Nvidia Could Follow Apple’s Path. Dividends Could Fuel Its Next Stock Rally.

Nvidia's explosive growth has made it the defining stock of the artificial intelligence boom. But the company's next major catalyst may come from returning enormous amounts of cash to shareholders.

The company could increasingly use dividends and stock buybacks to support its valuation, following the same playbook that helped Apple shares command a higher price-to-earnings multiple, according to a new Yahoo Finance analysis. The argument comes as Nvidia ramps up its capital return program while continuing to post extraordinary growth in its core AI business.

The chipmaker returned a record $26 billion to shareholders during its fiscal second quarter, including approximately $20 billion in stock repurchases and $6 billion through its quarterly dividend. Nvidia currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, a dramatic increase from the $0.01 it paid before raising the payout earlier this year.

Nvidia said it returned about $26 billion to shareholders during the quarter and had approximately $99 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization at the end of the period. Its next $0.25 dividend is scheduled to be paid October 1 to shareholders of record as of September 10.

The Apple comparison is significant because Nvidia's stock has already experienced the kind of valuation compression that can occur when investors question how long exceptional growth rates can continue.

Nvidia has the earnings power to support that argument. The company reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $96.2 billion, up 106% from a year earlier, while adjusted earnings reached $2.22 per diluted share. Data Center revenue soared 117% year over year to $89 billion, reflecting continued demand for the computing infrastructure powering generative AI, agentic AI and other advanced workloads.

The results also beat Wall Street expectations cited by Yahoo Finance, which had called for adjusted earnings of $2.09 per share and revenue of $92.3 billion. More importantly for investors, Nvidia signaled that the growth story is far from finished.

For the fiscal third quarter, Nvidia projected revenue between $105.8 billion and $110.1 billion. Hitting that range would push the company above $100 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time, another milestone for a business whose expansion has repeatedly exceeded Wall Street forecasts.

The combination of rapidly rising revenue, strong free cash flow and larger shareholder distributions could give Nvidia investors a second reason to own the stock beyond expectations for AI growth.

Nvidia's capital return strategy has already changed considerably. In May, the company raised its quarterly dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 per share and authorized an additional $80 billion in share repurchases. At the time, Nvidia said it planned to return at least 50% of free cash flow to shareholders during calendar 2026.