcoin ETF allocations signals a broader acceptance of crypto assets within institutional investment strategies. This move could set off a ripple effect, encouraging similar actions from other major asset management firms. Bitwise further forecasts an influx potentially reaching $120 billion by 2025, possibly exceeding $300 billion by 2026. Such projections underscore the growing confidence in Bitcoin's investment proposition.
BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF currently holds approximately 655,570.8 Bitcoin, valued at about $71.38 billion, representing 3.122% of Bitcoin's total supply cap of 21 million.

Bitcoin’s Market Cap Soars as Institutions Invest
Did you know? BlackRock's decision to increase its Bitcoin ETF holdings aligns with historical peaks of institutional interest, notably during past bull markets when major asset managers first ventured into cryptocurrency ETFs.
Bitcoin currently holds a price of $108,829.29, contributing to a robust market cap of $2.16 trillion, as stated by CoinMarketCap. With 19.87 million BTC in circulation against a cap of 21 million, Bitcoin's dominance remains strong at 63.01%. Over the last 30 days, Bitcoin experienced a 16.03% price increase, highlighting sustained growth momentum in the crypto market.

Coincu's research team projects that BlackRock's increased holdings in Bitcoin indicate a significant shift in how institutional investors view digital assets. As crypto continues to garner attention globally, regulatory frameworks and technological innovations will likely evolve, supporting broader participation in the market. Explore investment strategies with iShares for more insights on ways to invest in Bitcoin.

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Ethereum's Pectra upgrade focuses on safety and flexible staking.
Staking limit increased from 32 to 2048 ETH.
Transaction fees can now be paid in ETH, DAI, or USDC.

Ethereum's Pectra upgrade, led by Vitalik Buterin and other key developers, launched on May 26, 2025, enhancing staking and transaction flexibility.

The Pectra upgrade enhances staking and transaction processes, indicating Ethereum's pursuit of scalability and user convenience.

Introduction to Pectra Upgrade
The Ethereum Foundation prioritized safety and flexibility with the Pectra upgrade. This update, overseen by prominent figures such as Vitalik Buterin and Tim Beiko, marks a significant point in Ethereum's continuous development.
Key figures involved in the Pectra upgrade include Tim Beiko and other core developers. They emphasize that the upgrade's features aim to facilitate a more efficient user experience, particularly through enhanced staking capabilities.

Impacts on Staking and Transactions
The upgrade's immediate effects included improved staking capacity, potentially fostering capital efficiency for institutional stakers. Transaction fees now being payable in multiple tokens may alter liquidity dynamics in major stablecoins.
Financial implications of the Pectra upgrade are visible in predicted ETH price movements. A slight price increase was expected, potentially reflecting confidence in Ethereum's improved usability and transaction throughput. Broader market responses are yet to unfold.

Historical Context and Future Outlook
The broader market observed the historical pattern of price dips during upgrades. Stakeholders anticipate this trend might repeat, but the long-term view highlights enhanced scalability and efficiency as major positives.

Historical data suggest that Ethereum's upgrades often lead to initial volatility. However, the evident developer engagement on GitHub indicates robust community involvement, signifying positive regulatory and technological outcomes in the future. Tim Beiko, Ethereum Foundation Coordinator, emphasized the need for organized protocols: "Developers should try to implement relevant parts of Svantes' document in the lead up to Pectra mainnet activation."

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Tencent and Baidu, two of China’s top tech giants, say they have found ways to stay competitive in the global race for artificial intelligence even as the United States tightens controls on key semiconductors.

In April, the U.S. tightened export rules on certain chips made by Nvidia and AMD, even after the Trump administration lifted one controversial rule put in place by President Biden. These moves have prompted Chinese firms to adapt quickly to keep their AI plans on track.

Both companies discussed their strategies during recent earnings calls. Tencent’s president, Martin Lau, and Baidu’s AI cloud head, Dou Shen, each laid out how they plan to push ahead despite limits on high-end processing units.

