Nvidia becomes world's most valuable company, surpassing Microsoft

Nvidia has reclaimed the title of the world's most valuable publicly traded company, overtaking Microsoft on Tuesday. As reported by CNBC, the chipmaker's stock jumped 3% to $141.40, pushing its market capitalization to a staggering $3.45 trillion - just ahead of Microsoft's $3.44 trillion.

This achievement marks yet another high point in Nvidia's meteoric rise, fuelled largely by its dominance in the artificial intelligence (AI) chip sector.

The company's share price has surged nearly 24% over the past month alone, brushing aside investor concerns about export controls and trade tensions.

Nvidia, which had briefly taken the lead in January this year, has been in a tight race with Microsoft and Apple for the top spot since mid-2023. But the resurgence on Tuesday solidifies its standing as the silicon engine driving the global AI arms race.

Nvidia’s ascension is powered by unrelenting demand for its AI accelerators - the chips that sit at the heart of cutting-edge AI models and massive computing infrastructure.

From powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT to forming the computational backbone for tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and Elon Musk’s xAI, Nvidia’s hardware is indispensable.

In its latest fiscal Q1 earnings report, the company posted $44.06 billion in revenue and 96 cents in adjusted earnings per share - a jaw-dropping 69% increase in revenue year-over-year.

Founded in 1993 to build graphics chips for gaming, Nvidia has evolved far beyond its original mission. Its GPUs, originally designed to render high-end visuals, are now used to handle parallel data processing.