Nvidia made history Wednesday as the first company to reach $5 trillion in market value, thanks to a rally that cemented its place at the center of the global market. artificial intelligence boom.
The landmark Wall Street event underscores the company's rapid transformation from a niche graphics chip designer to a mainstay of the global artificial intelligence industry, turning CEO Jensen Huang into a Silicon Valley icon and turning its cutting-edge chips into a flashpoint in the technology rivalry between the United States and China.
Since ChatGPT launched in 2022, Nvidia shares have risen 12-fold as an artificial intelligence frenzy has lifted the S&P 500 to record highs, sparking debate over whether high tech company valuations could lead to the next big bubble.
The new milestone, which comes just three months after Nvidia crossed the $4 trillion mark, will surpass the total market value of cryptocurrencies.
“Nvidia reaching a $5 trillion market capitalization is more than a major milestone; “It's a statement as Nvidia has gone from being a chip maker to being an industry creator,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, which owns the company's shares.
“The market continues to underestimate the scope of the opportunity, and Nvidia remains one of the best ways to unlock the AI conversation.”
After a string of recent announcements cemented its dominance in the artificial intelligence race, shares of the Santa Clara, California-based company ended Wednesday's session up 3% at $207.04, giving its market value at $5.03 trillion.
On Tuesday, Huang announced a $500 billion order for artificial intelligence chips and said he plans to build seven supercomputers for the U.S. government.
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Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is expected to discuss Nvidia's Blackwell chip with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. Sales of high-end chips have become a key sticking point between the two sides over Washington's export controls.
Stock growth increases CEO wealth
At current prices, CEO Huang's stake in Nvidia would be worth about $179.2 billion, according to regulatory filings and Reuters calculations. He is the eighth richest person in the world, according to the Forbes billionaires list.
Huang was born in Taiwan and raised in the United States from the age of nine. He has led Nvidia since its founding in 1993. Under his leadership, the company's H100 and Blackwell processors became the driving force behind big language tools like ChatGPT and Elon Musk's xAI.
While Nvidia remains the clear leader in the AI race, the market value of its big tech rivals Apple and Microsoft has also reached $4 trillion in recent months.
Analysts say the rise reflects investor confidence in relentless AI spending, although some warn valuations could be high.
“The current expansion of AI depends on a few dominant players funding each other's capacity. The moment investors start demanding cash returns instead of capacity announcements, some of those flywheels may break down,” said Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management.
Technology companies' heavy weighting in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices gives them broad influence on global markets.
Nvidia is scheduled to report quarterly results on November 19.
Geopolitical bargaining chip
The company's dominance has drawn the attention of global regulators, and restrictions on exports of advanced chips to the United States have made it a key pawn in Washington's strategy to limit China's access to artificial intelligence technology.
“Nvidia clearly brought its story to DC to both educate and win favor with the US government,” said Bob O'Donnell of TECHna Analysis Research. “They managed to touch on most of the hottest and most influential topics in technology.”
Tuesday's developer conference also served as a platform for Huang to walk a geopolitical tightrope.
He praised Trump's “America First” 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.
Rivals including Advanced Micro Devices and several well-funded startups are racing to challenge Nvidia's dominance in high-end artificial intelligence chips, but it remains the industry's top choice.
