Nvidia Overtakes Microsoft and Apple to Become World's Most Valuable Company
Nvidia has achieved a historic milestone, surpassing tech giants Microsoft and Apple to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company.
The graphics and AI chip leader now boasts a market capitalization of $3.34 trillion, edging out Microsoft's $3.32 trillion and Apple's $3.29 trillion. Nvidia's stock is currently trading around $135, following a 10-for-1 stock split earlier this month. Before the split, shares were valued at approximately $1,200. The split was strategically implemented to boost Nvidia's chances of joining the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which prefers companies with more moderate share prices.
Founded in 1991 as a company focused on high-performance gaming graphics cards, Nvidia has evolved into a cornerstone of the artificial intelligence revolution. Its GPUs saw a surge in demand during the cryptocurrency mining boom around 2010, although this demand later declined with the rise of ASICs for mining.
Nvidia’s powerful processors have become indispensable for tech behemoths like OpenAI, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, all of which rely on Nvidia’s technology to develop advanced AI systems. Nvidia’s Q1 performance reflected this dominance, with the company reporting $26 billion in total revenue, including $22.6 billion from its data center operations alone.
In light of these impressive results, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang announced plans to release new AI chipsets annually, signaling a commitment to continuous innovation. Huang describes this era as a modern industrial revolution that will transform every sector of the global economy. This marks a shift from Nvidia's previous 2-year release cycle for high-end microprocessors, which saw the debut of the Ampere architecture in 2020, Hopper in 2022, and Blackwell in 2024.
Nvidia's rise underscores the increasing importance of AI and data processing in today’s tech landscape, positioning the company at the forefront of technological advancement.
