Nvidia
CEO
Jensen
Huang
attends
an
event
at
COMPUTEX
forum
in
Taipei,
Taiwan
June
4,
2024.
Ann
Wang
|
Reuters
Nvidia,
long
known
in
the
niche
gaming
community
for
its
graphics
chips,
is
now
the
most
valuable
public
company
in
the
world.
Shares
of
the
chipmaker
climbed
3.6%
on
Tuesday,
lifting
the
company’s
market
cap
to
$3.34
trillion,
surpassing
Microsoft,
which
is
now
valued
at
$3.32
trillion.
Earlier
this
month,
Nvidia
hit
$3
trillion
for
the
first
time,
and
passed
Apple.
Nvidia
shares
are
up
more
than
170%
so
far
this
year,
and
went
a
leg
higher
after
the
company
reported
first-quarter
earnings
in
May.
The
stock
has
multiplied
by
more
than
ninefold
since
the
end
of
2022,
a
rise
that’s
coincided
with
the
emergence
of
generative
artificial
intelligence.
Apple
shares
fell
1.1%
on
Tuesday,
giving
the
iPhone
maker
a
$3.29
trillion
market
value.
Nvidia
has
about
80%
of
the
market
for
AI
chips
used
in
data
centers,
a
business
that’s
ballooned
as
OpenAI,
Microsoft,
Alphabet,
Amazon,
Meta
and
others
have
raced
to
snap
up
the
processors
needed
to
build
AI
models
and
run
increasingly
large
workloads.
For
the
most
recent
quarter,
revenue
in
Nvidia’s
data
center
business
rose
427%
from
a
year
earlier
to
$22.6
billion,
accounting
for
about
86%
of
the
chipmaker’s
total
sales.
Founded
in
1991,
Nvidia
spent
its
first
few
decades
primarily
as
a
hardware
company
that
sold
chips
for
gamers
to
run
3D
titles.
It’s
also
dabbled
in
cryptocurrency
mining
chips
and
cloud
gaming
subscriptions.
But
over
the
past
two
years,
Nvidia
shares
have
skyrocketed
as
Wall
Street
came
to
recognize
the
company’s
technology
as
the
engine
behind
an
explosion
in
AI
that
shows
no
signs
of
slowing.
The
rally
has
lifted
co-founder
and
CEO
Jensen
Huang’s
net
worth
to
about
$117
billion,
making
him
the
11th
wealthiest
person
in
the
world,
according
to
Forbes.
Microsoft
shares
are
up
about
20%
so
far
this
year.
The
software
giant
has
also
been
a
major
beneficiary
of
the
AI
boom,
after
it
took
a
significant
stake
in
OpenAI
and
integrated
the
startup’s
AI
models
into
its
most
important
products,
including
Office
and
Windows.
Microsoft
is
one
of
the
biggest
buyers
of
Nvidia’s
graphics
processing
units
(GPUs)
for
its
Azure
cloud
service.
The
company
just
released
a
new
generation
of
laptops
that
are
designed
to
run
its
AI
models,
called
Copilot+.
Nvidia
is
a
newcomer
to
the
title
of
most
valuable
U.S.
company.
For
the
past
few
years,
Apple
and
Microsoft
have
been
trading
the
title.
Nvidia’s
ascent
has
been
so
rapid
that
the
company
has
yet
to
be
added
to
the
Dow
Jones
Industrial
Average,
the
stock
benchmark
of
30
of
the
most
valuable
U.S.
companies.
Alongside
its
earnings
release
last
month,
Nvidia
announced
a
10-for-1
stock
split,
which
went
into
effect
on
June
7.
The
split
gives
Nvidia
a
better
shot
at
being
added
to
the
Dow,
which
is
a
price-weighted
index,
meaning
that
companies
with
higher
stock
prices
—
rather
than
market
caps
—
have
outsized
influence
on
the
benchmark.
Correction:
Nvidia’s
10-for-1
stock
split
was
effective
this
month.
An
earlier
version
noted
a
different
calendar
date.
