Nvidia becomes most valuable company in the world at 4 trillion dollars
The AI chipmaker has grown into the largest company on Wall Street, surpassing Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google.
Chipmaker Nvidia has become the first public company to top 4 trillion dollars (£3.45 trillion) in value after a two-year investor frenzy.
Nvidia shares rose 2.5%, or 3.97 dollars (£2.92), in early trading on Wednesday, topping 164 dollars (£120) each. At the beginning of 2023, Nvidia shares were around 14 dollars (£10) each.
The poster child of the AI boom, Nvidia has grown into the largest company on Wall Street, surpassing Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google.
The stock’s movement carries more weight on the S&P 500 and other indexes than every company except Apple. Two years ago, Nvidia’s market value was below 600 billion dollars (£441 billion).
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 earned 18.8 billion dollars (£13.8 nillion) in the period, a 26% increase from the same time last year.
Revenue surged 69% from a year ago to 44.1 billion dollars (£32.5 billion).
If not for a 4.5 billion dollar (£3.3 billion) charge that Nvidia absorbed to account for the US government’s restrictions on its chip sales to China, Nvidia would have made 96 cents (71p) per share, far above the 73 cents (54p) per share envisioned by analysts.
Nvidia reports its second-quarter results next month. Wall Street is expecting another quarter of record sales and profit for the Santa Clara, California, 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 US economy from tariffs and other policies of President Donald Trump.
