Nvidia Corp. it was already the world's most valuable semiconductor company. Now, it has become the first computer chip company to reach $3 trillion in market capitalization.
Shares of the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company have risen about 147% this year, adding about $1.8 trillion as insatiable demand for its chips used to power intelligence tasks artificial is fired. On Wednesday, the stock rose 5.2% to close at a record $1,224.40, boosting its market value to more than $3 trillion and outpacing Apple Inc.
The last time Nvidia was worth more than Apple was in 2002, five years before the launch of the first iPhone. At the time, both companies were valued at less than $10 billion each.
Nvidia has shown no signs of slowing down or letting its rivals catch up; The company's CEO, Jensen Huang, said the company plans to upgrade its so-called AI accelerators every year. Wednesday's stock gain boosted his wealth by more than $5 billion to $107.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The rise of generative AI is a new industrial revolution, and Nvidia expects to play a major role as the technology moves to personal computers, Huang told attendees at a conference at National Taiwan University.
“We see this sea change as in the early innings,” said Angelo Zino, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research.
After the CEO's keynote, Zino said he likes the “improved visibility” and sees “more momentum on the GPU/CPU/network side increasing consensus estimates.”
The company has arguably been the biggest beneficiary of a huge amount of spending on artificial intelligence, helping propel the company into a race to claim the title as the world's most valuable company. The chipmaker still trails Microsoft Corp. by market value, but with the stock on a tear, Wall Street sees it as a matter of time before Nvidia overtakes it.
Apple has struggled this year with the tech giant's stock pressured by concerns about cooling iPhone demand in China and a fine from the European Union. The company's stock has only recently turned positive for 2024 as investor sentiment toward the iPhone maker is slowly improving.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
