Nvidia Authorized More Money to Buy Its Own Stock Than Most Countries Spend on Anything

Keypoints:

• Nvidia's board approved an additional $150 billion for share buybacks on September 28
• That brings the company's total remaining buyback authorization to $235 billion
• It's the largest single buyback authorization increase in US corporate history
• Nvidia's shares have climbed 24% over the past 12 months, pushing its market cap to $5.42 trillion
• The company expects to complete the expanded buyback program by the end of fiscal year 2028

Nvidia's board approved an additional $150 billion for stock buybacks on September 28, lifting the company's total remaining repurchase authorization to $235 billion, the largest single increase to a buyback program in US corporate history. Shares rose roughly 2.8% on the news, adding to a run that's already pushed Nvidia's market cap to $5.42 trillion.

A buyback works by having a company purchase its own shares on the open market, shrinking the total share count so each remaining share represents a slightly larger piece of the company. Nvidia has leaned on this heavily already, repurchasing 203 million shares for $39.8 billion in just the first half of its current fiscal year, alongside raising its quarterly dividend twenty-fivefold, from a penny to 25 cents per share, back in May.

CEO Jensen Huang framed the move as confidence in Nvidia's staying power rather than a signal the growth story is slowing. "NVIDIA's growth is being driven by a once-in-a-generation platform shift to AI and accelerated computing," Huang said in a statement. "Our cash generation gives us the capacity to invest in the technologies that advance this transformation and return capital to shareholders."

The sheer scale is what sets this apart from a routine buyback announcement. $235 billion in remaining authorization is larger than the entire annual GDP of most countries, and it lands on top of Nvidia's continued spending on chip research and data center infrastructure, not instead of it. For a company whose forward price-to-earnings multiple has actually declined since AI-driven demand took off in 2024, the buyback also reads as a bet that Nvidia's own stock, even at a $5.42 trillion valuation, still looks cheap relative to where the company expects its earnings to land.