NVIDIA's earnings, walked: from $58B net income to $73B adjusted EBITDA

NVIDIA's Q1 FY2027 net income was $58.3B on revenue of $81.6B — an 89% adjusted EBITDA margin at scale. The bridge below walks every line a credit analyst, valuation desk, or buy-side model uses to reconcile GAAP earnings to the cash-generative profile, then layers segment EBITDA, leverage, and peer benchmarks to put the number in context.

§ 01From net income to adjusted EBITDA

The reverse-engineering exercise: start from net income and add back what GAAP took out. For NVDA the bridge is unusually short because the company carries almost no debt, has trivial D&A relative to revenue, and runs a 16.6% effective tax rate.

NVDA Q1 FY27 · EBITDA bridge ($M)

Line	$M	Notes
Net income (GAAP)	58,321	starting point
+ Provision for income taxes	11,582	eff. rate 16.6%
Pre-tax income	69,903
+ Interest expense	102	de minimis vs scale
− Interest income	(872)	cash on B/S
EBIT (operating)	69,133	vs GAAP OpInc $53.5B
+ Depreciation & amortization	997	cash-flow stmt
EBITDA	70,130	85.9% margin
Common adjustments
+ Stock-based compensation	1,928	non-cash, debated
+ Acquisition / one-time	870	est., illustrative
Adjusted EBITDA	72,928	89.4% margin

Headline

$72.9B

89.4% margin

The bridge from $58.3B net income to $72.9B adj. EBITDA is short — taxes (16.6%) and a small D&A line — because NVDA carries almost no debt and capex is the customer's, not theirs.

Why EBIT > GAAP operating income

The bridge EBIT line ($69.1B) sits above GAAP operating income ($53.5B). That's not a contradiction — non-operating items (mostly interest income on $53.7B of cash) flow through pre-tax. Read both, not one.

NVIDIA snapshot

NVDA · $190.46MC $4.66T

Cash & marketable securities $53.7B · No net debt · D&A only 1.2% of revenue