Nvidia, the chipmaker at the centre of the boom in artificial intelligence (AI), has reported a seven-fold jump in profit, sending its stock to a record high. The Santa Clara, California-based company said on Wednesday that net income rose to 14.88bn in the first quarter, up from 2.04bn a year earlier. Revenue more than tripled to 26.04bn, well above analysts' forecasts. Nvidia forecast revenue would hit 28bn, plus or minus 2 percent, in the second quarter, also beating analysts' forecasts. Nvidia also announced it would split its stock 10-for-1, effective June 7, to make its shares more accessible, and raise its quarterly dividend by 150 percent to 1 cent per share.

The stock market darling on everyone's lips is Nvidia, which makes the processing chips that power everything from home computers to industrial machinery to cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology. On Thursday, the company stunned Wall Street with results that blew the roof off analysts' expectations, reporting $13.5bn in quarterly profits, $2bn higher than pundits had predicted. Its performance is being driven in particular by the AI boom, which has tripled the value of its shares this year and given it a market value of more than $1tn. California-based Nvidia is one of just five companies to have reached that milestone – along with Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Google's owner, Alphabet – and the only one that isn't a household name. So why are its chips so hot, and what does the future hold?