Another $150 billion leaves $235 billion to spend, about 4% of the company's value. Nvidia rose about 2% while 28 of the chip index's 30 members fell.
Nvidia now has permission to buy back roughly one of every 23 dollars of its own stock.
Directors signed off on another $150 billion of repurchases, which leaves $235 billion available to spend on its own shares through fiscal 2028. The increase is the largest buyback authorization ever announced by a U.S. company, topping the $110 billion Apple unveiled in May 2024. The board last topped up the program in May, with $80 billion.
"NVIDIA's growth is being driven by a once-in-a-generation platform shift to AI and accelerated computing," said Jensen Huang, the founder and chief executive. "Our cash generation gives us the capacity to invest in the technologies that advance this transformation and return capital to shareholders."
The scale
At more than $5.4 trillion, no company is worth more. Against that, the $235 billion now authorized equals about 4.4% of the company. Measured against sales, the new money alone equals about 1.6 quarters of revenue at the July quarter's record $96.2 billion. The company has said it expects revenue to grow about 70% in fiscal 2028.
"Every single year as we generate more cash, we'd like to be able to return it back to the shareholders," Huang said in a television interview on Monday.
Nvidia versus its sector
Nvidia shares rose about 2.1% to $229.81 in afternoon trading. The PHLX Semiconductor Index fell about 1.7%, with 28 of its 30 members lower at one point. Advanced Micro Devices fell about 4%, Micron Technology about 2.6% and Intel about 6.3%. The technology sector fund fell with them, as rising Treasury yields weighed on growth stocks broadly.
That gap is what a company-specific catalyst looks like. A buyback of this size adds a steady buyer of Nvidia's own shares. It does nothing for companies that compete with it or supply it, and it arrived on a day when rates were pulling the whole group lower.
Where the cash goes
The authorization is one use of a balance sheet that Nvidia is also putting behind its customers, through loan guarantees, leases and hundreds of private stakes. Those commitments have drawn criticism that Nvidia is financing demand for its own chips.
A buyback sends cash in the other direction, back to shareholders rather than into the ecosystem. Nvidia has framed the two as compatible, with the capacity to do both.
Two readings
One reading is that a $235 billion authorization is a statement of confidence from a company whose management expects cash generation to keep outrunning its investment needs. The other is that returning capital at a record pace while guaranteeing customers' financing concentrates more of the AI cycle's risk on one balance sheet.
The pace of actual repurchases, disclosed in Nvidia's next quarterly report, will show how much of the authorization is being used. Any update on the $500 billion financing program will show how much of the balance sheet is committed elsewhere.