Nvidia became the world’s most valuable company overtaking Microsoft and Apple after its share price climbed to an all-time high on Tuesday.
American company Nvidia makes computer chips needed for artificial intelligence (AI) software, and demand for its products has boosted its sales and profits over the last few years.
Many investors believe its earnings can grow even more, which has caused its share price to soar, though some have questioned its sky-high valuation.
The stock ended the trading day at nearly $136, up 3.5 percent. This means the market now values the company at $3.34tn, with the price having nearly doubled since the start of this year, Eight years ago, the stock was worth less than 1 percent of its current price.
Competition among AI developers is fierce. Microsoft, Google-owner Alphabet, Meta and Apple are just some of the tech heavyweights battling to create a world-beating product. This competition benefits Nvidia, which dominates the vast majority of the AI chip market.
Nvidia holds a whopping 88 percent share of the dedicated Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) market according to Jon Peddie Research for Q1 2024 This means Nvidia graphics cards are in a vast majority of computers used for gaming and other demanding graphical applications.
Their annual revenue for fiscal year 2024 was $60.9 billion, a massive increase from previous years.
Jensen Huang, the charismatic chief of Nvidia
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, who has been described by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta as the “Taylor Swift of tech”. He has become a cult figure in the tech industry, with fans cheering his name and requesting autographs. This celebrity-like status mirrors Taylor Swift’s massive fanbase and cultural influence.
Huang is known for his passionate and enthusiastic presentations at tech conferences, and Nvidia is at the forefront of technological advancements. These qualities can be seen as parallels to Taylor Swift’s ability to connect with audiences and constantly reinvent herself musically.
He is now the 11th-richest person in the world after his net worth increased by more than $4 billion on Tuesday, scoring his highest ranking yet on Forbes’ real-time billionaire list.
Huang has served as Nvidia’s chief executive and president since co-founding the company in 1993. Nvidia went public in 1999 and has surged in trading in recent years as it dominates the market for the chips needed to power artificial intelligence software.
The company recently executed a stock split—when a company increases the number of shares without diluting the stock’s value—that cut Nvidia’s share price below $130 after trading above $1,200.