Tencent has a “pretty strong stockpile” of GPUs
Lau said Tencent has built up “a pretty strong stockpile” of graphics processing units, or GPUs, which are critical for training large AI models. By buying ahead, the company secured enough chips to fuel its research for the next several “generations” of models.

GPUs offer the raw computing power needed to sift through immense volumes of data and help models learn patterns. But Lau argued that adding more GPUs isn’t always the best route to better results. Instead, Tencent has focused on squeezing more performance out of the chips it already holds.

“That actually sort of helped us to look at our existing inventory of high-end chips and say, we should have enough high-end chips to continue our training of models for a few more generations going forward,” Lau said.

For running AI tasks, known as inferencing, Tencent is using “software optimization” to make each GPU more efficient. Lau added that the company is exploring smaller, leaner AI models that demand far less computing power and can still deliver strong outcomes.

“We just need to sort of keep exploring these venues and spend probably more time on the software side, rather than just brute force buying GPUs,” Lau said. He also noted that Tencent can lean on custom-designed chips and semiconductors produced within China.

Baidu can build apps using its full-stack AI
Baidu, which runs the country’s biggest search engine, pointed to its “full-stack” setup. This means it controls everything from the cloud servers where data lives to the AI models themselves—like its ERNIE chatbot—and the applications built on top of those models.

“Even without access to the most advanced chips, our unique full-stack AI capabilities enable us to build strong applications and deliver meaningful value,” said Dou Shen, president of Baidu’s AI cloud division.

Baidu’s leaders also highlighted their software tricks to lower the cost of running AI workloads. Because Baidu owns much of its technology stack, it can tweak each layer—from the infrastructure up—to get more out of every GPU it owns.

“With foundation models driving up the need for a massive computing power, the abilities to build and manage large scale GPU clusters and to utilize GPUs effectively has become key competitive advantages,” Shen said.

To cushion the blow from U.S. chip curbs, Baidu and others have also turned to Chinese-made semiconductors. Shen said homegrown chips, paired with an ever-more efficient local software stack, will form “a strong foundation for long-term innovation” in China’s AI sector.

China has been pushing hard to build its own chip industry in recent years. While most experts agree that domestic GPUs and AI chips still lag behind U.S. offerings, they say progress is clear.

Analyst Gaurav Gupta of Gartner noted that stockpiling is just one tactic; China’s firms have also made steady gains across materials, equipment, chip design and packaging.

“They have achieved decent success,” Gupta said in an email, adding that these homegrown chips may not yet match U.S. leaders but “continue to make progress.”

In Washington and Silicon Valley, some U.S. executives have urged a rethink of export limits. Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, called the curbs a “failure” this week, arguing they do more harm to American companies than to Chinese buyers.

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Ethereum’s market value is now higher than Bank of America’s, reaching $327 billion, as its price rises to $2,727 — the highest it’s been since February. The rally has attracted both retail and institutional investors, especially since spot Ether ETFs have received more than $100 million in inflows.

In only 15 days, Ethereum’s market cap has surged by $100 billion, recovering rapidly from when it was near $1,800. This sudden increase has made ETH more valuable than Nestle, Alibaba, Coca-Cola and now Bank of America.

According to Ali Martinez, Ethereum has solid support at $2,370, making the path to higher prices look easy. According to Kyledoops, the fact that ETH is trading above its Realized Price of $1,900 and the True Market Mean of $2,400 signals that holders are making money and the market is bullish.

After reaching $2,700, the next significant target is $2,900, which could incentivize further investment. According to CoinMarketCap, Ethereum is currently trading at $2,670. The potential for Ethereum’s price to reach $3,900 has strengthened, with futures open interest rising by 5% to over $34 billion.
Although the SEC has not yet decided on the 21Shares Spot Ethereum ETF staking, investors are still pouring money into Grayscale’s Ether ETF, Fidelity’s FETH and Grayscale’s mini-Ether ETF.

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