Logo of Nvidia on the office building at Santa Clara, Calif. On Wednesday, June 5, Nvidia’s market value topped $3 trillion amid soaring demand for its semiconductor in AI applications. (Photo Credit- The Canadian Press)
Nvidia has become the world's most valuable publicly traded company, surpassing Microsoft. This milestone underscores its dominant position in the tech industry.
On Tuesday, Nvidia’s stock price surged nearly $5, or 3.7%, reaching $135.77. This increase pushed its market value to $3.33 trillion, edging out Microsoft's $3.31 trillion and Apple’s $3.29 trillion. Apple had been the largest by market cap until Microsoft overtook it earlier this year. Remarkably, Nvidia’s market value was just over $1 trillion a year ago.
The company’s stock has skyrocketed by more than 174% this year. Earlier in June, Nvidia’s shares were trading above $1,200 before the company executed a 10-for-1 stock split on June 7, aiming to make its shares more accessible to investors.
While Microsoft and Apple's growth can be attributed to historical technological advancements, Nvidia’s remarkable rise has been driven by a surge in demand for its AI chips, which are fueling substantial corporate investments in AI and its data center business.
Since 2020, Nvidia’s revenue has more than doubled, now exceeding its previous annual figures in just one quarter. Its profits have also seen significant growth. Jensen Huang, the company’s leather-jacketed founder and CEO, is celebrated as a visionary in an era marked by innovations such as generative AI tools like ChatGPT.
Nvidia leads in graphics processing hardware, cloud services, and high-performance computing technologies. It is also making strides in new areas like robotics and autonomous driving.
This achievement has also contributed to the S&P 500 reaching a new record, as investors flock to companies like Nvidia that are poised to benefit from AI’s expansion.
Angelo Zino from financial intelligence firm CFRA remarked, “We were kind of waiting for this moment, actually, for quite some time.” He also noted that the semiconductor industry is now the largest sub-industry in the S&P 500.
