Key points
- Nvidia calls the increase a record
- How the size compares with Apple's 2024 buyback
- How fast Nvidia has been buying its own stock
Nvidia (NVDA) added $150 billion to its stock buyback program on Monday, bringing its remaining authorization to $235 billion. The company called the addition "the largest share repurchase authorization increase in history" in a release issued at 7 a.m. Eastern.
Nvidia expects to use the authorization through fiscal 2028, which ends in January 2028, but did not give a purchase schedule. The company spent $39.8 billion repurchasing shares in the first half of the current fiscal year.
Shares traded at $229.27 in premarket trading as of 9:12 a.m. Eastern, up 1.9% from Friday's $225.07 close.
Huang points to AI growth and cash generation
"NVIDIA's growth is being driven by a once-in-a-generation platform shift to AI and accelerated computing," chief executive Jensen Huang said in the release. He added that the company's cash generation provides "the capacity to invest in the technologies that advance this transformation and return capital to shareholders."
How big is a $150 billion buyback?
A buyback authorization sets the most a company may spend repurchasing its own shares, but it does not require the company to spend all of it.
The $150 billion increase equals about 2.7% of Nvidia's $5.54 trillion market value at Friday's close. The full $235 billion equals about 4.2%. Apple (AAPL) announced a $110 billion buyback authorization in May 2024, which at the time was the largest in US history.
How much has Nvidia been buying back?
Nvidia repurchased 203 million shares for $39.8 billion in the first six months of fiscal 2027, through July 26, according to its quarterly report. That compares with $24.2 billion in the same period a year earlier. In the second quarter alone, the company bought 94 million shares for $19.7 billion.
Including dividends, Nvidia returned about $26.0 billion to shareholders in the second quarter, according to its August 26 earnings release. Revenue for the quarter was $96.2 billion. The next quarterly dividend, $0.25 a share, is payable on October 1.
The board approved an additional $60 billion for buybacks in August 2025 and another $80 billion on May 18, 2026. Nvidia had $99.3 billion left under its authorization on July 26. With the total at $235 billion after Monday's $150 billion increase, the balance just before the increase was about $85 billion.
Nvidia's repurchases have coincided with sales by some insiders. Director Mark Stevens sold about $946 million of Nvidia stock in three weeks, according to his Form 4 filings.
Cover logo: Nvidia, via Wikimedia Commons, Apache License 2.0.
