Despite increasing competition, Nvidia controls 80% of the fast-growing artificial intelligence chip market as the tech industry’s graphics processing unit (GPU) for creating and deploying generative AI software.

What investors will want to see when Nvidia reports its third-quarter results on Wednesday is whether it can continue to grow at a strong pace even as the AI ​​boom enters its third year.

Nvidia is entering “uncharted territory” as it tries to continue growing on a $3.5 trillion market cap, HSBC analyst Frank Lee wrote in a report this week.

“We’ve been thinking about this amazing growth trajectory and not only do we see no signs of slowing down, we also expect a further rebound in data center momentum through 2026,” Lee said in his note. He has a buy rating for the stock.

Future growth will have to come from Blackwell, the next-generation chip that just shipped to end users like Microsoft, Googling and Open AI. More important than Nvidia’s third-quarter results will be what the company says about demand for the Blackwell chip.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will likely update investors on Wednesday on how this will develop, and he may address reports that some of the Blackwell chip-based systems are experiencing overheating issues.

In August, Nvidia said it expected about “several billions” in Blackwell sales in the January quarter.

“Our base case is that NVDA will ship ~100,000 Blackwell GPUs in Q4, which we believe is at the lower end of investor expectations,” Raymond James analyst Srini Pajjuri wrote in a note last week. He has a strong buy rating for the stock.

Since Nvidia’s last earnings report, the stock is up nearly 19%, capping off a stunning run that has seen the stock price rise eightfold since ChatGPT was released in late 2022. In addition to the increase in the share, there has been a sharp increase in turnover and margin, and according to FactSet the price-earnings ratio has risen to just under 50 over time.

Growth is slowing, but that’s partly because Nvidia’s revenue is so much greater than before. Nvidia reported 122% revenue growth in its most recent quarter. That was lower than the 262% year-on-year growth reported in the April quarter and the 265% growth in the January quarter.

Analysts surveyed by LSEG expect revenue of about $33.12 billion, which would be nearly 83% growth from a year ago. The company is also expected to post earnings per share of 75 cents, according to LSEG consensus estimates.

Nvidia’s data center business accounted for nearly 88% of revenue in the most recent quarter, taking focus away from the company’s older computer gaming business.

For example, the company makes the chip for the Nintendo Switch, where the Japanese video game company says sales are declining sharply as the game console ages. Nvidia’s gaming business is expected to grow about 6% to $3.03 billion, according to a FactSet estimate. The car company, which makes chips for electric cars, is still small, even though analysts expect sales to grow 38% to about $360 million.

But none of that will matter as long as Nvidia’s data center business continues to grow at a rate that nearly doubles year-over-year, and Huang tells investors the party won’t end.