26 February 2026
If you are covering the latest results from Nvidia or Salesforce, please find below a comment from Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot:
Nvidia
“Nvidia had a nice beat and raise in its latest set of eagerly anticipated quarterly earnings and this should go some way to helping assuage any fears around the AI trade the market has. Data centres remains the main game in town with strong growth there, but it is interesting to see the networking side of the business growing strongest. Given where memory prices are, gross margins have remained solid. However, while the guidance for the year ahead looks fine, it lacks any real colour on what to expect. Nvidia remains excited about its Rubin chip launching later this year, so that should give it some good momentum.
“But the market is fickle and has become somewhat accustomed to Nvidia beating expectations and raising guidance by this level. Indeed, nobody will have been blown away by the results, and while the company keeps ploughing on, investors remain somewhat sceptical about the level of capex from the hyperscalers compared to the return on investment.
“That said, fears will be calmed for now until Nvidia unveils its product roadmaps in the next month or so. The company remains at the top of the pyramid, but with competition intensifying beneath them and others looking to diversify supply away from Nvidia, it will need to keep delivering these sorts of results to keep the market calm.”
Salesforce
“Salesforce also reported its latest earnings last night, but did very little to calm fears around the future of software providers. The company itself is growing fine, revenues up 12%, and management clearly sees value in the shares given the buyback announced, but the recent rout in software share prices remains in view.
“The problem for Salesforce is that its agentic AI software, AgentForce, is growing very strongly, but remains a tiny part of overall revenues. The company needs to ramp that growth up quickly, but software spend amongst corporates is tight, making it a difficult backdrop to that. Until it can begin shifting clients onto AgentForce in greater numbers, the narrative will not shift. With other software providers equally struggling to turn the tide against the potential of AI, share prices are going to continue to be challenged.”
