Graphics chipmaker Nvidia on Wednesday surpassed Apple to become the world’s highest-valued company on the back of a strong demand for its chipsets driven by the strong momentum in the AI sector.
The semiconductor company, which specializes in high-performance AI chips, reached a market valuation of $3.43 trillion as of Tuesday’s closing and surpassed Apple’s $3.38 trillion market capitalisation.
The AI infrastructure demand has pushed the company’s stock price to nearly triple in value in 2024. Its stock price is now up more than 2,700% in the past five years as the company’s revenue has more than doubled in each of the past five quarters. Even tripling in three of them.
To be sure, this is the second time in history that Nvidia surpassed Apple to become the largest company in the company by market capitalisation.
CEO Jensen Huang credited the company’s rapid ascent to soaring demand for its AI-focused chips, notably the Hopper series, and the anticipation surrounding its next-gen Blackwell series. He went on to explain that Nvidia’s products are integral to modernizing data centers, enhancing their computing power to support increasingly complex AI computations.
Nvidia reported $30 billion in revenue for the quarter ending July 28, a 15% rise from the previous quarter and a substantial 122% increase from the same period last year. The company also anticipated a promising third quarter with a revenue forecast of approximately $32.5 billion.
In the first half of fiscal 2025, Nvidia returned $15.4 billion through buybacks and dividends, with $7.5 billion available for future repurchases.
The company’s recent success is largely attributed to its pioneering GPUs, which are optimized for AI applications such as training large language models and managing data in data centers worldwide.
While other companies also manufacture AI-related hardware, Nvidia’s focus on AI innovations and its strategic approach to development has solidified its market leadership.
In comparison, Apple continues to advance in AI, with the company focusing on consumer applications like the Apple Intelligence function, while tech giant Microsoft is making strides in AI and cloud computing, with a market valuation of $3.06 trillion.
