What happened

NVIDIA (NVDA 1.92%) shareholders beat a booming market last month. Their stock rose 12% in April compared to a 5.2% spike in the S&P 500, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The increase put the chip producer back in solidly positive territory in 2021 after having soared last year.

An engineer working on a semiconductor chip.

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

NVIDIA said during its annual investor conference on April 12 that its first quarter is off to a strong start, with sales tracking above the outlook that management issued in late February. Revenue should land above $5.3 billion, executives announced, which would translate into over 75% growth year over year.

Investors are also gaining more confidence that NVIDIA can soon start benefiting from higher manufacturing output even as it targets bigger semiconductor segments beyond the gaming niche.

Now what

NVIDIA is set to announce its first-quarter results on May 26. In addition to seeing over $5.3 billion in sales, investors will be watching for further signs of demand strength as the semiconductor company works to restock inventories in high-growth areas like data centers, gaming, automotive, and cryptocurrency mining. Yet the stock's rally might turn on the updated outlook that CEO Jensen Huang and his team issue for the second half of 2021.