SANTA CLARA, July 9 — Nvidia notched a market capitalisation of US$4 trillion (RM17 trillion) on Wednesday, making it the first public company in the world to reach the milestone and solidifying its position as one of Wall Street's most-favored stocks.
Shares of the leading chip designer rose as much as 2.5 per cent to an all-time high of US$164 (RM697.15), benefiting from the ongoing surge in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
Nvidia's soaring market value underscores Wall Street's confidence in the rapid growth of AI, with the company's high-performance chips forming the backbone of this technological advance.
The stock's recent rally follows a sluggish start to the year, when the emergence of a Chinese discount artificial intelligence model developed by DeepSeek shook confidence in stocks linked to the sector.
"It started out as being a gaming chipmaker and then a crypto mining chipmaker, and now as a chipmaker for artificial intelligence computing power
"It is continuing to move forward and be a clear early winner of artificial intelligence," said B Riley Wealth chief market strategist Art Hogan.
Nvidia achieved a US$1 trillion (RM4.25 trillion) market value for the first time in June 2023 and tripled it in about a year, faster than Apple and Microsoft, the only other United States (US) firms with a market value of more than US$3 trillion (RM12.75 trillion).
Microsoft is the second biggest US company, with a market capitalisation of US$3.75 trillion (RM15.94 trillion). Its shares were last up 1.3 per cent at US$503 (RM2,138.32).
Nvidia has rebounded about 74 per cent from its lows in April, when global markets were jolted from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff volley.
Optimism around trade partners reaching deals with the US has lifted stocks of late, with the S&P 500 hitting an all-time high.
Nvidia holds a 7.3 per cent weight on the S&P 500, the biggest on the index. Other tech behemoths, Apple and Microsoft, account for around seven per cent and six per cent, respectively.
The company is worth more than the combined value of the Canadian and Mexican stock markets, according to LSEG data, and exceeds the total value of all publicly listed companies in the United Kingdom.
Its stock trades at a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of 32, below its three-year average of 37, according to data compiled by LSEG.
It reported a total revenue of US$44.1 billion (RM187.47 billion) in the first quarter, marking a 69 per cent jump from a year ago, along with a profit of 81 cents (RM3.44) a share.
For the second quarter, Nvidia expects revenue of US$45 billion (RM191.29 billion), plus or minus two per cent. It will report second-quarter results on August 27.
Including the session's gains, Nvidia is up more than 22 per cent this year compared to a nearly 15 per cent rise in the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index.
— Reuters
[caption id="attachment_407182" align="aligncenter" width="1469"]
A smartphone with a displayed Nvidia logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration on March 6, 2023. — Picture by REUTERS[/caption]
