The $5 trillion monster: Nvidia just became the world's most valuable ...

Nvidia’s relentless rally has propelled the semiconductor giant’s market capitalisation over its mega-cap tech peers, helping it clinch the title of the world’s most-valuable company as the artificial intelligence wave continues.

Shares rose by 3.5 per cent to give it a market capitalisation of about $US3.4 trillion ($5.1 trillion) on Tuesday on Wall Street, catapulting it over Microsoft and Apple. The top stocks have jockeyed all month for the pole position, with Nvidia finally edging past its big-tech peers. Both Microsoft and Apple closed lower. Microsoft’s market cap slipped to $US3.32 trillion, Apple’s slid to $US3.29 trillion.

Nvidia’s surging stock price has made co-founder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang one of the world’s richest people.Credit: Bloomberg

Earlier in the month, Nvidia capped Apple by market value for the first time since 2002, and the two went back and forth in rankings in recent days. Last week, Apple also overtook Microsoft to trade in the top spot briefly.

The ranking is yet another reminder that AI is the top focus of many investors. Nvidia is seen as the biggest and earliest beneficiary of the technology as it dominates the market with its highly sought-after chips that help power data centres running complex computing tasks required by AI applications. Demand for its H100 accelerators are surging and helped drive the chipmaker’s sales up by more than 125 per cent last year.

Loading

Microsoft, for its part, is also seen as an early AI winner given its investment and partnership with OpenAI, which created ChatGPT. And, this week, Apple shares rallied after the iPhone maker finally unveiled its plan for using the technology, appeasing investors at long last.

“We believe over the next year the race to $US4 trillion market cap in tech will be front and centre between Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft,” Daniel Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note.

Nvidia’s surging stock price has made co-founder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang one of the world’s richest people. His net worth has climbed more than $US70 billion since the beginning of the year to $US115 billion, putting him in 12th place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That’s the biggest gain among his billionaire peers.

Investors, alongside Huang, argue that Nvidia is more than a chipmaker.

“They’re not just selling chips, they’re selling systems,” Michael Lippert, vice president and portfolio manager at the Baron Capital, said in an interview, pointing to the company’s proprietary software and development ecosystem.

The frenzy over AI has sent Nvidia shares more than 160 per cent in 2024.Credit: AP

Nvidia’s swift climb to the top has been record-breaking, as the company is one of the few firms to have demonstrated significant revenue growth from AI. Through last close, shares have risen more than 160 per cent in 2024, adding more than $US2 trillion to its market capitalisation.

Since its blowout forecast about a year ago, the company has consistently breezed past Wall Street’s lofty expectations for revenue and profit, with demand for its graphics processors far outstripping supply as companies rush to embed AI applications.

“Nvidia’s GPU chips are in essence the new gold or oil in the tech sector as more enterprises and consumers quickly head down this path with the 4th Industrial Revolution well underway,” said Ives.

Loading