Strong sales of Nvidia Corp.'s latest graphics processing units (GPUs) based on Kepler architecture and growing demand for Tegra system-on-chips uplifted Nvidia's revenue and margins in the second quarter of fiscal 2013. Unfortunately, tight supply of products made using 28nm process technology continued to impact Nvidia's growth. In addition, the company's operating expenses increased to over $400 million, which harmed the company's profitability.

"Our investments in mobile computing and visual computing are both paying off. Tegra has achieved record sales as tablets come into their own. Our GPU business made strong gains in a weak market, boosted by our breakthrough Kepler architecture. Looking ahead, we're optimistic, as our investments position us right at the center of the fastest growing segments of computing," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of Nvidia.

Nvidia's consumer GPU business (includes GPUs, memory and license revenue from cross-license agreement with Intel) was up 15.3% from the prior quarter, at $668.3 million, thanks to increased demand for high-end graphics processing units, such as GeForce GTX series as well as due to record shipments of discrete GPUs for notebooks powered by Intel Core i-sereis "Ivy Bridge" chips.

Revenue for Nvidia's professional solutions business (includes Quadro workstation graphics and Tesla compute solutions) was down 7.7% from the prior quarter, at $196.3 million. Nvidia believes that the PSB was impacted by the delayed ramp of Romley workstations and economic problems in Europe.

Revenue for consumer products business (includes Tegra SoCs, Icera baseband processors and RF transceivers, embedded products, and license, royalty and other revenue associated with game consoles) was up 35.5% from the prior quarter, at $179.7 million. The increase was largely attributable to record revenue for Tegra, with the continued ramp of smartphone and tablet devices based on Tegra 3 chips, primarily Google Nexus 7 and forthcoming Microsoft Surface powered by Windows RT.

Nvidia's revenue for second quarter of fiscal 2013 was $1.04 billion, up 12.9% from $924.9 million in the prior quarter and slightly from $1.017 billion in the same period last year. Operating expenses of Nvidia increased substantially to $401.1 million in Q2 FY2013 from $351.3 million in the year ago quarter. Net income was $119.0 million, up from the previous quarter, but down from $151.6 in Q2 FY2012. Gross margin was up to 51.8%.

Nvidia expects revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 to be between $1.15 billion and $1.25 billion; GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $390 million; GAAP gross margins to be flat relative to the prior quarter.

Tags: Nvidia, TSMC, Geforce, Kepler, 28nm, Business, Tesla, Quadro