A week after reporting strong first-quarter earnings, Nvidia has surpassed Microsoft in market value to become the most valuable company in the world by market capitalization.
Shares of Nvidia grew by 3% on Tuesday, leading the AI chipmaker to a market cap of $3.45 trillion, greater than Microsoft’s $3.44 trillion. At the time of writing, Nvidia and Microsoft have maintained their respective market values.
“Global demand for Nvidia’s AI infrastructure is incredibly strong,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated in a press release last week. “Countries around the world are recognizing AI as essential infrastructure — just like electricity and the internet — and Nvidia stands at the center of this profound transformation.”
Nvidia is at the center of the AI boom. Its powerful AI chips are used by companies like OpenAI, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Oracle to create offerings like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
It’s the first time in nearly five months that Nvidia surged to the top spot. CNBC notes that the last time Nvidia was the most valuable company was on Jan. 24. Nvidia has been one of the top three most valuable companies in the world since last June, switching places with Microsoft and Apple.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by I-Hwa Cheng / AFP
Nvidia’s first-quarter earnings, reported last week, beat Wall Street expectations, with revenue growing 69% compared to the same period last year, rising from $26.04 billion to $44.06 billion. Meanwhile, Nvidia’s data center revenue had a growth rate of 73%, surging to $39.1 billion, while its gaming division grew 42% to $3.8 billion.
Nvidia’s stock has grown by over 1,400% in the past five years and by more than 20% this past year.
Nvidia was founded over three decades ago and has pivoted in the past decade from a video game graphics chip maker to an AI chip powerhouse, with 70% to 95% of the market share for AI chips. In April, the company announced that it is bringing AI chip and supercomputer manufacturing to the U.S. for the first time, and is constructing new manufacturing plants across the country to support that effort.
