TOPLINE
Chip designer and artificial intelligence powerhouse Nvidia narrowly surpassed Microsoft in market capitalization on Tuesday, becoming the world’s most valuable public company. This milestone comes just two weeks after it surpassed Apple, driven by months of strong stock gains.
KEY FACTS
- Nvidia shares rose over 3% on Tuesday afternoon, reaching around $135.65, while Microsoft shares dipped slightly to $447.58.
- These stock movements increased Nvidia’s market cap to $3.33 trillion, surpassing Microsoft’s $3.32 trillion.
- Nvidia’s stock has surged approximately 12% since its recent stock split, which reduced its price from $1,210 per share to around $120 per share.
- At the beginning of the year, Nvidia’s market value was $1.2 trillion, less than half of Microsoft’s and Apple’s market caps at that time.
BIG NUMBER
177%. That’s the increase in Nvidia’s market cap since the start of the year, with shares initially trading at $48.17 (adjusted for the stock split).
FORBES VALUATION
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s net worth is estimated at $118.8 billion, making him the 11th-richest person in the world, his highest ranking on Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.
KEY BACKGROUND
Nvidia’s rise is fueled by the artificial intelligence boom, making its chips and graphics processing units highly valuable to tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet. Microsoft alone is estimated to account for 15% of Nvidia’s revenue, according to Bloomberg supply chain data. Nvidia controls between 70% and 95% of the AI chip market, according to Mizuho Securities cited by CNBC. With $8.4 billion in net income reported for its 2023 fiscal year, Nvidia shows no signs of slowing down, with analysts predicting its net income could surpass Apple’s in four years.
