Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed.
Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion.
Photo: Reuters
In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been neck-and-neck for several months.
Microsoft’s market value stood at US$3.18 trillion, with its stock up 0.8 percent on Friday.
The Silicon Valley chipmaker is the dominant supplier of processors used in AI computing, and the company has become the biggest winner in a race between Microsoft, Alphabet Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and other heavyweights to dominate the emerging technology.
Known since the 1990s as a designer of processors for video games, Nvidia’s stock has risen about 18 percent so far this month, with a string of gains coming after OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced a funding round of US$6.6 billion.
Nvidia and other semiconductor stocks got a lift on Friday after data storage maker Western Digital Corp reported quarterly profit that beat analysts’ estimates, buoying optimism about data center demand.
“More companies are now embracing artificial intelligence in their everyday tasks and demand remains strong for Nvidia chips,” AJ Bell PLC investment director Russ Mould said.
“It is certainly in a sweet spot and so long as we avoid a big economic downturn in the United States, there is a feeling that companies will continue to invest heavily in AI capabilities, creating a healthy tailwind for Nvidia,” Mould said
Nvidia’s shares hit a record high on Tuesday, building on a rally from last week when Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, posted a 54 percent jump in quarterly profit driven by soaring demand for chips used in AI.
Meanwhile, Apple is struggling with tepid demand for iPhone sales in China, which slipped 0.3 percent in the third quarter, while sales of phones made by rival Huawei Technologies Co (華為) surged 42 percent.
Shares of Nvidia have surged nearly 190 percent so far this year as the boom in generative AI led to a series of blowout forecasts from Nvidia.
“The question is whether the revenue stream will last for a long time and will be driven by the emotion of investors rather than by any ability to prove or disprove the thesis that AI is overdone,” Cherry Lane Investments LLC partner Rick Meckler said.
“I think Nvidia knows that near term, their numbers are likely to be quite remarkable,” he added.
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