Nvidia Corp. was already the world's most valuable semiconductor firm. Now, it's become the first computer-chip company ever to hit $3 trillion in market capitalisation.
The shares of the Santa Clara, California-based firm have rallied 147% this year, adding about $1.8 trillion as the insatiable demand for its chips used to power artificial intelligence tasks skyrocket. On Wednesday, shares rose as much as 5% to push the market value to $3 trillion, overtaking Apple Inc. in the process.
Nvidia has shown no signs of slowing down or letting its rivals catch up, the company's Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said the firm plans to upgrade its so-called AI accelerators every year.
The rise of generative AI is a new industrial revolution and Nvidia expects to play a major role as the technology shifts to personal computers, Huang told attendees at a keynote address at National Taiwan University.
"We see this sea change as in the very early innings," said Angelo Zino, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research.
After the CEO's keynote, Zino said he likes "the improved visibility" and sees "greater momentum on the GPU/CPU/networking side driving upside to consensus estimates."
The company has been arguably the biggest beneficiary of the massive flood of AI spending, helping vault the company into third place as the world's most valuable company. The chipmaker is now trailing only Microsoft Corp. by market value, but with shares on a tear Wall Street sees it as only a matter of time before Nvidia overtakes it.
