Nvidia overtakes Apple as second-most valuable company
Nvidia’s market value has soared past $3 trillion (£2.3 trillion), surpassing Apple to become the second most valuable publicly listed company in the world. The chipmaker’s share price rose over 5% on Wednesday, reaching more than $1,224. This marks a significant climb that began last year, driven by expectations that Nvidia will be a major beneficiary of the surge in artificial intelligence (AI) investments.
Currently, Nvidia’s market value is second only to Microsoft, another key player in the AI industry due to its investments in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Nvidia, which was valued at “just” $2 trillion as recently as February, sparked a new wave of share purchases after announcing plans for a stock split last month. The stock split, set to increase the number of shares by a factor of 10 and reduce their individual value, aims to make shares more accessible to small-time investors. This change, scheduled for Friday, is expected to further boost demand for Nvidia’s stock.
Founded in 1993, Nvidia initially gained recognition for producing computer chips that process graphics, especially for video games. Long before the AI boom, the company began enhancing its chips with features that support machine learning, which has helped it capture a significant market share. Nvidia is now viewed as a key indicator of the rapid adoption of AI-powered technology across the business world—a shift CEO Jensen Huang has called the dawn of the “next industrial revolution.”
Nvidia’s explosive growth is evident in its recent financial performance, with sales of $26 billion in the three months leading up to April 28, more than triple the same period in 2023 and an 18% increase from the previous quarter. The optimism surrounding AI has also contributed to a broader market rally over the past year, pushing the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to new records on Wednesday.
Apple, which had been facing challenges earlier this year due to stalled sales growth, has seen its shares rise recently due to anticipation of its AI strategy. Apple’s shares increased by 0.7%, resulting in a market capitalization of roughly $3 trillion, calculated by multiplying the number of shares by the current share price.
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