In a significant milestone, Nvidia has become the second-most valuable company globally and the third firm to ever reach a market cap of $3 trillion.

The chipmaker hit a market cap of $3.01 trillion earlier this week, slightly surpassing Apple’s $3 trillion valuation and just a few paces behind Microsoft, which stands at around $3.16 trillion.

Nvidia’s rapid ascent is fuelled by its dominance in the AI sector, supported by its flagship chips, underscoring the lucrative nature of artificial intelligence.

Nvidia shares are skyrocketing

In the final months of 2022, when OpenAI was busy releasing its public preview of ChatGPT, Nvidia shares were fluctuating between around $150 and $180. Since June 2019, shares have risen more than 3,100% to an eyewatering $1,209.98. In 2024 alone, Nvidia has seen the price of a single share shoot up from $481.68.

The company’s impressive financial performance is underscoted by its recent profit report. In May, Nvidia announced a staggering $14 billion in profits, driven by robust sales of its chips. The company has planned for a ten-for-one stock split today (June 7).

CEO Jensen Huang commented on the company’s most recent quarterly performance: “The next industrial revolution has begun – companies and countries are partnering with NVIDIA to shift the trillion-dollar traditional data centers to accelerated computing and build a new type of data center – AI factories – to produce a new commodity: artificial intelligence.”

Nvidia’s AI chips account for an estimated four in five of data center purchases, with the company counting the likes of Microsoft and OpenAI, Google and Amazon among its customers.

The company has slipped back into a very close third place, just behind Apple, which is set to hold its annual developer conference next week, where it’s likely to reveal its AI strategy. Nvidia’s aggressive, upward trajectory is anticipated to see the company surpass Apple, with Nvidia gunning for prime position potentially in a matter of weeks.

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