SANTA CLARA, California, Sept. 5, 2026, 5:42 p.m. PDT — Nvidia NASDAQ:NVDA will spend roughly $6 billion on its next quarterly dividend. The chipmaker spent more than three times that amount repurchasing stock last quarter.
That gap matters more than the eye-catching dividend increase. Nvidia raised the quarterly payment from one cent to 25 cents in May, yet the shares still yield only about 0.43%.
The dividend is now large in dollars and small beside Nvidia’s market value. It also arrives after a strong run: the shares closed Friday at $230.36, up 0.84%, on volume of 135.4 million.
Nvidia’s 10-session climb
Official Nasdaq closing prices, Aug. 24 through Sept. 4
As of . Change compares the Aug. 24 and Sept. 4 closes.
Nasdaq is closed for the weekend and again Monday for Labor Day. The next regular session begins Tuesday, leaving two trading days before the dividend turns ex.
A $6 billion payment with a 0.11% quarterly yield
Nvidia set Sept. 10 as both the ex-dividend and record date. The 25-cent payment is due Oct. 1, according to its latest results release and Nasdaq’s dividend history.
An investor buying on Sept. 10 will miss that payment. The seller keeps it, while buyers completing trades before the ex-date qualify under the SEC’s ex-dividend guidance.
The dividend clock
Three dates investors need during a holiday-shortened week
The stock may adjust by roughly the dividend on the ex-date, although ordinary trading can overwhelm that mechanical move.
The payment is not free money. A stock can fall by the dividend amount on its ex-date, absent other forces, because the cash leaves the company.
Here, normal volatility is much larger. Friday’s $1.91 gain was 7.6 times the next 25-cent dividend.
Buybacks remain the main capital-return lever
Nvidia repurchased 94 million shares for $19.7 billion during its fiscal second quarter. It paid about $6.0 billion in dividends during the same period, the company’s quarterly SEC filing shows.
How Nvidia returned cash last quarter
Buybacks outweighed dividends by 3.3 to one
The implied repurchase price divides disclosed spending by disclosed shares and is not a reported execution average.
Those two programs consumed about 43% of $59.7 billion in quarterly net income. Dividends alone absorbed roughly 10%.
The repurchases imply an aggregate cost near $209.57 per share. Friday’s close stood nearly 10% above that level, although the calculation masks individual execution prices.
Buybacks can lift per-share results when they exceed employee issuance. Nvidia’s outstanding count fell to 24.147 billion in July from 24.304 billion in January, despite issuing shares under employee plans.
The dividend is visible; the authorization is larger
Nvidia had $99.3 billion of repurchase authorization remaining on July 26. That equals about four years of dividends at the new quarterly rate, based on the latest share count.
The payout through four investor lenses
A 25-fold increase still leaves Nvidia far from income-stock territory
The estimate can change before the record date as Nvidia issues or retires shares. Future dividends also require board approval.
The balance sheet provides room for both. Nvidia reported $56.6 billion in cash and marketable debt securities, plus $42.8 billion of marketable equity securities.
Yet the capital demands are rising quickly. Supply and capacity commitments reached $279 billion, up from $119 billion one quarter earlier.
Chief Executive Jensen Huang said, “The AI infrastructure buildout is at full steam.” The short line in Nvidia’s results release captures management’s case for keeping flexibility.
The risks sit on both sides. Demand below Nvidia’s forecasts could make its vast commitments burdensome, while sustained AI demand may keep cash focused on supply and buybacks instead of a richer yield.
Investors approaching Sept. 10 should therefore treat the dividend as a calendar event, not a fresh earnings catalyst. The more consequential signal remains how aggressively Nvidia retires shares near a $5.6 trillion valuation.
