Nvidia predicted to surpass Apple in stock buybacks, dividends

For the better part of a decade, Apple was the undisputed king of giving money back to shareholders. Now Nvidia is pulling up with a cash cannon powered by AI demand, and the numbers suggest it could dethrone Apple’s legendary capital return machine faster than most investors expected. Evercore ISI analysts project Nvidia will return $115 billion to shareholders in calendar year 2026 and a staggering $230 billion in 2027. The numbers behind Nvidia’s buyback blitz In its fiscal second quarter ending July 2026, Nvidia allocated a record $26 billion to shareholders. That broke down to approximately $20 billion in stock repurchases and $6 billion in dividends. The company has committed to returning at least 50% of its free cash flow to investors on an annual basis. Back in May 2026, Nvidia raised its quarterly dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 per share, a 25x increase. The company still has roughly $99 billion remaining under its current stock repurchase authorization. Jim Cramer has publicly advocated for Nvidia to quintuple its buyback program to $500 billion, essentially urging the chipmaker to run the same playbook Apple perfected over the last decade. Apple’s transition creates an ope...