NEW YORK (AP) — Chipmaker Nvidia became the first public company to top $4 trillion in value Wednesday after a two-year investor frenzy driven by the artificial intelligence boom.
Nvidia shares rose 2.5%, in early trading Wednesday, topping $164 each. At the beginning of 2023, Nvidia shares were around $14 each. The company’s rise has been meteoric.
The Santa Clara, California, company, was founded in 1993. In just over a decade, it was worth $2 trillion. In June 2024, it reached $3 trillion.
The company’s invention of the graphics processor unit, or GPU, in 1999 helped spark the growth of the PC gaming market and redefined computer graphics. Now Nvidia’s specialized chips are key components that help power different forms of artificial intelligence, including the latest generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
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Huang has dubbed AI “the next industrial revolution,” and Nvidia’s GPUs are designed to perform artificial intelligence tasks faster and more efficiently than general-purpose chips like CPUs. Tech giants are snapping up Nvidia chips as they wade deeper into AI — a movement that’s enabling cars to drive by themselves, and generating stories, art and music.
Nvidia’s innovation powered its rise, rapidly outgrowing Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google parent Alphabet. The stock’s movement carries more weight on the S&P 500 than any other company.
In its most recent quarter, Nvidia overcame tariff-driven turbulence to deliver another quarter of robust growth amid feverish demand for its high-powered AI chips. Nvidia notched a profit of $18.8 billion as its revenue surged 69% to $44.1 billion.
Nvidia reports its second-quarter results next month. Wall Street is expecting another quarter of record sales and profit for the company.
Nvidia and other companies benefiting from the AI boom have been a major reason the S&P 500 has climbed to record after record recently. Their explosion of profits has helped to propel the market despite worries about stubbornly high inflation and possible pain coming for the U.S. economy from tariffs and other policies of President Donald Trump.