Mastercard vs NVIDIA: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Mastercard reported $32.8B of revenue in FY2025 and $15B of net income. NVIDIA reported $215.9B of revenue in FY2026 and $120.1B of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Mastercard
- Latest revenue
- $32.8B (FY2025)
- Net income
- $15B
- Net margin
- 45.6%
- Revenue growth
- +13.2% a year, FY2016–FY2025
NVIDIA
- Latest revenue
- $215.9B (FY2026)
- Net income
- $120.1B
- Net margin
- 55.6%
- Revenue growth
- +46.6% a year, FY2017–FY2026
Financial summary
Mastercard
Mastercard's net revenue grew from $10.8 billion in 2016 to $32.8 billion in FY2025, with net income of $14.97 billion in FY2025, a net margin near 46%. Growth continued in 2026: second-quarter net revenue rose 14% to $9.28 billion and net income reached $4.39 billion, with a GAAP operating margin of 60.2%. Because incremental transactions cost little to process, most of that cash goes to share buybacks, dividends and acquisitions such as Recorded Future ($2.65 billion, 2024) and BVNK (up to $1.8 billion, 2026).
NVIDIA
NVIDIA's revenue rose from $27.0B in fiscal 2023 to $60.9B in FY2024, $130.5B in FY2025 and $215.9B in FY2026, which ended January 25, 2026. FY2026 net income was $120.1B. Growth sped up again in fiscal 2027: Q1 revenue was $81.6B and Q2 (ended July 26, 2026) was $96.2B, up 106% year over year, with a 75.0% gross margin and $59.7B GAAP net income. Guidance for Q3 FY2027 is $108.0B, plus or minus 2%, and assumes no Data Center compute revenue from China. NVIDIA returned about $26.0B to shareholders in Q2. In May 2026 it raised the quarterly dividend to $0.25 from $0.01, and on September 28, 2026 it added $150B to its buyback authorization.
Revenue and profit by year
Mastercard
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $32.8B | $15B | 45.6% | +16.4% | Source |
| FY2024 | $28.2B | $12.9B | 45.7% | +12.2% | Source |
| FY2023 | $25.1B | $11.2B | 44.6% | +12.9% | Source |
| FY2022 | $22.2B | $9.9B | 44.7% | +17.8% | Source |
| FY2021 | $18.9B | $8.7B | 46.0% | +23.4% | Source |
| FY2020 | $15.3B | $6.4B | 41.9% | -9.4% | Source |
| FY2019 | $16.9B | $8.1B | 48.1% | +12.9% | Source |
| FY2018 | $14.9B | $5.9B | 39.2% | +19.6% | Source |
| FY2017 | $12.5B | $3.9B | 31.3% | +16.0% | Source |
| FY2016 | $10.8B | $4.1B | 37.7% | — | Source |
NVIDIA
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $215.9B | $120.1B | 55.6% | +65.5% | Source |
| FY2025 | $130.5B | $72.9B | 55.8% | +114.2% | Source |
| FY2024 | $60.9B | $29.8B | 48.8% | +125.9% | Source |
| FY2023 | $27B | $4.4B | 16.2% | +0.2% | Source |
| FY2022 | $26.9B | $9.8B | 36.2% | +61.4% | Source |
| FY2021 | $16.7B | $4.3B | 26.0% | +52.7% | Source |
| FY2020 | $10.9B | $2.8B | 25.6% | -6.8% | Source |
| FY2019 | $11.7B | $4.1B | 35.3% | +20.6% | Source |
| FY2018 | $9.7B | $3B | 31.4% | +40.6% | Source |
| FY2017 | $6.9B | $1.7B | 24.1% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
Mastercard
- Payment network~59%
Assessments on gross dollar volume, transaction switching fees and cross-border fees, net of customer incentives. About $19.48 billion in FY2025.
- Value-added services and solutions~41%
Fraud and security, cyber and threat intelligence, data analytics, consulting, loyalty, open banking and processing services. Grew 23% in FY2025 to about $13.3 billion.
NVIDIA
- Data CenterDominant
GPU accelerators, AI systems, networking, and software for cloud, enterprise, and supercomputing customers.
