Nvidia stock buyback: what the $150B increase means
The Nvidia stock buyback grows by $150 billion to $235 billion through fiscal 2028. What an authorization is, who calls it a record, and what it signals.
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Nvidia's board has added $150 billion to the Nvidia stock buyback program, the company announced on September 28, 2026, leaving $235 billion authorized for share repurchases that it expects to complete through fiscal 2028. Nvidia calls it the largest increase to a repurchase authorization in history. That's a permission to buy back stock, not money already spent.
Key takeaways
- $150 billion added, $235 billion remaining. The new money sits on top of about $85 billion that was left under the existing program, by Nvidia's own numbers.
- The "largest in history" line is Nvidia's claim. Reuters backs it up in nominal dollars: the previous biggest single increase was Apple's $110 billion in 2024.
- "Through fiscal 2028" means roughly through January 2028, because Nvidia's fiscal year ends in late January. That's our reading of its calendar, not a date Nvidia gave.
- The program is paid for by cash flow. Nvidia generated $69.9 billion in free cash flow in the first half of fiscal 2027 and spent $39.0 billion of it on buybacks.
- Nvidia doesn't have to use all of it. An authorization is a ceiling, and the company set no schedule or minimum.
What the Nvidia stock buyback increase approves
In its announcement, Nvidia says its board authorized "an additional $150 billion" under the company's existing share repurchase program, raising the total remaining amount to $235 billion. A share repurchase, or buyback, is when a company buys its own stock in the market. Fewer shares remain, so each one represents a slightly larger slice of the company's profits.
The key word is authorization. The board has given management permission to spend up to that amount; it hasn't committed to spending it. The release names no schedule, no minimum and no method, such as open market purchases or a preset trading plan. That leaves the company free to slow down, speed up or stop if the stock price, its cash needs or its plans change.
Nvidia's founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, framed it as a cash story: "Our cash generation gives us the capacity to invest in the technologies that advance this transformation and return capital to shareholders," he said in the release.
Is it really the largest buyback in history?
Nvidia's release says: "This marks the largest share repurchase authorization increase in history." Note the wording: the record is for a single increase, and it's the company's own claim.
Reuters independently describes it as "the biggest-ever increase in a stock repurchase program," surpassing the $110 billion Apple approved in 2024. The past benchmarks are easy to check against Apple's own releases:
| Company | Announced | Amount | What it was |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | May 2018 | $100 billion | A new authorization |
| Apple | May 2024 | $110 billion | An additional authorization |
| Nvidia | September 2026 | $150 billion | An increase, lifting the remaining total to $235 billion |
Two caveats keep the record in proportion. These are nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation or for the size of each company. And the fair comparison is $150 billion, not $235 billion: the larger figure includes money approved before today.
What "through fiscal 2028" means on the calendar
Nvidia runs on a fiscal year that ends in late January: fiscal 2026 ended on January 25, 2026, according to its second-quarter fiscal 2027 results. Fiscal 2027 therefore ends in early 2027, and fiscal 2028 runs to about late January 2028. Nvidia hasn't given an exact end date for the program, so treat that as our reading of its calendar.
That leaves about 16 months. Spending the full $235 billion in that window would take an average of roughly $44 billion a quarter. Our arithmetic, for scale: that's more than double the $19.7 billion Nvidia spent on buybacks in the quarter that ended July 26, 2026.
What the buyback signals about Nvidia cash flow
The same results show the cash behind the increase. In the first half of fiscal 2027, Nvidia reported $74.4 billion in operating cash flow and $69.9 billion in free cash flow, the cash left after equipment spending. It returned $39.0 billion through buybacks and $6.3 billion through dividends in that period. Revenue was $96.2 billion in the second quarter alone, and Nvidia guided to about $108 billion for the third.
The numbers also show how fast the Nvidia share repurchase program uses up its authorizations. It had $99.0 billion left at the end of July. Today's release puts the total at $235 billion after adding $150 billion, which implies about $85 billion remained before the increase, so roughly $14 billion went to buybacks in the two months since. That's our subtraction, not a figure Nvidia reported.
Huang credits "a once-in-a-generation platform shift to AI and accelerated computing" for the growth. The spending behind that shift is broad: AI labs are signing multibillion-dollar compute contracts, such as Anthropic's $11.6 billion CPU deal with Akamai, and Nvidia keeps expanding beyond chips, as with its open agent safety platform. His point in the release is that the company can fund both that investment and the buyback.
What happens next
Nvidia will report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results in the coming months, and that release will show how much it repurchased and how much authorization remains. Watch the gap between free cash flow and buybacks: if repurchases start to exceed the cash Nvidia generates, it would be drawing on its reserves to keep pace. None of this is investment advice; it's a reading of what the company has disclosed.
For more on the companies building the AI economy, see our tech coverage.
Bottom line
The Nvidia stock buyback is now authorized at up to $235 billion, $150 billion of it new, to be used through about January 2028. Nvidia calls the increase the largest in history, and Reuters' comparison with Apple's $110 billion in 2024 supports that in nominal dollars. It's a ceiling, not a check already written, and what it signals is how much cash Nvidia's AI business is generating.
FAQ
What is a share repurchase authorization?
It's the board's permission for a company to buy back its own stock, up to a set amount. It doesn't oblige the company to spend it. Nvidia's release sets no schedule or minimum for the $235 billion.
How much has Nvidia spent on buybacks this fiscal year?
Nvidia reported $39.0 billion in repurchases in the first half of fiscal 2027, the six months that ended July 26, 2026, including $19.7 billion in the second quarter.
Is Nvidia's buyback bigger than Apple's?
As a single increase, yes: $150 billion against Apple's $110 billion in 2024, which Reuters called the previous record. The comparison is in nominal dollars and doesn't account for inflation or company size.