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.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS