Nvidia’s shares rose by 3.6% at the close of yesterday’s trading session, elevating the company’s market capitalization to $3.34 trillion. The chip manufacturer surpassed Microsoft ($3.32 trillion) to become the largest publicly traded firm globally.
The surge in Nvidia’s market value is driven by the boom in generative artificial intelligence and the increasing demand for AI chips. The company’s shares have climbed over 170% this year and approximately 1100% since their low in October 2022.
It took the company 96 days to grow from a market capitalization of $2 trillion to $3 trillion. In comparison, Microsoft took 945 days for a similar leap, while Apple took 1044. Since its initial public offering in 1999, the chip manufacturer has delivered a return of 591,078%, including reinvested dividends.
Nvidia has become the largest publicly traded company in the world for the first time. In recent years, Apple and Microsoft have alternated holding this title.
Today, Nvidia accounts for 97% of the global market for specialized AI chips. In June, the company unveiled a new generation of AI chips.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Nvidia exceeded profit expectations. The figure reached $22.1 billion, surpassing analyst forecasts by nearly $2 billion.
In April 2024, Nvidia acquired AI startup Run:ai, which aids developers and operations teams in managing and optimizing AI infrastructure.
Previously, the company introduced an AI model for generating 3D objects from prompts.
In June, Apple announced the integration of ChatGPT into Siri and other services in iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, along with a major initiative to develop generative AI—Apple Intelligence.