TLDR
- Nvidia’s board added $150 billion to its share buyback authorization, the largest single increase in company history.
- Total remaining authorization now stands at $235 billion, to be spent through fiscal 2028.
- NVDA shares rose about 2% Monday, trading near $230.
- Free cash flow hit $69.9 billion in the first half of fiscal 2027, up 77% year over year.
- Past Nvidia and Apple buyback increases were usually followed by gains beating the S&P 500 over the next year.
Nvidia stock climbed roughly 2% on Monday after the company announced a record $150 billion boost to its share repurchase program. That brings the total amount left to spend to $235 billion. Shares traded near $230 following the news.
The company called it the largest buyback authorization increase in its history. It also tops the $110 billion Apple approved back in 2024.
Nvidia plans to spend the full $235 billion through fiscal 2028, which ends in January of that year. That works out to more than $40 billion a quarter over the roughly 16 months left.
That pace would more than double Nvidia’s current buyback rate. The company spent around $20 billion on repurchases in each of the past two quarters.
The Cash Behind the Buyback
Free cash flow for the first half of fiscal 2027 came in at $69.9 billion. That’s 77% higher than the same period a year earlier.
CEO Jensen Huang tied the announcement directly to that cash generation. He said it reflects confidence in the “long-term opportunity” from AI and accelerated computing.
Nvidia also generated $74.4 billion in operating cash flow during the same six-month period. It still returned $46.1 billion to shareholders in that window.
The buyback announcement came alongside news of Nvidia’s Open Agent Safety Platform. That’s an open software tool designed to improve security for third-party AI agent systems.
What History Shows
Apple approved buybacks of $90 billion or more six times between 2018 and 2025. Its stock gained in all six of the following 12-month periods, beating the S&P 500 in five of them.
Nvidia’s own track record looks even stronger. After its $25 billion buyback boost in August 2023, shares rose about 175% over the next year. The S&P 500 gained about 27% in that same stretch.
After the August 2024 increase of $50 billion, Nvidia stock rose 43% versus a 16% gain for the index. Following last year’s $60 billion boost, the stock climbed 26% against the index’s 19% gain.
Not every case was a blowout win. Apple’s 2023 buyback came during a sales slump, and its stock actually trailed the S&P 500 that year.
Analysts point to valuation as part of the story. Nvidia trades at about 18.7 times forward earnings, according to a former Wall Street analyst writing on X.com.
That analyst noted Nvidia is buying back its own stock at a cheaper multiple than most S&P 500 companies. He added that the company doesn’t have to pick between funding AI growth and returning cash to shareholders.
Share Count Impact Has Been Small
Despite the size of the buybacks, Nvidia’s actual share count hasn’t shrunk much. Diluted shares outstanding fell only about 1% over the past year.
Earnings per share still more than doubled over that period. Most of that came from business growth rather than the reduced share count.
Nvidia now has around 24.1 billion shares outstanding. At about $230 a share, that puts its market cap near $5.5 trillion, the largest of any public company.
The full $235 billion authorization would buy back a bit over 4% of the company at current prices. Nvidia’s stock traded at $227.21 at Monday’s close, down slightly from its intraday high near $232.82.
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