Nvidia has become the world’s most valuable company after its share price reached an all-time high on Tuesday.
The company’s valuation now stands at $3.34 trillion, with the stock price nearly doubling since the start of this year. Nvidia shares ended the trading day at nearly $136, up 3.5%, surpassing Microsoft in market value. The company overtook Apple earlier this month.
The Californian firm’s remarkable rise has been driven by its dominance in the production of chips essential for artificial intelligence (AI), referred to by analysts as the “new gold or oil in the tech sector.”
Nvidia’s growth is undeniable, with its stock value now over 100 times higher than eight years ago. At that time, the company was primarily known for its competition with AMD in the graphics card market.
In recent years, Nvidia has benefited from the surge in demand for chips used to train and run generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The firm also saw a significant boost in 2020 from increased sales of its graphics cards during the Bitcoin mining rush.
The rise of Nvidia has been mirrored by the growing prominence of its CEO, Jensen Huang. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has even dubbed the 61-year-old electrical engineer, known for his signature leather jacket, the “Taylor Swift of tech” due to his celebrity status. Huang is particularly popular in his native Taiwan, where he is often treated like a rock star, with fans requesting photos and autographs.
Competition among AI developers is intense, with major tech companies such as Microsoft, Google-owner Alphabet, Meta, and Apple all striving to develop leading AI products. This competitive landscape benefits Nvidia, which not only develops its own AI technology but also dominates the AI chip market.
Nvidia’s sales and profit figures have consistently exceeded many analysts’ expectations in recent years.
