Nvidia hits record $5 trillion mark as CEO dismisses AI bubble concerns

Partnerships and government contracts inspire optimism

At the GTC conference on Tuesday, Nvidia's CEO went out of his way to praise repeatedly Donald Trump and his policies to accelerate domestic investment in technology while warning that excluding China from the Nvidia ecosystem could limit U.S. access to half of the world's artificial intelligence developers. The overall event highlighted Nvidia's role as an American company, with Huang even nodding to Trump's signature slogan in his signing, thanking the audience for “making America great again.”

Trump's cooperation is paramount for Nvidia because US export controls have effectively blocked Nvidia's AI chips from going to China, costing the company billions of dollars in revenue. Bob O'Donnell of TECHna Analysis Research told Reuters that “Nvidia clearly brought its story to Washington to both educate and win favor with the US government. They managed to touch on most of the hottest and most influential topics in tech.”

Beyond the political messages, Huang announced a series of partnerships and deals that have apparently helped ease investor concerns about Nvidia's future. The company announced collaborations with Uber Technologies, Palantir Technologies and CrowdStrike Holdings, among others. Nvidia also announced a $1 billion investment in Nokia to support the telco's transition to AI and 6G networks.

The deal with Uber will provide a fleet of 100,000 self-driving cars with Nvidia technology, with automaker Stellantis being one of the first to deliver robotaxis. Palantir will combine Nvidia technology with its Ontology platform to use artificial intelligence techniques for logistics analytics, with Lowe's becoming an early adopter. Eli Lilly plans to build what Nvidia says is the most powerful supercomputer owned and operated by a pharmaceutical company, powered by more than 1,000 Blackwell artificial intelligence accelerator chips.

The $5 trillion valuation exceeds the cryptocurrency's total market value and is about half the size of the pan-European Stoxx 600 share index, Reuters noted. At today's prices, Huang's stake in Nvidia would be worth about $179.2 billion, making him the eighth richest person in the world.