Nvidia has overtaken Microsoft and Apple to become the world’s most valuable company as it cashes in on the rise of artificial intelligence.
Shares in the US chipmaker rose more than 3 per cent in early trading yesterday, taking its value to $3.33bn (£2.6bn).
That surpassed Apple and Microsoft, which were worth $3.32 trillion and $3.28 trillion respectively.
The entire FTSE 100 of London’s top stock market companies is valued at £2.5 trillion.
Nvidia, one of the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’ tech stocks in the US, has almost tripled in value since the beginning of this year and has risen almost tenfold since the beginning of 2023.
AI Champion: Shares in US chipmaker Nvidia rose more than 3% in early trading yesterday, taking its value to $3.33bn (£2.6bn).
The stock enjoyed a major boost in the last month after it revealed revenue hit £20bn in the three months to the end of April.
That represented a 262 percent increase from a year earlier and crushed Wall Street estimates.
Chief executive Jensen Huang said demand was “so strong” and rejected fears that this momentum would fade soon.
Amazon, Google, Facebook owner Meta and Microsoft have said they will need to spend more on the chips and data centers needed to train and operate their artificial intelligence systems in the coming months.
Founded in 1993, the story of the world’s most valuable chipmaker began in a Silicon Valley restaurant, with Huang and two other engineers, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem.
Without knowing exactly what his business would be like, his strategy was to make early bets on markets that barely existed at the time, starting with PC gaming and graphics processing.
This turned out to be a huge success, as its graphics processing unit is now essential in the gaming world in popular titles like Call Of Duty.
But its most recent bet in the world of AI has turned out to be its most lucrative, making it the first semiconductor company to amass a $1 trillion market valuation in May of last year.
Dan Ives, technology analyst at Wedbush Securities, said: “The godfather of AI, Jensen Huang and Nvidia, are leading this revolution and it’s a race to a $4 trillion market cap with Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple fighting for the top spot.” first place”.