- GamingMaterial
GeForce GPUs and gaming-platform products for PC gamers, creators, and consumer AI PCs.
- Professional Visualization
Complementary
Workstation GPUs, visualization, simulation, and Omniverse-related products.
- AutomotiveGrowth
Automotive compute, software, and autonomous-driving platforms.
- Software And ServicesGrowth
Enterprise AI software, cloud services, libraries, and platform subscriptions layered on hardware.
Business model and strategy
Mastercard
How it makes money
Mastercard earns money in two ways. Payment network revenue ($19.48 billion in FY2025, about 59% of net revenue) comes from assessments based on gross dollar volume, fees for switching transactions, and higher-yield cross-border fees, reduced by incentives paid to issuers and merchants.
Growth strategy
Mastercard's growth plan rests on three levers: moving more consumer spending from cash to cards and tokenized digital wallets, capturing new flows such as B2B payments, disbursements and cross-border remittances, and selling more services that are not tied to card volume. Services grew 23% in FY2025, faster than the network.
Competitive advantage
Mastercard's advantage is a two-sided network that took decades to build: about 3.7 billion Mastercard and Maestro cards issued by partners and acceptance at tens of millions of merchant locations worldwide. A new rival would need both sides at once. That scale also feeds its fraud models, tokenization service and data products, which makes the services business harder to copy.
NVIDIA
How it makes money
NVIDIA is a fabless chip and systems company: it designs GPUs, CPUs, networking and software, and outsources manufacturing mainly to TSMC. Data Center is the core business, at $193.7B of FY2026 revenue (about 90%) and $89.0B of the $96.2B earned in Q2 FY2027.
Growth strategy
NVIDIA wants to sell the whole AI factory, not just accelerators. It ships a new architecture roughly every year: Blackwell, then Blackwell Ultra, then Vera Rubin, which reached full production in mid-2026. Each rack combines GPUs, Vera CPUs, NVLink, Spectrum-6 switches and BlueField DPUs.
Competitive advantage
NVIDIA's lead comes from three things working together. CUDA has been in use since 2006 and much of the AI software stack is tuned for it. NVIDIA sells full systems that tie compute, NVLink and networking into one rack. Its scale also gets it priority access to TSMC wafers and high-bandwidth memory.
Questions about Mastercard vs NVIDIA
Which company has higher revenue — Mastercard Incorporated or NVIDIA Corporation?
Mastercard Incorporated reported $32.8B (FY2025), while NVIDIA Corporation reported $215.9B (FY2026). By last reported revenue, NVIDIA Corporation is the larger business, with Mastercard Incorporated reporting a smaller revenue base. Note: these are from different fiscal years and are not a direct like-for-like comparison.
What is the market cap of Mastercard Incorporated vs NVIDIA Corporation?
Mastercard Incorporated's market capitalisation stands at $495.4B, while NVIDIA Corporation's is $5.45T. NVIDIA Corporation carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to Mastercard Incorporated.
Which is more financially efficient — Mastercard Incorporated or NVIDIA Corporation?
Mastercard Incorporated generates $824k / employee in revenue per employee, while NVIDIA Corporation generates $5.14M / employee. NVIDIA Corporation shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Mastercard Incorporated and NVIDIA Corporation make money?
Mastercard Incorporated and NVIDIA Corporation generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Mastercard Incorporated: Mastercard earns money in two ways. NVIDIA Corporation: NVIDIA is a fabless chip and systems company: it designs GPUs, CPUs, networking and software, and outsources manufacturing mainly to TSMC.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — Mastercard Incorporated or NVIDIA Corporation?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, Mastercard Incorporated trades at 15.1x P/S and NVIDIA Corporation at 25.2x P/S. NVIDIA Corporation commands a higher revenue multiple, typically indicating that investors expect faster growth or higher future margins compared to Mastercard Incorporated. A higher multiple is not inherently better — it may also signal that the stock is priced for perfection.
Is Mastercard Incorporated bigger than NVIDIA Corporation?
By last reported revenue, NVIDIA Corporation ($215.9B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to Mastercard Incorporated ($32.8B (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Mastercard vs NVIDIA overview