Tariff Turmoil Put Nvidia to a Test: Top Customers Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft Just Showed Us Whether the Chip Giant Passed or Failed.

Nvidia's (NASDAQ: NVDA) earnings have soared quarter after quarter thanks to the great demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) products and services. The company is the world's leading designer of AI chips -- known as graphics processing units (GPUs) -- and has used this position as a springboard to create an entire portfolio that supports companies throughout their AI journey.

This AI powerhouse serves a variety of players, from small start-ups to market giants across industries. But in recent times, investors have worried about Nvidia's revenue potential in the coming quarters. This is amid concern about possible weakness in the general economy -- something that may lead AI customers to cut back on spending.

The risk intensified last month when President Donald Trump announced a plan to put in place a set of tariffs on imports from around the world. The concern is this will increase prices of items at home, weighing on consumers' wallets and companies' earnings.

This potential hurdle put Nvidia to a test: Would its top customers, seeing the risk of a slowdown ahead, cut spending on AI and therefore on Nvidia's chips? These tech giants, during their recent earnings reports, just showed us whether Nvidia passed or failed.

Image source: Getty Images.

Nvidia's big customers

First, a quick note on Nvidia's customers. The company doesn't directly identify these players, but it's believed that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) are among them. These tech giants spend billions of dollars annually on Nvidia's GPUs to build out their AI platforms -- and in the case of cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Alphabet's Google Cloud, they also offer Nvidia products and services to their customers.

These tech giants all face a certain degree of impact on future earnings prospects from Trump's tariff plan -- though it's too early to determine this impact, since final tariff levels haven't been set. The president, after announcing his initial tariff plan, put this plan on pause to offer countries time to negotiate trade deals with the U.S. Meanwhile, he also temporarily exempted electronics products from the tariffs.

So, right this minute, tariffs don't represent a hurdle for tech players -- though tariffs likely will become a headwind in the months to come. Trump has said he aims to determine a tariff level specifically for imported electronics products.

All this could result in technology companies reining in spending -- even as early as today, with the idea that this potential earnings headwind is just ahead.

Important words from Microsoft's CEO

But in their latest earnings reports, Nvidia's top reported customers didn't cut AI spending, instead emphasizing plans to keep investing in this booming technology. Microsoft reiterated its earlier forecast for capital spending to support demand for AI. And chief executive officer Satya Nadella said something interesting that reinforces the idea of AI spending even during difficult economic times: "Cloud and AI are the essential inputs for every business to expand output, reduce costs, and accelerate growth." So companies, to focus on efficiency and growth, actually might favor AI spending when the economic environment looks tough.

Alphabet reiterated that it plans $75 billion in capital spending this year and said its strong relationship with Nvidia is a "key advantage." Meta increased its capital spending outlook for the year to the range of $64 billion to $72 billion from the $60 billion to $65 billion range -- and AI spending remains a big part of this. Finally, Amazon said it continues to "invest very aggressively in AI."

So it's clear that Nvidia's customers, now well aware of any potential tariff and economic risks ahead, still are continuing their AI investments as planned. And they also remain optimistic about the potential of the technology to greatly improve a company's operations and even lower costs.

All this is fantastic news for Nvidia and its shareholders, as it shows these top customers, even against a tumultuous economic backdrop, refuse to slow down their AI spending plans. And this means we should expect ongoing growth from Nvidia as these customers continue to seek out top-performing chips.

Of course, tariffs remain a risk, and any extreme decision in this area could represent a headwind for tech players including Nvidia. But so far, in this test of potential earnings strength down the road, technology giants just showed us that Nvidia passed with flying colors.

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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Adria Cimino has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.